peck

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peck is a screen capture tool for Wayland. It provides easy ways to capture screenshots, record your screen, and optionally convert outputs to different formats.

peck isn't a tool that tries to reinvent the wheel. Rather, it's just a simple wrapper bash script that makes interfacing with grim and wf-recorder easier.

Features

• Capture screenshots or record your screen by region.
• Start and stop recordings easily.
• Save to default directories, temporary directories, or a custom path.
• Copy output directly to the clipboard.
• Convert recordings to various formats (mp4, gif, webm, etc.) using ffmpeg.
• Optionally sends notifications using libnotify about the capture status.

Installation

Quick setup

1. Install the dependencies.
2. Download peck from the releases
3. Optional: Add peck to your $PATH.
4. Optional: Add keybinds for peck to your window manager. (Not required if you just want to run peck through the CLI.

Dependencies

Since peck is just a simple bash script, be sure to have bash installed on your system.

Then install these external dependencies:

1. grim (for capturing screenshots)
2. slurp (for grabbing the screen region)
3. wf-recorder (for capturing screen recordings)
4. ffmpeg (for converting the screen recordings to a desired format)
5. wl-clipboard (for copying the output to the clipboard)
6. wayfreeze (optional, required if you want to use --freeze)

Below are some example instructions for Ubuntu, Arch, and NixOS.

Ubuntu

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y grim slurp wf-recorder ffmpeg wl-clipboard

wayfreeze is not available through apt, so must be installed from source. Though wayfreeze is only needed for the --freeze argument, so can be omitted if you can live without freezing the screen before taking a screenshot.

Arch

sudo pacman -Syu grim slurp wf-recorder ffmpeg wl-clipboard

There is an unofficial wayfreeze package on the AUR.

NixOS

# This example uses Home Manager. You can also just use environment.systemPackages
home.packages = with pkgs; [
  grim
  slurp
  wf-recorder
  ffmpeg
  wl-clipboard
  wayfreeze
];

Download and add peck to your PATH

Download the latest version of peck from the releases, then add it to your $PATH.

e.g. on Bash or ZSH:

curl -L -o some/path/peck https://github.com/codevogel/peck/releases/download/v0.1.0/peck
chmod +x some/path/peck

# If the path where you store peck is not in $PATH, be sure to add it to your path:
echo 'export PATH="some/path:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc   # for Bash
source ~/.bashrc
# or
echo 'export PATH="some/path:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc    # for Zsh
source ~/.zshrc

Verify it runs with peck --help.

Example install with NixOS

An example peck.nix to add to your modules, which installs peck from the releases page, and installs the dependenceis using home manager:

{ pkgs, ... }:

let
  peck = pkgs.stdenv.mkDerivation {
    pname = "peck";
    version = "0.1.2";

    src = pkgs.fetchurl {
      url = "https://github.com/codevogel/peck/releases/download/v0.1.2/peck";
      sha256 = "b595869321085361e1e687d1c6ff308b0d5eccae3ab73a3cfd18e605f2ac82a1";
    };

    unpackPhase = ''true'';

    installPhase = ''
      mkdir -p $out/bin
      cp $src $out/bin/peck
      chmod +x $out/bin/peck
    '';
  };
in
{
  home.packages = with pkgs; [
    peck

    # Dependencies:
    grim
    slurp
    wf-recorder
    ffmpeg
    wl-clipboard
    wayfreeze
  ];
}

Integrating peck with your window manager

Add peck to your window manager using sensible keybinds. For example, in Hyprland:

bind=$mainMod SHIFT, S, exec, peck --clipboard --temp --freeze
bind=$mainMod SHIFT, R, exec, peck --record --clipboard --temp
bind=$mainMod SHIFT, G, exec, peck --record --clipboard --temp --format=gif

This would set SUPER+SHIFT+[S|R|G] to capture a screenshot, recording, or gif respectively, instructing peck to store the file in a temporary dir (which is cleared upon next invocation), and copy the output file to the clipboard, ready for pasting.

peck stops recording when invoked again while recording, so to end a recording, just hit SUPER+SHIFT+[R|G] again while recording.

Usage

Recommended usage is by integrating peck into your window manager as above, but you can also run peck through the CLI.

Below are some examples that show how to use peck.

Basic Screenshot

peck

Captures a screenshot by region and saves it to the default screenshot directory (set with $PECK_SCREENSHOT_DIR, which defaults to $HOME/Pictures/).

Screenshot with Custom Path

peck ./foo.png
peck bar/baz

Stores the screenshot to the specified path. (In this example, would store the screenshot at ./foo.png or ./bar/baz.png)

Recording

peck --record

Starts a screen recording by region, storing the recording in the default directory (set with $PECK_RECORDING_DIR, which defaults to $HOME/Recordings/).

Stop recording with CTRL-C (when launched from the CLI), or by running peck again.

Recording with Format Conversion

peck --record --format=gif

Starts a screen recording, and converts the output file to GIF using ffmpeg.

Temporary Screenshot to Clipboard

peck --temp --clipboard

Capture a screenshot, storing the output file in /tmp/peck/out (which is periodically cleared by peck to prevent clogging up the file system), and copy the output file to the clipboard.

Recording with Custom ffmpeg Filter

peck --record --format webm --filter "fps=30,scale=1280:-1:flags=lanczos"

Record and convert the file to a webm using a custom ffmpeg filter.

Command-line Options

Environment Variables

License

MIT Licensed. See LICENSE.