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; the same values can be edited in 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                    # open a launcher with an Open Image button
tensaku photo.jpg          # annotate an existing image
tensaku --filename photo.jpg  # the original -f/--filename syntax also works

To annotate an image from the Wayland clipboard, pipe its image data to stdin:

wl-paste --type image/png | tensaku -
# Equivalent, including on older releases:
wl-paste --type image/png | tensaku --filename -

The clipboard must contain an image, rather than copied text or a filename. Use wl-paste --list-types to check the available formats; substitute --type image/jpeg if that is the image format offered by the clipboard. The - input accepts encoded image data from any command, for example cat screenshot.png | tensaku -. Input from stdin is explicit: running tensaku with no image argument always opens the launcher.

Tensaku resolves its settings from two layers:

• config.toml — the persistent source of truth, normally at ~/.config/tensaku/config.toml (see Configuration File). You can edit it by hand or use the Preferences dialog; Preferences updates only the relevant keys and preserves unrelated settings and comments.
• Command-line flags — supply startup overrides for one invocation and are never written back automatically (see Command Line). If you explicitly change the corresponding control in Preferences during that run, that live edit takes effect and is saved to config.toml.

~/.local/state/tensaku/state.toml is reserved for incidental editor state such as the last color, custom colors, saved per-tool sizes/fills, panel width, and the compositor-managed global scroll-capture shortcut. It is not a second preference layer.

Shortcuts

• Enter: as configured (see below), default: copy-to-clipboard (may be masked by active tool)
• Esc: as configured (see below), default: no global close action (active tools can still use Esc to cancel)
• 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

Save As keeps the input image's format when an encoder is available: opening photo.jpg suggests photo-edited.jpg, and entering abc saves abc.jpg. The configured output filename takes precedence when set. Captures default to PNG; stdin input uses its detected format and an untitled name. Inputs without a supported encoder, such as GIF or SVG, default to PNG.

To convert an image, enter a different extension or choose File type in Save As. PNG, JPEG, WebP, AVIF, TIFF, and BMP are offered when the system can encode them. Automatic (from filename) uses the extension you enter, or the document's default if you omit it. Choosing a specific type overrides the extension and corrects the filename. If that correction targets an existing file, Tensaku asks before replacing it. JPEG uses quality 95; transparent areas are flattened onto white for JPEG and BMP.

The same conversion works with --output-filename: for example, tensaku photo.jpg --output-filename photo-edited.webp, then Ctrl+S. Clipboard copies and --output-filename - (stdout) continue to use PNG. Saved images and clipboard copies omit selection handles, selection glow, and text-editing decorations. Selecting an annotation does not change the exported image.

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 }
# Resize the editor window to follow cropped content. This is on by default;
# set false to keep the current editor window size while cropping.
resize-window-to-content-on-crop = true
# Clip annotations at the current image/crop edges instead of growing the canvas.
# Also available in Preferences as "Keep canvas size fixed". Off by default.
fixed-canvas = false
# 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
# Legacy shorthand for closing after both copy and save. The two direct
# settings below take precedence when present. Does not apply to Save As.
early-exit = false
# Preferences-backed behavior settings (shown here with their defaults)
close-on-esc = false
close-on-copy = false
close-on-save = false
hide-default-palette = false
sticky-session-defaults = false
# Key pressed in the scroll-capture overlay (before capture starts) to reselect
# the previous capture's region ("r", "ctrl+r", "f6", ... — empty disables)
scroll-capture-restore-region-shortcut = "r"
# 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
# The extension selects the image format; no extension uses the input format (PNG for captures).
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). Window closing is
# normally controlled by close-on-esc above.
# [possible values: save-to-clipboard, save-to-file, save-to-file-as, copy-filepath-to-clipboard, exit]
actions-on-escape = []
# 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. The Preferences dialog edits this same
# table. Use an empty string to leave a tool intentionally unbound.
[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 three parts:

• Keyboard Shortcuts — a recorder row for every tool, Spotlight included. Click a row, press a key, then Save to update [keybinds] (or Cancel to discard).
• Scroll Capture — record the global scroll-capture shortcut.
• Behavior — settings that apply immediately: the annotation size factor, close window on Esc/copy/save, whether the editor window resizes to cropped content, hide the default palette colors, and keep in-session tool adjustments across tool switches.

Every tool shortcut and Behavior/Scroll Capture checkbox shown here reads from and writes to the active configuration file: the path passed to --config, or ~/.config/tensaku/config.toml. The writer changes only the relevant keys, preserving comments, formatting, and unrelated tables. The sole exception is the global scroll-capture shortcut, which stays in state.toml because Tensaku also mirrors it into Hyprland's live and persisted binding state.

Resize window to content on crop maps directly to [general] resize-window-to-content-on-crop. It is checked / true by default. Uncheck it to keep the editor window at its current size for crop-only changes; the cropped image still fits inside that unchanged window.

Keep canvas size fixed maps to [general] fixed-canvas and is off by default. Enable it in Preferences to clip annotations at the current image or committed crop edges, both in the editor and when exporting. Annotations keep their full geometry: moving them back inside reveals the clipped portions. The setting applies immediately and persists across launches; it does not undo canvas expansion that already happened. Explicit cropping still works normally.

With automatic growth enabled, annotations can extend onto a neutral dark gray background. The screenshot keeps its original edges, with a soft drop shadow around it. Text wraps at the image edge while typing; after you finish editing, dragging preserves those line breaks and expands the canvas to fit the full block.

On the first launch after upgrading, Tensaku migrates old Preferences values from state.toml into missing config.toml keys. Explicit config values always win. Once migration succeeds, those legacy preference fields are removed from state so the two files cannot silently disagree.

Command Line

» tensaku --help
Modern Screenshot Annotation.

Usage: tensaku [OPTIONS] [IMAGE]

Arguments:
  [IMAGE]  Path to input image or '-' to read from stdin. Omit to open the file launcher

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
          Reinstall the Omarchy screenshot wrapper (~/.local/bin/tensaku-edit), then exit. Intended for cargo/manual installs and legacy recovery; current Omarchy package installs need no setup
      --wire-omarchy
          Legacy/custom Omarchy override: point its screenshot editor at the tensaku-edit wrapper and add old-style float + center rules, then exit. Current Omarchy already supplies these defaults and needs no wiring
      --wire-capture-key [<KEY>]
          Bind a key to Tensaku's own capture overlay (drag a region, Space snaps to a window, F for the whole screen, S for scrolling), replacing Omarchy's grim+slurp screenshot, then exit. Defaults to Print Screen; pass a Hyprland key spec to use another, e.g. --wire-capture-key "SUPER + SHIFT + S"
  -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 real mouse-wheel injection used by Auto-Scroll. Sends three wheel notches beneath the current pointer
      --scroll-capture
          Enter scrolling-screenshot capture mode: opens a fullscreen overlay, drag to select a region, then capture by manual scroll or auto-scroll
      --capture
          Choose what to capture, then edit it: a fullscreen overlay where you drag a region, press Space to snap to a window, F for the whole screen, or S to switch to scrolling capture
      --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; its extension selects the image format. Use '-' to print PNG 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

Current Omarchy needs no Tensaku setup step. It installs Tensaku, uses tensaku-edit as the default editor for omarchy-capture-screenshot, and ships the float + center window rules Tensaku needs. The Tensaku package provides the tensaku-edit adapter that translates Omarchy's positional image path into Tensaku's command-line flags.

OMARCHY_SCREENSHOT_EDITOR remains an optional user override; leaving it unset uses Omarchy's Tensaku default. The --install-omarchy-wrapper and --wire-omarchy commands remain available for manual installs and older or heavily customized Omarchy setups, but normal package installs should not run them. tensaku --doctor recognizes the stock default as ready.

Tensaku's own capture replaces omarchy-capture-screenshot for anyone who would rather choose the mode after pressing the key than before it. Omarchy's screenshot binding runs grim+slurp, whose region selector has already answered by the time you decide you wanted the whole screen instead:

tensaku --wire-capture-key                        # Print Screen
tensaku --wire-capture-key "SUPER + SHIFT + S"    # or a key of your choosing

That installs a ~/.local/bin/tensaku-capture wrapper and writes an unbind plus a bind for the key into ~/.config/hypr/local.lua — the one file Omarchy never refreshes — backing the file up first and reloading Hyprland. Pressing the key opens the overlay: drag a region, Space snaps to the window under the pointer, F takes the whole screen, S switches to a scrolling capture. It is opt-in and separate from --wire-omarchy, which only redirects where an existing screenshot lands. tensaku --doctor reports which key, if any, is wired.

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

While the region is selected, the page showing through it still receives your pointer and keyboard whenever the cursor is over it — scroll or press Home/PageUp there to line the content up before capturing. Move the cursor outside the region (or onto a handle or button) and the overlay takes the keyboard back for Esc, the restore key, and dragging a new region. After selecting the scrolling region, choose Manual Scroll to use your wheel, touchpad, or scrolling keys, or choose an Auto-Scroll arrow. The automatic path sends real mouse-wheel events and waits for each captured frame before moving again. Click Done when manual capture is complete. Manual Scroll never moves your pointer — scroll with it anywhere inside the selection. Auto-Scroll places the pointer once, near the selection's lower-right edge (usually empty gutter, clear of links and hover popups), and it is yours again from then on. In either mode, moving the pointer out of the selection pauses the capture — sampling and auto-scrolling hold until you move it back inside, so reaching for Cancel/Done or pausing to do something else never captures or scrolls anything you didn't ask for. After manual content stops changing for two seconds, the capture pill shakes and highlights Done as a cue; scrolling again clears and rearms it. Duplicate frames are ignored. When similar-looking rows make an automatic stitch ambiguous, Tensaku makes one smaller confirmation scroll and keeps going when the adjacent frames or cumulative motion provide a valid forward path. Repeated content by itself never interrupts capture. Tensaku pauses only after it genuinely loses alignment; then you can Continue manually, Continue anyway, or Finish here. Continuing anyway can repeat or skip content, so the editor displays a warning for captures that contain an unverified seam.

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.

Current Omarchy already ships direct float + center rules for dev.tensaku.Tensaku and does not apply its fixed-size floating tag to the app. No local rule or --wire-omarchy step is needed there.

On another Hyprland setup, make sure Tensaku is floated and centered without a hard-coded size. For example:

windowrule = float on,             match:class dev.tensaku.Tensaku
windowrule = center on,            match:class dev.tensaku.Tensaku

Then reload Hyprland. The next screenshot will open at the right size.

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.