What is Shutter used for?

Shutter is a feature-rich screenshot program for Linux that captures specific areas, windows, desktop, menus, tooltips, or websites, with built-in editing and upload to image hosting sites. It is a good fit for creating tutorials or manuals with annotated screenshots, and capturing and sharing screen content with image hosting.

Is Shutter open source?

Yes. Shutter is open source under the GPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at shutter-project/shutter and is written mainly in Perl.

Yes. Shutter is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host Shutter?

Yes. Shutter can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What is Shutter an alternative to?

Shutter is an open-source alternative to Snagit. Other open-source alternatives to Snagit include Flameshot, Greenshot and OBS Studio.

Is Shutter actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Shutter was on 27 August 2026, and the latest release is v0.99.7, published on 9 May 2026. The project has 645 stars on GitHub.

Shutter: open-source alternative to Snagit

About Shutter

Shutter is a screenshot tool for Linux-based operating systems such as Ubuntu. It allows capturing a specific area, window, the whole screen, or a website, and provides a tabbed interface to manage screenshots.

The tool includes a built-in editor for adding text, arrows, rectangles, ellipses, and other shapes, with customization options for color, fonts, and line width. It also supports uploading screenshots to image hosting sites directly from the application.

Key features

Capture a specific area with zoom and resizable selection
Capture desktop or workspace, including multi-monitor settings
Capture a window by mouse selection or from a list
Capture menus or tooltips with a user-defined countdown
Capture a website using gnome-web-photo without opening a browser
Built-in editor with text, arrows, rectangles, ellipses, and customizable shapes

Good fit for

Creating tutorials or manuals with annotated screenshots
Capturing and sharing screen content with image hosting

Built with: Perl tools
Tags: screenshot; linux; ubuntu; image-editing; capture

Shutter: questions and answers

What is Shutter used for?: Shutter is a feature-rich screenshot program for Linux that captures specific areas, windows, desktop, menus, tooltips, or websites, with built-in editing and upload to image hosting sites. It is a good fit for creating tutorials or manuals with annotated screenshots, and capturing and sharing screen content with image hosting.
Is Shutter open source?: Yes. Shutter is open source under the GPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at shutter-project/shutter and is written mainly in Perl.
Is Shutter free?: Yes. Shutter is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host Shutter?: Yes. Shutter can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is Shutter an alternative to?: Shutter is an open-source alternative to Snagit. Other open-source alternatives to Snagit include Flameshot, Greenshot and OBS Studio.
Is Shutter actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Shutter was on 27 August 2026, and the latest release is v0.99.7, published on 9 May 2026. The project has 645 stars on GitHub.