Ubuntu – GNOME Screenshot can’t copy to clipboard in Ubuntu 18.04

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I just freshly installed Ubuntu 18.04 and downloaded the latest updates. I'm having trouble taking screenshots to clipboard using the built-in gnome-screenshot tool. The default keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+PrintScreen and Ctrl+Shift+PrintScreen don't appear to work (makes the shutter sound, but empty clipboard and nothing saved in Pictures folder either), and using gnome-screenshot -c in the terminal is similarly ineffective.

I've read that gnome-screenshot had clipboard issues with Wayland, but my understanding is that 18.04 defaults to Xorg. Checking my login settings, the default is "Ubuntu," with a secondary "Ubuntu on Wayland" option. I'm just using the default.

Best Answer

Not sure if this is related - in my case (fresh Ubuntu 19.10), gnome-screenshot -c would put the captured image to the clipboard, but somehow I can only paste it in certain applications (e.g. Gimp) while not in others (e.g. Chrome).

Found a workaround by (assigning to a shortcut) this:

gnome-screenshot -acf /tmp/test && cat /tmp/test | xclip -i -selection clipboard -target image/png
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