Add --region option to select an exact screenshot region

[veracioux]

I propose a common solution to the following issues:

• Support position and size as input parameter #479
• Feature: Select all on GUI start #523
• [Discussion] Flameshot as an Annotation Tool #273

(The discussions in the issues became too complicated to follow)

The problem in a nutshell

You can't select the whole screen or a specific region without complicated and hacky scripts.

Proposed solution

Add a --region option to the gui and screen subcommands. This option can be used in the following ways:

• --region FORMAT (see the table below)
• --region all (select the entire screen, not available with the screen subcommand)
• --region screen0, --region screen1, etc. (select an entire screen by number, not available with the screen subcommand)

Format	Pros	Cons
X,Y,W,H	intuitive	non-standard
WxH+x+y	used by other CLI tools (xrandr, imagemagick)	may confuse new shell-users (minor IMO)
WxH,x,y	N/A	N/A

* x and y are the coordinates of the top-left corner of the region
* w and h are the width and height

We would also modify the --print-geometry to use the format we agree upon (currently uses W H X Y). We can even make --region accept all of the formats.

‼️ Please vote for one or more of these formats in the comments below. Please vote even if you are indifferent. ‼️

Other isues that may benefit from this:

• Capture focused window #334
• Repeat last shot #417
• Remember screenshot size and position #1509
• Intercept active window #1902

What I'd like everyone to do

• If you have other suggestions, post them as comments. We will discuss them, and if they can't be included into the existing proposal, I may ask you to open a new issue.
• Please vote for this post if you agree with the proposal.
• Vote for one of the suggested region formats
• If you prefer someone else's suggestion, vote for it

[veracioux]

Vote for the WxH+x+y format.

[veracioux]

Vote for the X,Y,W,H format.

[veracioux]

Vote for the WxH,x,y format.

[deragon]

Why settle for one format? You could easily support both last formats. It is obvious that any non digit is a separator. Thus a regex like (\d)+[^\d+](\d)+[^\d+](\d)+[^\d+](\d)+[^\d+] could easily extract all the formats using the order W H x y.

BTW, I do not find the first format X,Y,W,H more intuitive than the others, order wise.

[veracioux]

Why settle for one format? You could easily support both last formats.

Yeah, I did mention that in my post. Should have emphasized it more. We can support both formats with the --region option, but for --print-geometry we should settle with one.

Thanks for the regex.

[deragon]

Since WxH+x+y is used by other CLI tools (xrandr, imagemagick), it seams to have become a de-facto standard. Go for it.