Annotating Screenshots with Ksnip

Prerequisites and assumptions

• Rocky 9.4 Workstation
• sudo privileges

Introduction

Ksnip is a screenshot utility that offers many tools for annotating screenshots. This guide focuses on installing Ksnip and its annotation tools.

Installing Ksnip

Ksnip requires the EPEL repository. If you do not have the EPEL enabled, you can do that with:

sudo dnf install epel-release

Then perform a system update:

sudo dnf update -y

Now, install Ksnip:

sudo dnf install ksnip -y

Opening an image

1. Open Ksnip
2. Click File > Open
3. Select the image you want to annotate

Annotating an image with Ksnip

Ksnip has handy and intuitive tools to annotate screenshots. In the image, down the left side are the options described below.

Option	Tool	Description
1	Select	tool makes a selection. Click an item to select it, or click and drag to make a selection.
2	Duplicate	tool duplicates a selection. Click and drag to make a selection. Then click and drag the selection to move or transform it.
3a	Arrow	the default arrow tool, which allows you to click and drag to create an arrow from a location to a new one
3b	Double Arrow	the second arrow option reached by clicking the down arrow next to the arrow tool. As the tools suggest, it has an arrow at both endpoints.
3c	Line	the third option reached by clicking the down arrow next to the arrow tool. It replaces arrows with a simple line.
4	Pen	makes strokes that resemble a pen. To use the pen, click and move the cursor across the screenshot. 1
5a	Marker Pen	The default marker tool makes strokes that resemble a highlighter. To use the marker pen, hold the click and drag the cursor across the screenshot. 1
5b	Marker Rectangle	the second marker option reached by clicking the down arrow next to the marker tool. When you left-click and drag your cursor, the Marker Rectangle tool will fill the rectangle made from the selection. 1
5c	Marker Elipse	the third marker option reached by clicking the down arrow next to the marker tool. When you left-click and drag your cursor, the Marker Elipse tool will fill the ellipse made from the selection. 1
6a	Text	The default text tool allows you to annotate the screenshot with text. 1
6b	Text Pointer	the second text option reached by clicking the down arrow next to the text tool. It attaches a pointer to draw attention to the text. 1
6c	Text Arrow	the third text option reached by clicking the down arrow next to the text tool. It attaches an arrow to draw attention to the text. 1
7a	Number	the default number tool, adds a number to draw attention to and annotate the screenshot with numbers. 1
7b	Number Pointer	the second option reached by clicking the down arrow next to the number tool. Adds a number with a pointer to further annotate a screenshot. 1
7c	Number Arrow	the third option reached by clicking the down arrow next to the number tool. Adds a number with an arrow to further annotate a screenshot. 1
8a	Blur	the default blur tool, which allows you to blur portions of the screenshot by left-clicking and dragging.
8b	Pixelate	the second blur tool option reached by clicking the down arrow next to the blur tool. Pixelate anywhere on the screen by left-clicking and dragging.
9a	Rectangle	the default rectangle tool, allows you to click and drag to create a rectangle. 1
9b	Ellipse	the second rectangle tool option, reached by clicking the down arrow next to the rectangle tool. Allows you to click and drag to create an ellipse on the screen. 1
10	Sticker	places a sticker or emoji on a screenshot. Selecting the tool and clicking will place the sticker.

Conclusion

Ksnip is an excellent utility for annotating screenshots. It can also take screenshots, but this guide focuses mainly on the annotation capabilities and tools provided by Ksnip.

Check out the Ksnip GitHub Repo to learn more about this excellent screenshot utility.

1. Each of the tools that have descriptions followed by this superscript (¹), have various command options available in the top menu after making the tool selection. These change the opacity, border, font, font style, and other attributes.

Author: Joseph Brinkman

Contributors: Steven Spencer, Ganna Zhyrnova