You can take a ScreenshotMachine screenshot from Linux with Bash and curl, calling ScreenshotMachine’s hosted screenshot API. The available documentation describes this API workflow, not a separately installed native Linux CLI. The request needs your customer key and the page URL; the example below saves the response as a local image.
Capture a webpage from Linux with Bash and curl
Save this as screenshot.sh. Replace the key and URL, then run it with Bash. The request uses curl -G and --data-urlencode so query strings and other reserved characters in the target URL are encoded as request parameters.
#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail
CUSTOMER_KEY="PUT_YOUR_CUSTOMER_KEY_HERE"
SECRET_PHRASE="" # Leave empty if not configured.
URL="https://www.google.com"
DIMENSION="1366x768"
DEVICE="desktop"
FORMAT="png"
CACHE_LIMIT="0"
DELAY="2000"
ZOOM="100"
ARGS=(
--data-urlencode "key=$CUSTOMER_KEY"
--data-urlencode "dimension=$DIMENSION"
--data-urlencode "device=$DEVICE"
--data-urlencode "format=$FORMAT"
--data-urlencode "cacheLimit=$CACHE_LIMIT"
--data-urlencode "delay=$DELAY"
--data-urlencode "zoom=$ZOOM"
--data-urlencode "url=$URL"
)
if [[ -n "$SECRET_PHRASE" ]]; then
HASH=$(printf '%s' "$URL$SECRET_PHRASE" | md5sum | cut -d ' ' -f 1)
ARGS+=(--data-urlencode "hash=$HASH")
fi
curl -G -s "https://api.screenshotmachine.com" "${ARGS[@]}" > output.pngMake the script executable and run it:
chmod +x screenshot.sh
./screenshot.shThe script writes the API response to output.png. Its set -euo pipefail line is a shell-safety choice, not a ScreenshotMachine requirement. A successful curl exit alone does not establish that the response is a valid screenshot; see the error-checking section below.
Set the request parameters
ScreenshotMachine’s API documentation describes an HTTP GET request. The following values are vendor-documented settings, not independent test results; check the live API guide for changes before relying on defaults or accepted values.
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| Parameter | What to set | Documented behavior |
|---|---|---|
key |
Your customer API key. | Required. |
url |
The page to capture, including its scheme, such as https://. |
Required. ScreenshotMachine recommends percent-encoding the URL; the example uses curl’s --data-urlencode. |
dimension |
A width and height in widthxheight form, such as 1366x768. |
The documented default is 120x90. Width range: 100–1920; height range: 100–9999. Use full for full-page height. |
format |
jpg, png, or gif. |
The documented default is jpg. Match the output filename extension to the format you request. |
cacheLimit |
A cache age in days; use 0 to request a fresh screenshot. |
Documented range: 0–14 days; default: 14. Fractional-day values are documented for shorter intervals. |
delay |
A delay in milliseconds before capture. | Documented choices run from 0 to 10,000 ms in listed increments; default: 200 ms. A longer delay may allow animations or late-loading content to finish, but adds waiting time. |
zoom |
A percentage from 10 to 400. | Default: 100. The vendor says 200 or higher can produce a retina-style larger image; zoom is ignored for screenshots below typical device dimensions. |
device |
The device setting for the capture. The example uses desktop. |
Consult ScreenshotMachine’s current API guide for the supported device values and their behavior. |
Choose a viewport dimension when you need a screenshot of a particular visible screen size; use full when the capture should extend down the page. PNG, JPG, and GIF are supported formats, but the documentation does not establish a universal best choice: select the format your downstream workflow needs. Set cacheLimit to zero when freshness matters more than cache reuse. Use a longer delay only when the page needs time to render content that would otherwise be missing.
Keep the API key and optional hash safe
ScreenshotMachine requires a unique customer key. Keep it in a server-side script or another private configuration location; do not commit it or a configured secret phrase to a public repository, or put them in client-side code.
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If you have configured a secret phrase, the documented hash is the MD5 digest of the exact URL value followed immediately by the secret phrase. The example computes that digest with Linux’s md5sum and includes the hash parameter only when SECRET_PHRASE is nonempty. ScreenshotMachine says requests with a missing or incorrect hash are ignored when a phrase is configured. Its documentation particularly recommends the safeguard for direct calls from public HTML pages; it does not make a public API key or secret phrase safe to expose.
When setting the secret phrase, keep it out of source control and ensure that the URL used to calculate the hash is the same URL value sent in the request.
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Check error responses instead of trusting the output file
ScreenshotMachine documents that invalid or incomplete requests can return an error image containing a text message. It also documents the X-Screenshotmachine-Response response header and error codes including invalid_hash, invalid_key, invalid_url, missing_key, missing_url, no_credits, invalid_selector, invalid_crop, and system_error.
| Symptom or code | What to check |
|---|---|
| The output file contains an error message or is not the expected image. | Inspect X-Screenshotmachine-Response; the response may be an error image even if curl completed. Check the request parameters and the code-specific cause. |
missing_key or invalid_key |
Supply the customer key and confirm it is correct. |
missing_url or invalid_url |
Supply a valid target URL. Keep --data-urlencode so reserved characters in a URL are handled reliably. |
invalid_hash |
If a secret phrase is configured, calculate the hash from the exact URL value plus that phrase and include it. If no phrase is configured, do not send an unnecessary hash. |
no_credits |
Check the account’s available credits. |
invalid_selector or invalid_crop |
If your request includes selector or crop options, review those values; the basic example above does not use either option. |
system_error |
The documented code indicates a system error. Check the response and request details; the available documentation does not specify a guaranteed recovery time. |
For a quick header check, ask curl to print response headers while saving the body separately:
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curl -G -sS -D response-headers.txt "https://api.screenshotmachine.com" "${ARGS[@]}" -o output.png
grep -i '^X-Screenshotmachine-Response:' response-headers.txtUse the separate PDF API for a PDF capture
ScreenshotMachine documents website-to-PDF capture as a separate API, not as another output format of the image endpoint. Its Bash/curl example uses https://pdfapi.screenshotmachine.com and PDF-specific options such as paper size, orientation, media, background, delay, and scale. Keep the API endpoint and options distinct from the screenshot request above, and save its response with a .pdf filename.
Or skip the browser setup
ScreenshotNeo is a website screenshot API and MCP server for developers. One GET request can return a PNG, JPEG, WebP, or PDF. For a Linux shell call, install nothing beyond curl and your API key:
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