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c++linuxdesktopx11xlib

Screenshots in X11

What functions would one use to take a screenshot of an X11 desktop, using the Xlib library? I would prefer a method that's more efficient than getting individual pixels. Thanks.

Solution

  • The standard tool for taking screenshots in X11 is to use

    xwd -root > myscreen.xwd

    Then, convert to .pnm with

    xwd2pnm myscreen.xwd > myscreen.pnm

    Therefore, you can locate the source code of xwd and see how it is implemented, http://cvsweb.xfree86.org/cvsweb/xc/programs/xwd/xwd.c?rev=HEAD&content-type=text/vnd.viewcvs-markup