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Niki Tonsky

Holy shit! Why doesn’t every screenshot app work like that?

UPD: app is flyingmeat.com/acorn/

55 comments
Hugo 雨果

@nikitonsky On Linux, I don't think any compositor exposes all the APIs that you'd need for this (specifically, capturing background toplevel surfaces). I'm sure that something like this would be really fun to develop, but it's only really of any use on a stacking window manager.

halva is

@whynothugo @nikitonsky probably possible on X11 tho if you're willing to fight that junk

hkc (carbonated 𡿢喾鹄啡鹳𒅭) :nk:

@halva @whynothugo @nikitonsky yup, it is possible, but kinda fucky. I tried it with mediocre results and I really wish there was just a ready-to-use app that could do just that.

cc @vftdan

Lea (headpat dispenser)

@whynothugo@fosstodon.org @nikitonsky@mastodon.online "wayland is so much more secure" mfs on their way to make it impossible to have cool things ​:neocat_sad:​

void *anna;
@whynothugo @nikitonsky this should be doable once ext-screencopy-v1 lands.

you can use ext-foreign-toplevel-list to iterate and get foreign handles to all the toplevels, then screencopy a frame from each, and composite the final result (for simplicity, one could even dump that into a gimp .xcf file and let it do the editing layering, or, yknow, implement an image editor too)

i do agree it's usage is limited on tiling window managers, at most you can compose things across workspaces more easily, but not much benefit beyond that
@whynothugo @nikitonsky this should be doable once ext-screencopy-v1 lands.

you can use ext-foreign-toplevel-list to iterate and get foreign handles to all the toplevels, then screencopy a frame from each, and composite the final result (for simplicity, one could even dump that into a gimp .xcf file and let it do the editing layering, or, yknow, implement an image editor too)
A myriad of Qyriad

@whynothugo @nikitonsky for Plasma you might be able to use a KWin plugin

Erika :prami_pride_trans:

@nikitonsky the way my eyes went wide when you did the thing. I need this.

JW Prince of CPH

@nikitonsky Holy shirtballs, that's some clever functioning right there! Pro'lly won't buy Acorn just for that; I don't take that many screenshots & I seem to be pretty well on board with Affinity for my photo editing 😁 - but for anyone who does take screenshots even semi-often it seems like a no-brainer...

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Ivan Molodetskikh

@nikitonsky prob bc it's overcomplicated for the vast majority of screenshots. It's definitely possible to do in a Wayland compositor though, all the textures are there for you to move and hide and reorder.

Sonny

@YaLTeR @nikitonsky

We might as well make accessible screenshots with the a11y tree exposed

Sonny

@YaLTeR @nikitonsky

@matt shared the idea in blogs.gnome.org/a11y/2023/10/2

> Imagine how much more useful it would be to have access to the full content and structure of the information in the screenshot, as if you were accessing the application that the screenshot came from (assuming the app itself was accessible).

Russell

@nikitonsky It's very nifty.

Someone will forget that's how it works and publish a screenshot with porn or passwords or unredacted national secrets in the background or on a manually hidden layer (similar to redacting a PDF by changing the background color to match black text).

Phil Betts

@zimzat @nikitonsky presumably it's a non-standard layered editing format, and you output a flat image with all the layers flattened? It's also a particular *type* of screenshot, though I suppose maybe you could get in trouble if you set that as your default key.

FeralRobots

@nikitonsky in part because it's hard.
As a side benefit, it's also a security nightmare.

shironeko
@nikitonsky meanwhile in wayland: nooo we can't have you know where the windows are reeee
rudantu

@nikitonsky I've wanted this for websites for a while

Caleb Hearth :d6:

@nikitonsky @smilingdemon This may be worth the price of admission for Acorn on its own…

jenarchie

@nikitonsky Wow! Wow! Wow! I am going to have to check out this sorcery! I'm in the market for a non-Photoshop image editor. It better not be subscription-based.

Quinn9282✌️👋

@JetForMe @nikitonsky This is the app I'm pretty sure (can't test it myself to verify as I don't own a Mac): flyingmeat.com/acorn/

Heals :heart_nb: (comms open)

@nikitonsky honestly, because most of them have "capture window" or “capture area" on macOS and most of them allow you to auto-hide the desktop icons and replace the wallpaper

hazelnot :yell:

@nikitonsky is this even possible on any other OS? 😅

Ingo

@nikitonsky That’s pretty great and inventive! Acorn?

Colin

@nikitonsky Shift-control-command-3 for a file

Shift-control-command-4 to dump the shot directly to clipboard

Probably the most useful and used awkward Mac keyboard shortcuts I know

Kenneth

@colin_howells @nikitonsky I have customized my keyboard layout so that a special single key on my keyboard maps to shift-command-4. I use it multiple times a day.

Colin

@kgourlay @nikitonsky Oh wait, I forgot there's Shift-command-3, which is a full screenshot, then Shift-command-4, which picks windows, in addition to the Shift-command-control-3-drag and -4-drag I remembered – thanks for reminding me

4TH3I57 EV L0V3R/ / /FL/US

@nikitonsky rubbish! wait wtf is happening there?? :ablobcatbongo: :mastodon:

Quinn9282✌️👋

@nikitonsky Now THIS is how screenshotting should work! 😱

WerySkok :verified_think:

@nikitonsky just getting Photoshop-like UI there would be enough for me to buy it if I was a Mac user. On the other hand, ShareX on Windows also does its job well, I binded it to Print Screen and it allows to quickly add effects and select specific area for screenshot. I'm using KDE right now and it offers something similar to ShareX

mmu_man

@nikitonsky interesting… you'd need full access to the compositor state but that's probably something that could be done in Wayland on GNU/Linux…

Conor

@nikitonsky @againsthimself oh that’s brilliant. Seems to work if content is offscreen?

Christian Tietze

@nikitonsky I had Acorn for way over 10 years and I didn't know :O

Bundyo

@nikitonsky

Looks like there is an OSS alternative that makes PSDs from screenshots.

github.com/duyquoc/ScreenToLay

Marius Gedminas

@nikitonsky Can it do browser tabs as individual layers as well?

Niki Tonsky

@zachleat Why? Here’s screenshot of my password manager, so what?

Zach Leatherman :11ty:

@nikitonsky whew, we clearly have different ideas about acceptable levels of exposure. You do you, though!

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Niki Tonsky

@d4v what things can you do with my login?

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Niki Tonsky

@d4v I don’t know either. So why are you afraid?

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