Updated: November 1, 2024
The Plasma desktop environment is amazing. Hands down, the best Linux offering by a parsec. Not only is it the prettiest, it's also the most consistent, the most professional-looking, has the most options and customization, it also comes with a pretty solid bundle of KDE programs, many of which are mature, elegant and powerful. One such program is Spectacle, the screenshot tool.
My relationship with this simple yet important utility goes back a long, long time. Over the years, I used it extensively, liked it a lot, and yet, resented the lack of a simple toggle to turn the shadows and borders off, so I wouldn't have to manually crop them. This was an option in the past, it went away, and is now back again in the latest version of Spectacle available for the Plasma 6 edition, the most recent (and still WIP) iteration of this desktop. But the reason for this article is something else. I want to talk to you about a superb feature recently added to Spectacle (or rather enhanced). It's the editing capabilities in the rectangular area mode. A secret hidden in plain sight, but you get so much. Let me show you.
Take a shot, a screenshot
Start Spectacle. Click the first option, Rectangular Region. After your default delay period, you will be able to make a selection. The area is always resizable, so you don't need to worry too much if you miss a pixel or three. However, the really impressive thing is what happens once you make a selection. An entire palette of editing tools will suddenly show up!
You also get instructions on how to resize or move the selection rectangle.
Editing features
You get a lot of goodies. Free drawing, free text, highlighter, arrows, blur, numbers, and pixilate. For any selected option, there will be a sub-menu. For instance, if you want to create an arrow, you can define the line thickness, choose a color (the full 256-256-256 palette), and even use a gentle shadow to add some depth to your "pointer". If you don't like something, you can always undo (unlimited undo, from what I've seen).
If you're unhappy, there's an eraser too, and you can rotate your area. Finally, among the many other options available in Spectacle, you can then export and share your work. This is also available if you use Full Screen, Active Window, or Window Under Cursor, but it still highlights the power and flexibility of Spectacle.
The workflow is quite elegant, unobtrusive. In a way, the screenshot tool gives you what ordinary image viewers and basic editors do, but it's all there, an integral part of the program. This allows you to do quite a lot in Plasma, in Spectacle, without having to resort to using half a dozen other utilities. Sure you can, and for more complicated things, you will want to, but the fact you have the flexibility of choice is really great.
Conclusion
Spectacle is a powerful tool, and it's built into your desktop right there. It does have a few small downsides. I wasn't able to invoke two instances in parallel, so I had to use scrot to take screenshots of it. Inception, but not really. However, it's still rather advanced and better than the rest, even special, dedicated tools you can install on your own - a few of which I've tested in the past, and always found wanting.
The Rectangular Region feature isn't something I use often, but there were a few scenarios where I wanted to create more tutorial-like images. In those scenarios, in the past, I would sometimes have to resort to things like GIMP or even LibreOffice Impress, in order to add various bits and pieces of text and fancy arrows. Spectacle allows you to create pretty decent presentation images, entirely on its own. And that's very nice. There you go, another reason why you ought to consider the Plasma desktop for your serious Linux stuff. We're done, see ya.
Cheers.