Screenshots and screen sharing

Denial has a built-in region screenshot flow and implements version 3 of the wlr screencopy protocol for external tools. Desktop portals turn screencopy frames into PipeWire streams for browsers and sandboxed applications.

Built-in screenshots

Press Super+Shift+S to freeze the current desktop. The output under the pointer supplies the capture frame clock; drag over the area to capture anywhere on the desktop, or cancel with Escape or the right mouse button.

Denial writes a uniquely named PNG to:

1. the directory in DENIAL_SCREENSHOT_DIR, when set; or
2. ~/Pictures/Screenshots by default.

The PNG is also placed on the clipboard, ready to paste into applications that accept images. The selection canvas deliberately hides the software cursor. On the mobile shell, the Screenshot quick setting captures the full desktop without opening the region selector.

The shortcut can be changed or disabled in Settings → Shortcuts.

Screenshots with grim

Install the direct capture utilities if needed:

sudo pacman -S grim wf-recorder

Capture the desktop:

grim screenshot.png

Select an output by its connector name:

denialctl outputs
grim -o DP-1 screenshot.png

Capture a known region using logical coordinates:

grim -g "100,100 1280x720" region.png

Recording with wf-recorder

Record the screen until wf-recorder is stopped:

wf-recorder -f recording.mp4

Add desktop audio, select one output, or use an explicit region:

wf-recorder -a -f recording-with-audio.mp4
wf-recorder -o DP-1 -f recording.mp4
wf-recorder -g "100,100 1280x720" -f region.mp4

Browsers, OBS, and sandboxed applications

The Arch package installs portal routing that sends ScreenCast and Screenshot requests to xdg-desktop-portal-wlr; other desktop portal requests use the GTK backend. A Zenity monitor chooser is used because it works as a normal desktop window.

The complete path is:

application → desktop portal → xdg-desktop-portal-wlr → Denial screencopy
            → PipeWire stream → application

If an application offers a system screen-sharing dialog, choose the monitor there. The compositor itself does not link PipeWire; the portal backend owns the stream.

Current limitations

• slurp requires layer-shell, which Denial does not currently advertise. Interactive slurp region selection is therefore unavailable; explicit coordinates still work.
• Portal-based interactive screenshot regions and colour picking are not yet available for the same reason.
• Direct screencopy clients can receive the Flutter-owned software cursor even when they do not request one. Denial’s built-in screenshot flow explicitly hides it before capturing.