Change screenshots path for Gnome

Gnome does not provide a setting to change the screenshot’s path. Shell scripts and custom keyboard shortcuts are the easiest way to customize a file name and its location

Custom screenshot scripts

Those three small scripts will print screen and save it under ${HOME}/Downloads/Screenshots directory (customize if needed):

Make a screenshot of the whole screen

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# $HOME/.bin/ss-full.sh

DATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S)

mkdir -p "${HOME}/Downloads/Screenshots"

gnome-screenshot -f "${HOME}/Downloads/Screenshots/${DATE}.png"

Make a screenshot of selected area

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# $HOME/.bin/ss-area.sh

DATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S)

mkdir -p "${HOME}/Downloads/Screenshots"

gnome-screenshot -a -f "${HOME}/Downloads/Screenshots/${DATE}.png"

Make a screenshot of an active window

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# $HOME/.bin/ss-win.sh

DATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S)

mkdir -p "${HOME}/Downloads/Screenshots"

gnome-screenshot -w -f "${HOME}/Downloads/Screenshots/${DATE}.png"

chmod +x is required to make those files executable.

Assign scripts to shortcuts

Before assigning new print screen shortcuts, the existing ones must be removed from the keyboard settings:

Then, new ones can be added:

1. Print active window (Alt + Print) - sh -c '/home/user/.bin/ss-win.sh'
2. Print selected area (Shift + Print) - sh -c '/home/user/.bin/ss-area.sh'
3. Print the whole screen (Print) - sh -c '/home/user/.bin/ss-full.sh'