SnapPea

A screenshot and screen recording tool for the COSMIC desktop environment with annotation capabilities.

demo.mp4

Disclaimer: This project is based on xdg-desktop-portal-cosmic with added features. It implements the same screenshot portal interface. When set up correctly, dbus messages sent by cosmic-screenshot will be handled by SnapPea instead of xdg-desktop-portal-cosmic (only Screenshot Portal messages).

Features

• Interactive screenshot selection
• Screen recording with hardware acceleration (no audio yet)
  • Multiple container formats (MP4, WebM, MKV)
  • Configurable framerate (24/30/60 fps)
  • Hardware encoder selection
  • Cursor visibility toggle
  • Live annotations while recording
• Annotation tools: arrows, circles, squares, freehand drawing
• Text recognition (OCR)
• QR code detection
• Redaction and pixelation
• Multi-window and multi-output support
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Configurable settings

Installation

Build and install with just:

just && sudo just install

This installs the binary to /usr/bin/snappea and adds a desktop entry to your application menu.

Setting up a keyboard shortcut:

1. Open Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Custom Shortcuts
2. Add a new shortcut:
   • Name: SnapPea (or Screenshot)
   • Command: snappea
   • Shortcut: Print (or your preferred key)

Note

Running snappea multiple times communicates with the existing instance. If you're recording and press the shortcut again, it will stop the recording.

Optional: System Integration

To use SnapPea as the default screenshot tool (replacing the COSMIC screenshot tool):

just install-portal

This creates ~/.config/xdg-desktop-portal/portals.conf to configure xdg-desktop-portal.

After installing, reload the portal:

systemctl --user restart xdg-desktop-portal

Now pressing Print Screen will open SnapPea instead of the default screenshot tool.

Optional: OCR Support

To enable text recognition (OCR), install tesseract-ocr:

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install tesseract-ocr

# Fedora
sudo dnf install tesseract

# Arch
sudo pacman -S tesseract

Uninstalling

sudo just uninstall

The uninstall command will warn you if ~/.config/xdg-desktop-portal/portals.conf still contains SnapPea configuration.

Why SnapPea?

It Snaps Pics and it's snappy!