Add a Screenshot-API (Plugin)

[Mario Kemper (Romario)]

Binary package hint: compiz

Most other platforms provide neat ways to capture a screenshot while preserving transparency. KWIN added a functionality like that recently: https://svn.reviewboard.kde.org/r/4814/
KWIN is offering the API via DBUS.

In most cases we need hacky and ugly solutions to get similar functionalities when using compiz (try launchpad.net/shutter), e.g. to get transparency when using a shaped window. When adding this to compiz we could render the window to an offscreen buffer and get perfect screenshots (even though I don't know how to do this).

I would imagine to expose the following functionality via DBUS:
screenshot() //takes the whole desktop
screenshotWindowUnderCursor()
screenshotWindowbyXID(xid) //capture a specific window by providing the xid of the window

It would also be a great contribution to all documentation-like projects and the blogosphere. The nicer the screenshots are, the more impressive is what they show. Currently most window-only-screenshots look ugly compared to screenshots of other platforms (like Win7 or Mac OSX).

Please let me know if I can do anything to help out here (e.g. how to write a compiz plugin).

[Marnanel Thurman (marnanel)]

Nice idea, but this is definitely a wishlist request.

Wouldn't it be more sensible if we decided on a way to do this which worked across all WMs? EWMH-based, perhaps, or at a common DBus address?

[Tobias Wolf (towolf)]

Cross-refs:

My bug #809445 here and I just filed a bug on b.g.o at https://bugzilla.gnome.org/662486

[Tobias Wolf (towolf)]

Gnome-shell: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=652952