This tutorial will look at five different ways of taking screenshots in Python. These will be saved to your computer as PNG files with the date on which they were taken at the front of the filename, so start by importing the built-in datetime module in order to get that value:

from datetime import date

today = date.today()

1 Using the Operating System

The first method technically doesn’t use Python but rather uses external programmes installed on the computer’s operating system. These are then invoked from inside Python. The main advantage to this method is that no Python packages are needed apart from ones that already come pre-installed, but a disadvantage is that the external programme that takes the screenshot needs to exist and work. For example, if you are on Linux you will need to install GNOME Screenshot which can be done from the terminal as follows:

sudo apt install gnome-screenshot

Here’s the Python code that invokes the external programmes via the operating system’s command line:

import os
import platform

# Linux
if platform.system() == 'Linux':
    os.system(f'gnome-screenshot -f "{str(today)} os - Whole Screen.png"')
    # The following will prompt the user to drag over an area of the screen
    os.system(f'gnome-screenshot -af "{str(today)} os - Region.png"')
# macOS
elif platform.system() == 'Darwin':
    os.system(f'screencapture "{str(today)} os - Whole Screen.png"')
    # The following will prompt the user to drag over an area of the screen
    os.system(f'screencapture -i "{str(today)} os - Region.png"')

2 Pillow

This next method uses Pillow, an image processing library. It can be installed from the terminal like so:

# "python3.12" should correspond to the version of Python you are using
python3.12 -m pip install pillow

…and it can be used in Python like so:

from PIL import ImageGrab

img = ImageGrab.grab()
img.save(str(today) + ' Pillow - Whole Screen.png')

img = ImageGrab.grab(bbox=(100, 100, 300, 300))
img.save(str(today) + ' Pillow - Region.png')

Note that Pillow is imported under the name PIL - something that is done to preserve backwards-compatibility with the older Python Imaging Library (PIL) package.

3 PyScreeze

Option 3 uses the PyScreeze package.

In the terminal:

# "python3.12" should correspond to the version of Python you are using
python3.12 -m pip install pyscreeze

In Python:

import pyscreeze

img = pyscreeze.screenshot()
img.save(str(today) + ' PyScreeze - Whole Screen.png')

img = pyscreeze.screenshot(region=(100, 100, 200, 200))
img.save(str(today) + ' PyScreeze - Region.png')

4 PyAutoGUI

4.1 macOS

On macOS, install PyAutoGUI from the terminal via the following:

# "python3.12" should correspond to the version of Python you are using
python3.12 -m pip install pyautogui

The above installs PyScreeze and Pillow in the background.

4.2 Ubuntu

On Ubuntu, PyAutoGUI does not yet, at the time of writing (2024-01-26), work in Python 3.12. If you try to use it you will produce the following error:

NOTE: You must install tkinter on Linux to use MouseInfo. Run the following:
sudo apt-get install python3-tk python3-dev

Frustratingly, running the suggested command to install the Tkinter programme on your machine will not solve the issue, nor will installing (or upgrading) the Tkinter Python package or the GNOME Screenshot programme:

# These will work but not solve the problem
python3.12 -m pip install tk
sudo apt install gnome-screenshot

Even if you import the Tkinter package into your Python script without error it will not guarantee success:

import tkinter

My suspicion is that Tkinter has not yet been released for Python 3.12; trying to install it specifically for this version does not work:

# Does not work
sudo apt-get install python3.12-tk

So just use Python 3.11 (or don’t use PyAutoGUI) for the time being:

python3.11 -m pip install pyautogui

4.3 The Code

import platform

# Check the version of Python you are using
python_version = platform.python_version_tuple()
minor_version = python_version[1]

if (platform.system() == 'Linux') and (minor_version == '12'):
    # As of 2024-01-26 this does not work in Python 3.12 on Ubuntu
    # (it does, however, work with Python 3.11 on Ubuntu)
    pass
else:
    import pyautogui

    img = pyautogui.screenshot()
    img.save(str(today) + ' PyAutoGUI - Whole Screen.png')

    img = pyautogui.screenshot(region=(100, 100, 200, 200))
    img.save(str(today) + ' PyAutoGUI - Region.png')

5 pyscreenshot

This library is supposedly obsolete but it still works and there are a few edge cases where it might even still be useful (eg Wayland support on Linux machines). So it is included here.