QuickSnip

A simple paint tool for GNOME/Linux to quickly annotate images from your clipboard.

Features

• Paste images from clipboard
• Draw annotations with a red pen
• Zoom in/out with Ctrl + scroll wheel
• Copy annotated image back to clipboard
• Save as PNG

Installation

Requirements

• Python 3
• PyGObject
• GTK 3
• cairo (PyCairo)

Install dependencies

# Fedora
sudo dnf install python3-gobject gtk3 cairo-gobject

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install python3-gi gir1.2-gtk-3.0 python3-cairo

# Arch
sudo pacman -S python-gobject gtk3 cairo

Install Python dependencies:

pip install PyGObject

File manager integration (optional)

To make QuickSnip show up in the "Open With" menu for image files in Files (Nautilus), save the following to ~/.local/share/applications/quicksnip.desktop, replacing the two /path/to/... lines with wherever you cloned the repo:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=QuickSnip
Comment=Quickly annotate images from your clipboard
Exec=/path/to/quicksnip.py %f
Icon=/path/to/screenshot.png
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Graphics;Utility;
MimeType=image/png;image/jpeg;image/gif;image/bmp;image/webp;image/tiff;
Keywords=Screenshot;Annotate;Paint;
StartupNotify=true

Make the script executable and refresh the desktop database:

chmod +x /path/to/quicksnip.py
update-desktop-database ~/.local/share/applications/

QuickSnip will then appear under "Open With Other Application" for common image types. This does not change the default image viewer.

Usage

python3 quicksnip.py                      # Start empty, paste image later
python3 quicksnip.py /path/to/image.png   # Open an image file directly

Controls

Action	Input
Paste image	Ctrl+V or click "Paste"
Draw	Left-click + drag
Zoom in/out	Ctrl + scroll wheel
Copy to clipboard	Ctrl+C or click "Copy"
Save as PNG	Ctrl+S or click "Save"
Clear canvas	ESC or click "Clear"

Workflow

1. Take a screenshot or copy any image to your clipboard
2. Open QuickSnip
3. Paste the image (Ctrl+V)
4. Draw your annotations
5. Copy (Ctrl+C) or save (Ctrl+S)

License

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2024

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.