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Screen Recording

ShotX can record any screen region as MP4 or GIF.

Usage

From Tray Menu

  1. Right-click tray icon → RecordRecord MP4 or Record GIF
  2. Select the recording region using the overlay
  3. Recording starts immediately
  4. Click Stop Recording in the tray menu to finish

From CLI

Screen recording is currently available via the tray menu and Main Window only.

Output Formats

MP4 (Video)

Records directly to MP4. Audio capture is supported when enabled in settings.

GIF (Animated)

Records as MP4 first, then post-processes with FFmpeg using the palettegen + paletteuse filter chain for high-quality, optimized GIFs.

Backends

Display Server Backend Package
X11 ffmpeg -f x11grab ffmpeg
Wayland (wlroots) wf-recorder wf-recorder
Wayland (GNOME) Not yet supported

GNOME Wayland

GNOME Wayland does not support wf-recorder (it relies on wlr-screencopy which GNOME refuses to implement). The only option is the XDG Desktop Portal + PipeWire, which forces a security popup on every recording. This is planned for a future release.

For now, GNOME Wayland users can use GNOME's built-in recorder (++ctrl+shift+alt+r++) or switch to an X11 session.

Settings

Setting Description
Video FPS Recording frame rate (default: 30)
Capture Audio Record system audio via PulseAudio/PipeWire
Output Directory Where recordings are saved
Filename Pattern Naming pattern with {datetime}, {type}, etc.