Flameshot
Linux's favorite open-source screenshot tool: annotate on-screen, upload with one click.
About
Flameshot is a free and open-source screenshot tool that started on Linux and now ships on Windows and macOS too, with over 31,000 GitHub stars. The workflow is its whole pitch: launch it, drag a selection box, and annotate right there in the selection interface with arrows, text, highlights, blur or pixelate, counters, and boxes, without ever opening a separate editor. Finished shots save locally, copy to the clipboard, or upload straight to Imgur with a single click. A command-line interface lets you script it and bind it to system hotkeys, and the config dialog covers interface color, button selection, and save behavior.
Flameshot is lighter and simpler than ShareX, which is both its appeal and its ceiling: there is no screen recording, no multi-destination upload chain, and no cloud service of its own. Releases are steady, with 15.0 RC1 shipping in September 2026. There are no published independent benchmarks.
What it can do
- Drag-to-select region capture with in-app editing before saving
- Annotations: arrows, text, highlight, blur/pixelate, counters, shapes, color boxes
- One-click Imgur upload with shareable URL
- Command-line interface for scripting and keybind integration
- Highly customizable: colors, buttons, hotkeys, save behavior
- DBus interface for Linux desktop integration
- Free and open source under GPL-3.0
Setup
Install via your distro package manager (apt install flameshot, dnf, pacman, or Flathub), or grab the Windows/macOS builds from flameshot.org, then bind it to Print Screen.
Prerequisites
Linux, Windows, or macOS; optional Imgur account only if you use cloud upload heavily.
Use cases
Works with
Trust score — 8/10
Scored 8/10 (verified tier, metrics-v1). Evidence: GitHub API confirms 31,216 stars under GPL-3.0, the official site documents in-app editing with Imgur upload and a CLI, and September 2026 coverage confirms the 15.0 release line is active. Strengths: the cleanest annotate-then-save workflow on Linux, packaged for nearly every distro, genuinely free with no account. Docked for: (1) no screen recording or multi-destination uploads compared to ShareX; (2) no built-in cloud service or sharing history of its own; (3) no published independent benchmarks. License: GPL-3.0.
★ 31,216 GitHub stars
How the trust score is built
Full methodology →- Adoption · stars/downloads, log-scaled vs peers
- 9.0/10
- Maintenance · recency, releases, issue load
- 8.0/10
- Openness · license + docs
- 10.0/10
- Manual review · sanity read + red-flag check
- 8.0/10
- · flameshot-org community project; ~31,216 GitHub stars
- · Annotate before saving: arrows, text, highlight, blur/pixelate, counters, boxes
- · One-click Imgur upload with shareable URL
- · CLI for scripting and keybind integration
- · Highly customizable: colors, buttons, hotkeys, save behavior
- · Packaged for nearly every Linux distro; Windows/macOS builds also available
- · No screen recording; no multi-destination uploads; no independent benchmarks
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these sources. Where a claim comes from the provider and couldn't be independently verified, the text says so.