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The quickest way to crop a screenshot on Linux depends on whether you are capturing now or editing an existing image. On KDE Plasma, open Spectacle and choose Rectangular Region. On GNOME, choose the Screenshot tool’s user-defined area. On any desktop, Flameshot lets you drag a region and annotate it. If the image is already saved, use ImageMagick: magick input.png -crop 800x600+100+80 +repage output.png. The geometry means width × height + horizontal offset + vertical offset.
Choose the right cropping method
Use a region capture when you know what belongs in the screenshot and do not want a full-screen file created first. Use ImageMagick when the source file already exists, exact pixel dimensions matter, or the same crop must be repeated across many images.
| Situation | Best choice | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Fast, visual selection | KDE Spectacle, GNOME Screenshot, or Flameshot | Drag a rectangle while viewing the screen. |
| Annotations before saving | Flameshot | Its editor can mark up, copy, and save the selected region. |
| Exact or repeatable coordinates | ImageMagick | WIDTHxHEIGHT+X+Y is deterministic. |
| Wayland session | Desktop-native or portal-aware capture, then ImageMagick | Native capture paths generally have the permissions required by Wayland. |
Capture and crop a new screenshot
KDE Plasma: Spectacle
- Open Spectacle from the application launcher.
- Select Rectangular Region.
- Drag around the content to retain. You can move the rectangle with the arrow keys, use Shift for fine movement, and use Alt with the arrow keys to resize it.
- Press Enter or double-click to capture the region.
- Save the result in the format you need. Spectacle also provides full-screen, monitor, active-window, and window-under-cursor modes when a rectangle is not appropriate.
This approach crops during capture, so an unwanted full-screen image is not written first. If the edges are difficult to align, drag a slightly larger box and use ImageMagick for the final pixel-level crop.
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- Open the Screenshot utility from the application overview, or use your desktop’s Screenshot/Print Screen entry.
- Choose the option for a user-defined area rather than the whole screen or a single window.
- Drag from one corner of the desired area to the opposite corner.
- Confirm the selection and save the image file.
Some distributions also ship the gnome-screenshot command. Where it is installed, a selection capture can be saved with:
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gnome-screenshot -a -f "$HOME/Pictures/region.png"The command and its available switches depend on the GNOME package supplied by your distribution. If it is unavailable, use the graphical Screenshot utility or the desktop’s built-in Print Screen workflow.
Any desktop: Flameshot
- Start the selector with
flameshot gui, or launch Flameshot from the application menu. - Drag over the part of the screen you want.
- Use the on-screen editor to add arrows, boxes, text, or other annotations.
- Copy the result, save it, or cancel and draw a different rectangle.
Hold Ctrl while dragging to preserve the aspect ratio. Hold Shift while resizing to mirror the resize on the opposite handle. These modifiers are useful for consistent thumbnails or social-media dimensions.
Wayland and display scaling
Wayland restricts arbitrary screen-reading more than X11. Prefer the capture path supplied by GNOME, KDE, or the desktop portal instead of forcing an X11-only utility. Flameshot documents GNOME and KDE portal backends; if a capture is black, empty, or permission-denied, use the native desktop Screenshot/Spectacle workflow first.
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On a HiDPI display, the rectangle you see may be expressed in logical coordinates while the saved image uses physical pixels. Check the actual output dimensions before writing a fixed ImageMagick crop. A crop that is exactly right on a 100% scaled monitor may be twice as large or small on a 200% scaled setup.
Crop an existing screenshot with ImageMagick
ImageMagick’s crop geometry is:
WIDTHxHEIGHT+X+YWIDTHis the retained width in pixels.HEIGHTis the retained height in pixels.Xis the distance from the original image’s left edge to the crop’s left edge.Yis the distance from the original image’s top edge to the crop’s top edge.
For example, this keeps an 800-by-600 rectangle beginning 100 pixels from the left and 80 pixels from the top:
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magick input.png -crop 800x600+100+80 +repage output.png+repage clears the original virtual-canvas offset. Without it, the visible pixels may look correct while later operations, compositing, or viewers still treat the image as having an offset canvas.
Install ImageMagick
Install the package from your distribution’s repositories if the magick command is missing. Typical package commands are:
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sudo apt install imagemagick
# Fedora
sudo dnf install ImageMagick
# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S imagemagickPackage names and repository versions can vary. Verify the installation with:
magick -versionFind the source dimensions
Before choosing coordinates, inspect the image:
magick identify input.png
magick identify -format '%wx%hn' input.pngThe second form prints only width and height, which is convenient in scripts. Ensure that X + WIDTH does not exceed the source width and that Y + HEIGHT does not exceed the source height. If the crop extends beyond the image, ImageMagick may produce a smaller result or add an unexpected area depending on the operation and image settings.
Preserve transparency and choose an output format
PNG is usually the safest output for interface screenshots, text, and transparency. JPEG can be smaller for photographic content but introduces lossy compression around sharp text. WebP is useful when your publishing system accepts it. Cropping itself does not resample pixels; changing the format or adding a resize operation is what affects quality.
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# Keep transparency in a PNG
magick input.png -crop 1200x900+40+120 +repage cropped.png
# Write a WebP copy
magick input.png -crop 1200x900+40+120 +repage cropped.webpRepeat the same crop or process a batch
For a repeatable job, keep the geometry in variables and quote filenames so spaces do not break the command:
#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail
src='input.png'
dst='output.png'
geometry='800x600+100+80'
magick "$src" -crop "$geometry" +repage "$dst"ImageMagick also supports numbered output for a pattern of input files. This example applies a 120-by-120 crop at position 10,5 to every matching JPEG:
magick '*.jpg' -crop 120x120+10+5 +repage thumbnail%03d.pngThe output names become thumbnail000.png, thumbnail001.png, and so on. Test the geometry on one file first, because a fixed coordinate describes pixels, not semantic content; browser windows or app chrome may be in different positions between screenshots.
Measure coordinates reliably
When the crop must line up with a design specification, record the source dimensions and the rectangle separately. For example, if the source is 2560×1440 and the retained area starts at (320,180) with size 1280×720, use:
magick source.png -crop 1280x720+320+180 +repage result.pngKeep the origin convention straight: ImageMagick starts at the top-left, with positive X moving right and positive Y moving down. Do not enter screen coordinates from a second monitor unless the screenshot actually includes that monitor; the image’s own top-left corner is always coordinate 0,0.
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Troubleshoot common failures
“magick: command not found”
ImageMagick is not installed or its executable is not on PATH. Install the package for your distribution, open a new terminal, and run magick -version again. Older installations may provide convert, but the magick command is the clearer choice for current scripts.
The result has the wrong position in later operations
Add +repage immediately after -crop. The pixels can appear correct while the virtual canvas retains the source offset; clearing that metadata makes the cropped image start at its own 0,0.
The crop is shifted or too small
Check the source dimensions with identify, then recalculate X, Y, width, and height from the image—not from the monitor’s coordinate system. Display scaling, browser zoom, and window decorations can all make a visual estimate differ from image pixels.
The capture is black on Wayland
Use GNOME Screenshot, Spectacle, or a portal-aware Flameshot backend and grant the requested screen-capture permission. ImageMagick can crop an image file, but it is not a replacement for a compositor-approved Wayland capture.
Text looks soft after cropping
A crop alone does not blur pixels. Check whether the original capture was made at a low scale, whether a resize was applied elsewhere, or whether the image was converted to JPEG. Keep the original PNG and crop it without a resize when sharp text matters.
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The command overwrote the source
Write to a different output path, as in output.png. For safety in scripts, refuse to overwrite an existing file:
test ! -e output.png || { echo 'output.png already exists' >&2; exit 1; }
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If the screenshot you need is a web page rather than your local desktop, ScreenshotNeo captures the URL through a single request. It is useful when you want a repeatable remote page capture and then plan to crop or resize the returned image locally. The service accepts full-page captures, lazy-loaded images, CSS-selector element captures, custom viewports and device presets, dark mode, retina scale, custom CSS or JavaScript, click-before-capture actions, hidden selectors, waits, blocked resource types, cookies, headers, user agents, timezone, geolocation, transparent backgrounds, resizing, caching, signed links, asynchronous jobs, webhooks, bulk capture, and PDF output. Its MCP server provides take_screenshot, get_page_info, and capture_pdf for Claude, Cursor, and other MCP clients.
Before each capture it accepts cookie or consent banners and removes more than 60 known consent platforms, newsletter popups, and chat widgets; each cleanup step can be disabled. Bot checks or CAPTCHAs, blank pages, timeouts, failed loads, and cache hits are not billed, and response headers identify the page verdict and billing status.
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curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://stripe.com -o shot.webpPython:
import requests
r = requests.get("https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot", params={"access_key": "YOUR_API_KEY", "url": "https://stripe.com"}, timeout=90)
open("shot.webp", "wb").write(r.content)Node.js:
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Which workflow should you use?
- Choose Spectacle or GNOME Screenshot when you need one clean region immediately.
- Choose Flameshot when annotation, copying, and saving are part of the same action.
- Choose ImageMagick when coordinates, dimensions, batch processing, or reproducibility matter.
- On Wayland, capture through the desktop or its portal first, then use ImageMagick for deterministic post-cropping.
- For a remote web page, use ScreenshotNeo to obtain the source image, then apply the same ImageMagick geometry locally if you need a fixed crop.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I crop without changing the screenshot’s pixel density?
Yes. ImageMagick’s -crop keeps the selected pixels; avoid adding a resize operation if you want the original pixel density.
Why does the same crop not fit every screenshot?
A fixed geometry is tied to pixel coordinates. Changes in window position, browser zoom, display scaling, or page layout move the content even when the nominal screen size is unchanged.
Should I keep the uncropped original?
Yes. Retaining the original PNG lets you correct coordinates, create alternate crops, and verify that no required context was removed.
The Bottom Line
For a new capture, select a rectangular region in Spectacle, GNOME Screenshot, or Flameshot. For an existing file or a repeatable workflow, use ImageMagick’s WIDTHxHEIGHT+X+Y geometry followed by +repage.
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