Tensaku: Modern Screenshot Annotation.

Tensaku is a screenshot annotation tool inspired by Swappy and Flameshot.

Tensaku is a fork of Satty by Matthias Gabriel, used under the MPL-2.0 license. See NOTICE for attribution details — thanks to the Satty project and its contributors for the foundation this builds on.

Tensaku provides:

• a simple, easy-to-understand toolset (like Swappy)
• fullscreen annotation mode and post-shot cropping (like Flameshot)
• extremely smooth rendering thanks to HW acceleration (OpenGL)
• support for wlroots-based compositors (Sway, Hyprland, River, ...)
• a minimal, modern-looking UI, thanks to GTK and Adwaita

What Tensaku adds

Tensaku extends Satty with a number of new capabilities:

• Movable annotations — select, move, resize, multi-select, duplicate, and delete annotations after drawing them with the Pointer tool. The Arrow tool also gains Standard, Pointy, Curved, and Double styles.
• Scrolling screenshots — capture content taller than the screen. tensaku --scroll-capture opens a fullscreen overlay; drag-select a region, then capture by manual or automatic scrolling, and the frames are stitched into one tall image on the annotation canvas.
• Layers panel — treat annotations as layers you can reorder, lock, hide, rename, and drag-and-drop. Toggle it with Ctrl+L.
• Paste images — Ctrl+V drops a clipboard image onto the canvas as a resizable layer.
• Spotlight tool — dim the screenshot everywhere except the regions you highlight.
• Redaction-grade blur — the Blur tool adds irreversible Secure Blur and Black Out styles alongside Gaussian and Pixelate.
• Zoom — zoom the canvas with Ctrl+scroll or the Ctrl+digit shortcuts, with an on-screen zoom indicator.
• Reworked crop — aspect-ratio presets, exact width/height entry, rotate and flip, a background-color matte, and pan/zoom while cropping.
• Reworked color picker — a swatch grid with drag-to-reorder custom colors that persist across launches.
• Preferences dialog — open with Ctrl+, to rebind tool shortcuts and toggle behaviors; choices persist to a state file kept separate from config.toml.

Install

Arch Linux (AUR)

Tensaku is published on the AUR:

yay -S tensaku   # or: paru -S tensaku

cargo

cargo install tensaku
tensaku --install-desktop   # add the icon + desktop entry

This builds from source, so it needs a Rust toolchain and the GTK-4 / Adwaita native dependencies — see Dependencies. cargo install places only the binary; tensaku --install-desktop then registers the icon and .desktop entry under ~/.local/share/ (launcher icon, file associations) — the AUR package and make install do this already.

Pre-built binary and Flatpak

Each GitHub release attaches an x86-64 Linux tarball and a Flatpak bundle:

flatpak install tensaku-<version>.flatpak

From source

git clone https://github.com/jondkinney/tensaku.git
cd tensaku
make build-release              # binary at ./target/release/tensaku
PREFIX=/usr/local make install  # optional: install system-wide

See Dependencies and Build from source for the full dependency list and uninstall instructions.

Usage

Start by providing a filename or a screenshot via stdin (or use --scroll-capture, below) and annotate using the available tools. Save to clipboard or file when finished. Tools and interface have been kept simple.

Tensaku reads its settings from three places:

• config.toml — a config file you edit by hand, at ~/.config/tensaku/config.toml (see Configuration File). Tensaku never writes to it.
• Command-line flags — override config.toml for a single run (see Command Line).
• The Preferences dialog — in-app settings and tool-shortcut edits (see Preferences Dialog). These persist to a separate state file (~/.local/state/tensaku/state.toml) and are applied on top of config.toml — so a shortcut or toggle you change in Preferences wins over config.toml, and config.toml itself is left untouched.

Shortcuts

• Enter: as configured (see below), default: copy-to-clipboard (may be masked by active tool)
• Esc: as configured (see below), default: exit (may be masked by active tool)
• Delete reset (clear) ^{experimental 0.20.1}
• Ctrl+C: Save to clipboard (may be masked by active tool)
• Ctrl+Shift+D or Ctrl+Shift+I: Open GTK inspector if not already opened
• Ctrl+S: Save to specified output file
• Ctrl+Shift+S: Save using file dialog ^0.20.0. The dialog uses output-filename as initial filename/path when available and remembers the last selected folder. ^0.21.0
• Ctrl+Alt+C: Copy last saved filepath to clipboard ^0.20.1
• Ctrl+T: Toggle toolbars
• Ctrl+L: Toggle the layers panel (configurable — see layer-panel-shortcut)
• Ctrl+,: Open Preferences
• Ctrl+Y: Redo
• Ctrl+Z: Undo
• Ctrl+D: Delete the selected annotation(s) — same as Delete, but reachable with the left hand
• Alt+D: Duplicate the selected annotation(s)
• Ctrl+scroll, or Ctrl++/-: Zoom the canvas in/out
• Ctrl+0: Reset zoom to 100%; Ctrl+1: fit to window; Ctrl+2–5: zoom to 200–500%; Ctrl+9: zoom to 50%
• Alt+(Left/Right/Up/Down): Pan, also available with middle mouse button drag ^0.20.1

Color Selection Shortcuts ^0.20.1

1, 2, 3, …, 9, 0 — select nth color from the color palette

Tool Selection Shortcuts (configurable) ^0.20.0

Default single-key shortcuts:

• v: Pointer tool
• x: Crop tool
• z: Brush tool
• s: Line tool
• a: Arrow tool
• r: Rectangle tool
• e: Ellipse tool
• t: Text tool
• c: Numbered Marker tool
• b: Blur tool
• w: Highlighter tool
• g: Spotlight tool

These defaults all sit on the left half of a QWERTY keyboard by design — you can switch tools one-handed while your right hand stays on the mouse. That makes Tensaku comfortable to drive on split keyboards and for left-hand-only use, and it's why the duplicate / delete chords are Alt+D / Ctrl+D rather than keys on the far side of the board.

Shortcuts can be rebound either in the [keybinds] section of config.toml (see below) or, more conveniently, in the Preferences dialog (Ctrl+,). Each binding is a single character.

Tool Modifiers and Keys

• Pointer: Click an annotation to select it, drag to move it, and drag a handle to resize it (hold Shift on a corner handle to keep the aspect ratio, or on a side handle to resize symmetrically about the center). Multiple annotations can be selected and moved together; Ctrl+A selects all and arrow keys nudge the selection.
• Arrow: Hold Shift to make arrow snap to 15° steps
• Ellipse: Hold Alt to center the ellipse around origin, hold Shift for a circle
• Highlight: Hold Shift to snap segments to 15° steps. The Highlighter has two styles — freehand, and a "smart" mode that snaps to lines of text — switched from the toolbar's style menu or by double-tapping w.
• Line: Hold Shift to make line snap to 15° steps
• Rectangle: Hold Alt to center the rectangle around origin, hold Shift for a square
• Text:
  • Press Shift+Enter to insert line break.
  • Combine Ctrl with Left or Right for word jump or Ctrl with Backspace or Delete for word delete.
  • Press Enter or switch to another tool to accept input, press Escape to discard entered text.
  • Home and End go to the start/end of current line or previous/next line if already on first/last character of line (automatic wrapping is not considered for this). Ctrl with Home/End jumps to start/end of text buffer.
  • Up or Down to jump to previous/next line (if already on first/last line, it jumps to the start/end of text buffer). ^0.20.1
  • Combine Shift with other keys to select text (e.g. Shift+Home to select from start of line to cursor, Shift+Left to select characters before cursor, Ctrl+Shift+Left to select words before cursor,and so on) ^0.20.1
  • Double-click to select word under cursor.Triple-click to select all text. ^0.20.1
  • Ctrl+A to select all text. ^0.20.1
  • Ctrl+C to copy selected text to clipboard. ^0.20.1
  • Ctrl+X to cut selected text to clipboard. ^0.20.1
  • Ctrl+V to paste text from clipboard. ^0.20.1
  • Alt+Ctrl with Left or Right or Up or Down to move the text. Use Alt+Ctrl+Shift with arrow keys to nudge the text. ^0.20.1
• Crop:
  • Press Esc or right mouse button while editing to reset crop altogether ^0.21.0
  • Press Enter while editing to finish editing crop and keep the crop area active ^0.21.0
  • Left click crop area when tool is active but not editing to resume editing^0.21.0

Configuration File

[general]
# Start Tensaku in fullscreen mode
fullscreen = true
#fullscreen = false
# since 0.20.1, this can be written like below. Current is just the current screen, all is all screens. This may depend on the compositor.
#fullscreen = "all"
#fullscreen = "current-screen"
# resize initially (0.20.1)
#resize = { mode="smart" }
resize = { mode = "size", width=2000, height=800 }
# try to have the window float (0.20.1). This may depend on the compositor.
floating-hack = true
# Change to true to automatically copy to clipboard after every annotation change (0.21.0)
auto-copy = false
# Exit directly after copy/save action. 0.20.1: Does not apply to save as
early-exit = true
# Exit directly after save as (0.20.1)
early-exit-save-as = true
# Draw corners of rectangles round if the value is greater than 0 (0 disables rounded corners)
corner-roundness = 12
# Select the tool on startup [possible values: pointer, crop, line, arrow, rectangle, ellipse, text, marker, blur, highlight, brush]
initial-tool = "brush"
# Configure the command to be called on copy, for example `wl-copy`
copy-command = "wl-copy"
# Increase or decrease the size of the annotations
annotation-size-factor = 2
# Filename to use for saving action. Omit to disable saving to file. Might contain format specifiers: https://docs.rs/chrono/latest/chrono/format/strftime/index.html
# starting with 0.20.0, can contain leading tilde (~) for home directory
# starting with 0.21.0, save as uses this as initial filename/path when available
output-filename = "/tmp/test-%Y-%m-%d_%H:%M:%S.png"
# After copying the screenshot, save it to a file as well
save-after-copy = false
# Hide toolbars by default
default-hide-toolbars = false
# Experimental (since 0.20.0): whether window focus shows/hides toolbars. This does not affect initial state of toolbars, see default-hide-toolbars.
focus-toggles-toolbars = false
# Fill shapes by default (since 0.20.0)
default-fill-shapes = false
# The primary highlighter style [possible values: block, freehand]
primary-highlighter = "block"
# Disable notifications
disable-notifications = false
# Actions to trigger on right click (order is important)
# [possible values: save-to-clipboard, save-to-file, save-to-file-as, copy-filepath-to-clipboard, exit]
actions-on-right-click = []
# Actions to trigger on Enter key (order is important)
# [possible values: save-to-clipboard, save-to-file, save-to-file-as, copy-filepath-to-clipboard, exit]
actions-on-enter = ["save-to-clipboard"]
# Actions to trigger on Escape key (order is important)
# [possible values: save-to-clipboard, save-to-file, save-to-file-as, copy-filepath-to-clipboard, exit]
actions-on-escape = ["exit"]
# Action to perform when the Enter key is pressed [possible values: save-to-clipboard, save-to-file]
# Deprecated: use actions-on-enter instead
action-on-enter = "save-to-clipboard"
# Right click to copy
# Deprecated: use actions-on-right-click instead
right-click-copy = false
# request no window decoration. Please note that the compositor has the final say in this. At this point. requires xdg-decoration-unstable-v1.
no-window-decoration = true
# experimental feature: adjust history size for brush input smoothing (0: disabled, default: 0, try e.g. 5 or 10)
brush-smooth-history-size = 10
# experimental feature: Chaikin post-stroke smoothing passes for the brush (default 5)
brush-post-smooth-iterations = 5
# experimental feature (0.20.1): The pan step size to use when panning with arrow keys.
pan-step-size = 50.0
# experimental feature (0.20.1): The zoom factor to use for the image.
# 1.0 means no zooming.
zoom-factor = 1.1
# experimental feature (0.20.1): The length to move the text when using arrow keys. defaults to 50.0
text-move-length = 50.0 
# experimental feature (0.20.1): Scale factor on the input image when it was taken (e.g. DPI scale on the monitor it was recorded from).
# This may be more useful to set via the command line.
# Note, this is ignored with explicit resize.
input-scale = 2.0
# experimental feature (0.21.0): set window title
title = "Tensaku"
# experimental feature (0.21.0): set app_id, note this has to match D-Bus well-known name format, otherwise GTK does not accept it.
app-id = "dev.tensaku.Tensaku"
# Chord that toggles the layers panel (default "ctrl+l"). Optional ctrl/alt/
# shift modifiers plus a single key, joined with "+".
layer-panel-shortcut = "ctrl+l"


# Tool selection keyboard shortcuts. The values below are the defaults;
# each must be a single character. Shortcuts changed in the Preferences
# dialog are saved to state.toml and take precedence over this section.
[keybinds]
pointer = "v"
crop = "x"
brush = "z"
line = "s"
arrow = "a"
rectangle = "r"
ellipse = "e"
text = "t"
marker = "c"
blur = "b"
highlight = "w"
spotlight = "g"

# Font to use for text annotations
[font]
family = "Roboto"
style = "Regular"
# specify fallback fonts (0.20.1)
# Please note, there is no default setting for these and the fonts listed below
# are not shipped with Tensaku but need to be available on the system.
fallback = [
    "Noto Sans CJK JP",
    "Noto Sans CJK SC",
    "Noto Sans CJK TC",
    "Noto Sans CJK KR",
    "Noto Serif CJK JP",
    "Noto Serif JP",
    "IPAGothic",
    "IPAexGothic",
    "Source Han Sans"
]

# Custom colours for the colour palette
[color-palette]
# These will be shown in the toolbar for quick selection
palette = [
    "#00ffff",
    "#a52a2a",
    "#dc143c",
    "#ff1493",
    "#ffd700",
    "#008000",
]

# These will be available in the color picker as presets
# Leave empty to use GTK's default
custom = [
    "#00ffff",
    "#a52a2a",
    "#dc143c",
    "#ff1493",
    "#ffd700",
    "#008000",
]

Preferences Dialog

Open the Preferences dialog with Ctrl+, or the gear button in the top toolbar. It has two parts:

• Keyboard Shortcuts — a recorder row for every tool, Spotlight included. Click a row, press a key, then Save to commit (or Cancel to discard).
• Behavior — settings that apply immediately: the annotation size factor, invert scrolling direction, close window on Esc, close window on copy, close window on save, hide the default palette colors, and keep in-session tool adjustments across tool switches.

Everything set here is written to ~/.local/state/tensaku/state.toml — not to config.toml. State is applied on top of config.toml, so a value changed in Preferences overrides the same setting in config.toml, and config.toml itself is never modified. Tensaku also records other remembered state in this file: the last-used color, saved custom colors, per-tool "save as default" sizes and fill states, and the last arrow / blur / highlighter style.

Command Line

» tensaku --help
Modern Screenshot Annotation.

Usage: tensaku [OPTIONS]

Options:
      --man
          Show manpage. Pipe to man -l -
      --license
          Show license
      --install-desktop
          Install the desktop entry and app icon into the user's XDG data directory (~/.local/share), then exit. Run this once after `cargo install tensaku`; package installs (AUR, make install) register these files already
      --doctor
          Report whether the optional external tools Tensaku relies on (grim, slurp, wl-copy) are installed and the session looks right, then exit
      --install-omarchy-wrapper
          Install the Omarchy screenshot wrapper (~/.local/bin/tensaku-edit) so Omarchy's screenshot keybinds open captures in Tensaku, then exit. Also checks that OMARCHY_SCREENSHOT_EDITOR points at it
      --wire-omarchy
          Point Omarchy's screenshot editor at the tensaku-edit wrapper (sets OMARCHY_SCREENSHOT_EDITOR in ~/.config/hypr/envs.conf and the running session) and add float + center window rules for Tensaku, then exit. Installs the wrapper first if needed; does not edit keybinds
  -c, --config <CONFIG>
          Path to the config file. Otherwise will be read from XDG_CONFIG_DIR/tensaku/config.toml
  -f, --filename <FILENAME>
          Path to input image or '-' to read from stdin
      --auto-scroll-test
          Dev-only smoke test for the xdg-desktop-portal RemoteDesktop / libei handshake used by Auto-Scroll. Opens a portal session, requests pointer capability, reads back the EIS file descriptor, and exits
      --scroll-capture
          Enter scrolling-screenshot capture mode: opens a fullscreen overlay, drag to select a region, then capture by manual scroll or auto-scroll
      --scroll-capture-test <FULL|X,Y,W,H>
          Dev-only smoke test for the scrolling-screenshot capture pipeline. `FULL` captures the whole focused output; `x,y,w,h` captures a region. The captured frame is fed into tensaku's normal annotation canvas
      --fullscreen [<FULLSCREEN>]
          Start Tensaku in fullscreen mode. Since 0.20.1, takes optional parameter. --fullscreen without parameter is equivalent to --fullscreen current. Mileage may vary depending on compositor [possible values: all, current-screen]
      --resize [<MODE|WIDTHxHEIGHT>]
          Resize to coordinates or use smart mode (0.20.1). --resize without parameter is equivalent to --resize smart [possible values: smart, WxH.]
      --floating-hack
          Try to enforce floating (0.20.1). Mileage may vary depending on compositor
  -o, --output-filename <OUTPUT_FILENAME>
          Filename to use for saving action or '-' to print to stdout. Omit to disable saving to file. Might contain format specifiers: <https://docs.rs/chrono/latest/chrono/format/strftime/index.html>. Since 0.20.0, can contain tilde (~) for home dir
      --early-exit
          Exit directly after copy/save action. 0.20.1: This does not apply to "save as"
      --early-exit-save-as
          Experimental (0.20.1): Exit directly after save as
      --corner-roundness <CORNER_ROUNDNESS>
          Draw corners of rectangles round if the value is greater than 0 (Defaults to 12) (0 disables rounded corners)
      --initial-tool <TOOL>
          Select the tool on startup [aliases: --init-tool] [possible values: pointer, crop, line, arrow, rectangle, ellipse, text, marker, blur, highlight, brush]
      --copy-command <COPY_COMMAND>
          Configure the command to be called on copy, for example `wl-copy`
      --annotation-size-factor <ANNOTATION_SIZE_FACTOR>
          Increase or decrease the size of the annotations
      --save-after-copy
          After copying the screenshot, save it to a file as well Preferably use the `action_on_copy` option instead
      --auto-copy
          Automatically copy to clipboard after every annotation change (0.21.0)
      --actions-on-enter <ACTIONS_ON_ENTER>
          Actions to perform when pressing Enter [possible values: save-to-clipboard, save-to-file, save-to-file-as, copy-filepath-to-clipboard, exit]
      --actions-on-escape <ACTIONS_ON_ESCAPE>
          Actions to perform when pressing Escape [possible values: save-to-clipboard, save-to-file, save-to-file-as, copy-filepath-to-clipboard, exit]
      --actions-on-right-click <ACTIONS_ON_RIGHT_CLICK>
          Actions to perform when hitting the copy Button [possible values: save-to-clipboard, save-to-file, save-to-file-as, copy-filepath-to-clipboard, exit]
  -d, --default-hide-toolbars
          Hide toolbars by default
      --focus-toggles-toolbars
          Experimental (since 0.20.0): Whether to toggle toolbars based on focus. Doesn't affect initial state
      --default-fill-shapes
          Experimental feature (since 0.20.0): Fill shapes by default
      --font-family <FONT_FAMILY>
          Font family to use for text annotations
      --font-style <FONT_STYLE>
          Font style to use for text annotations
      --primary-highlighter <PRIMARY_HIGHLIGHTER>
          The primary highlighter to use, secondary is accessible with CTRL [possible values: block, freehand]
      --disable-notifications
          Disable notifications
      --profile-startup
          Print profiling
      --no-window-decoration
          Disable the window decoration (title bar, borders, etc.) Please note that the compositor has the final say in this. Requires xdg-decoration-unstable-v1
      --brush-smooth-history-size <BRUSH_SMOOTH_HISTORY_SIZE>
          Experimental feature: How many points to use for the brush smoothing algorithm. 0 disables smoothing. The default value is 0 (disabled)
      --brush-post-smooth-iterations <BRUSH_POST_SMOOTH_ITERATIONS>
          How many Chaikin corner-cutting passes to run over a brush stroke once the user releases (post-stroke smoothing). 0 disables. Defaults to 5
      --zoom-factor <ZOOM_FACTOR>
          Experimental feature (0.20.1): The zoom factor to use for the image. 1.0 means no zoom. defaults to 1.1
      --pan-step-size <PAN_STEP_SIZE>
          Experimental feature (0.20.1): The pan step size to use when panning with arrow keys. defaults to 50.0
      --text-move-length <TEXT_MOVE_LENGTH>
          Experimental feature (0.20.1): The length to move the text when using the arrow keys. defaults to 50.0
      --input-scale <INPUT_SCALE>
          Experimental feature (0.20.1): Scale the default window size to fit different displays. Note that this is ignored with explicit resize
      --title <TITLE>
          Experimental feature (0.21.0): Set window title
      --app-id <APP_ID>
          Experimental feature (0.21.0): Set toplevel app_id. Note that this has to match D-Bus well known name format, otherwise GTK does not accept it
      --right-click-copy
          Right click to copy. Preferably use the `action_on_right_click` option instead
      --action-on-enter <ACTION_ON_ENTER>
          Action to perform when pressing Enter. Preferably use the `actions_on_enter` option instead [possible values: save-to-clipboard, save-to-file, save-to-file-as, copy-filepath-to-clipboard, exit]
  -h, --help
          Print help
  -V, --version
          Print version

CSS

Tensaku ships with minimal builtin CSS which can be overridden by $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/tensaku/overrides.css. Adwaita defaults for headerbar (@headerbar_fg_color and @headerbar_bg_color) which Tensaku uses ^0.21.0 may lack transparency, here's an override example:

.outer_box,
.toolbar {
    color: #000000;
    background-color: #ddddddaa;
}

You can discover styleable elements by using the GTK inspector with env variable GTK_DEBUG=interactive.

IME ^0.20.0

Tensaku supports IME via GTK with and without preediting. Please note, at this point Tensaku has no proper fallback font handling so the font used needs to contain the entered glyphs.

Omarchy

Omarchy already ships screenshot keybinds — they run omarchy-capture-screenshot, which handles the region/window selection and hands the capture to whatever OMARCHY_SCREENSHOT_EDITOR points at. Tensaku takes its input as a flag, not a positional argument, so it needs a small wrapper (~/.local/bin/tensaku-edit) to bridge the two — and Tensaku manages that wrapper for you. It's installed automatically the first time Tensaku runs on an Omarchy session.

To wire everything up in one step:

tensaku --wire-omarchy

This installs the wrapper if needed and points OMARCHY_SCREENSHOT_EDITOR at it — both in ~/.config/hypr/envs.conf (persisted, and backed up first) and in the running Hyprland session, so your screenshot keys open each capture straight into Tensaku, with Omarchy's window/output highlighting intact and no restart needed. tensaku --install-omarchy-wrapper installs just the wrapper without touching any config, and tensaku --doctor shows the current wrapper and wiring status.

Scrolling capture is a separate mode — omarchy-capture-screenshot doesn't cover it. Bind a key straight to tensaku --scroll-capture, alongside the screenshot binds in ~/.config/hypr/bindings.conf — for example an Alt variant of your screenshot key:

bindd = ALT, <your screenshot key>, Scrolling screenshot, exec, tensaku --scroll-capture --copy-command wl-copy --actions-on-enter save-to-clipboard

Other wlroots compositors (Sway, Hyprland, river, …)

Not on Omarchy? Bind a key to a grim + slurp pipeline yourself:

grim -g "$(slurp -c '#ff0000ff')" -t ppm - | tensaku --filename - --fullscreen --output-filename ~/Pictures/Screenshots/tensaku-$(date '+%Y%m%d-%H:%M:%S').png

Hyprland users must escape the # with another #:

grim -g "$(slurp -c '##ff0000ff')" -t ppm - | tensaku --filename - --fullscreen --output-filename ~/Pictures/Screenshots/tensaku-$(date '+%Y%m%d-%H:%M:%S').png

slurp is a region picker — drag a box to select. A plain click selects nothing and the pipeline aborts with selection cancelled. slurp doesn't highlight windows on its own; for window/output snapping, pipe it the rectangles (see the Sway example below) or use a wrapper such as grimblast or hyprshot.

tensaku --doctor reports whether grim, slurp, and wl-copy are installed — a quick way to confirm the screenshot pipeline is complete.

Please note we're using ppm in both examples. Compared to png, ppm is uncompressed and this can save time.

Other examples

Image Resize

Tensaku can resample the whole screenshot from the Crop tool (x): open the Image size control in the crop toolbar, enter a new width or height — with an optional aspect-ratio lock — and click Resize. The image is rescaled with bilinear interpolation.

For scripted or headless workflows you can also resize by piping the output through a tool such as ImageMagick:

grim -g "0,0 3840x2160" -t ppm - | tensaku --filename - --output-filename - | convert -resize 50% - out.png

Sway mode

Add this to your ~/.config/sway/config. It needs grim and slurp.

# screenshots
# inspiration: https://www.reddit.com/r/swaywm/comments/ghnlea/comment/fqnzxkx/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
set $tensaku tensaku -f - --initial-tool=arrow --copy-command=wl-copy --actions-on-escape="save-to-clipboard,exit" --brush-smooth-history-size=5 --disable-notifications
set $printscreen_mode 'printscreen (r:region, f:full, w:window)'
mode $printscreen_mode {
    bindsym r exec swaymsg 'mode "default"' && grim -t ppm -g "$(slurp -d)" - | $tensaku
    bindsym f exec swaymsg 'mode "default"' && grim -t ppm - | $tensaku
    bindsym w exec swaymsg 'mode "default"' && swaymsg -t get_tree | jq -r '.. | select(.focused?) | .rect | "\(.x),\(.y) \(.width)x\(.height)"' | grim -t ppm -g - - | $tensaku

    bindsym Return mode "default"
    bindsym Escape mode "default"
}
bindsym $mod+Shift+p mode $printscreen_mode

Hyprland integration: floating-window size rule

Tensaku sizes its own window around the captured image at startup, on crop commit, and on revert. For that to work the window has to be floating with no hard-coded size rule. The tiling layout will otherwise stretch / squash the window to whatever the tile gives it, and a windowrule = size <X> <Y> will pin it to that size regardless of what Tensaku asks for — which shows up as the image rendered shrunk inside a fixed-size window, and (with animations on) as a visible width-bounce when you Super+drag the window mid-flight while the size rule is re-asserted against the drag.

Notably, Omarchy ships with such a rule by default via its floating-window tag:

# ~/.local/share/omarchy/default/hypr/apps/system.conf (default)
windowrule = float on,         match:tag floating-window
windowrule = center on,        match:tag floating-window
windowrule = size 875 600,     match:tag floating-window   # ← pins window size
windowrule = tag +floating-window, match:class (... dev.tensaku.Tensaku ...)

tensaku --wire-omarchy sets this up for you — it appends the float + center rules (and the tag -floating-window untag) for dev.tensaku.Tensaku to ~/.config/hypr/hyprland.conf (backed up first, and skipped if they're already present) and reloads Hyprland. To do it by hand instead — or on another wlroots compositor — drop the tag for dev.tensaku.Tensaku in your local ~/.config/hypr/hyprland.conf and re-apply float + center directly:

# Let Tensaku size its own window around the captured image.
windowrule = tag -floating-window, match:class dev.tensaku.Tensaku
windowrule = float on,             match:class dev.tensaku.Tensaku
windowrule = center on,            match:class dev.tensaku.Tensaku

Then hyprctl reload. The next screenshot will open at the right size; if you previously added windowrule = animation none for the drag-bounce workaround, you can remove it — the bounce was caused by the size rule fighting the drag, not by the animation itself.

Build from source

You first need to install the native dependencies of Tensaku (see below) and then run:

# build release binary, located in ./target/release/tensaku
make build-release

# optional: install to /usr/local
PREFIX=/usr/local make install

# optional: uninstall from /usr/local
PREFIX=/usr/local make uninstall

Flatpak

Tensaku can be built as a Flatpak bundle, and a pre-built bundle is attached to each GitHub release.

Installing from Flatpak bundle

# Download the .flatpak file from the latest release
# Then install it:
flatpak install tensaku-<version>.flatpak

Dependencies

Tensaku is based on GTK-4 and Adwaita. Dependencies, depending of each distributions are:

• glib2
• gtk4 (libgtk-4-x)
• gdk-pixbuf2
• libadwaita
• libepoxy
• fontconfig

Credits

Tensaku is a fork of Satty. Satty was created by Matthias Gabriel (@gabm) and is maintained by @RobertMueller2, @fabienjuif and @gabm together with the Satty contributors — Tensaku would not exist without their work. See NOTICE for attribution details.

Tensaku contributors

Made with contrib.rocks.

Star History

License

The source code is released under the MPL-2.0 license — see LICENSE.

Tensaku is a fork of Satty and inherits its MPL-2.0 licensing. Attribution for the upstream project is recorded in NOTICE.

The Font 'Roboto Regular' from Google is released under Apache-2.0 license.