s2

s2 (simple screenshot / suckless screenshots) is a keyboard-first screenshot annotation and redaction tool.

Build

make

Installation

Dependencies (Arch Linux)

sudo pacman -S libx11 libxft freetype2 libpng pango cairo harfbuzz xclip maim slop

Dependencies (generic Linux)

Install equivalents for:

• X11 development headers/libs (libX11)
• Xft + FreeType (libXft, freetype2)
• text shaping/rendering stack (pango, cairo, harfbuzz)
• PNG library (libpng)
• clipboard helper (xclip)
• optional capture workflow tools (maim, slop)

Build

make

Install to system

sudo make clean install

Install destination defaults to /usr/local/bin/s2 and can be changed in config.mk.

Suckless-style config flow

• config.h is generated from config.def.h during build.
• Edit config.h for local customization.
• Save defaults can be customized in config.h with default_save_directory.
• Tool defaults can be customized in config.h with default_palette_index, default_thickness_index, and default_text_scale.
• UI defaults can be customized in config.h with default_tool_index and selection_bbox_color.
• Before reinstalling after upstream changes, remove local config.h so defaults can refresh:

rm -f config.h
sudo make clean install

You can also run:

make distclean

Planned usage

maim -s | s2 -i -

Quick Start

maim -s | s2 -i -

• Ctrl+C: copy and exit
• Ctrl+S: save timestamped PNG and exit (prints saved absolute path)
• q / Esc: quit/cancel (non-zero exit)

Current controls

• Ctrl+C: copy rendered image to clipboard and exit success
• Ctrl+Y: copy current image to clipboard
• Ctrl+V: paste clipboard text only (text MIME); starts/appends text input
• Ctrl+S: save timestamped file to configured save directory (YYYY-MM-DDTHHMM.png)
• Enter: save and exit
• q or Esc: quit/cancel (returns non-zero)
• s: selection tool
• a: arrow tool
• l: line tool
• r: rectangle tool
• o: circle tool
• t: text tool
• h: highlight tool
• m: marker tool (freehand text highlighter: drag freely like the pen to highlight text)
• b: blur tool
• p: pen tool (freehand)
• n: number tool (auto-incrementing markers)
• x: pixelate tool
• c: color picker tool (sample from image)
• h/j/k/l or arrow keys: move keyboard cursor by 1px
• H/J/K/L: move keyboard cursor by 10px
• Space or left click: apply tool action
• [ / ]: thickness, text size, or pixelate block size
• [ / ] on highlight tool changes hl-strength (1..100)
• [ / ] on marker tool changes the highlight band height
• Ctrl+Z: undo last action
• Ctrl+Shift+Z: redo
• 1..9: select color from palette
• #: enter hex color mode (type 6 hex chars, Enter to apply)
• f: toggle fill mode (filled circles + text background with inverse contrast)
• X: cancel pending anchor or active pen/text input
• ?: toggle keybindings help panel
• Backspace/Delete: delete selected object(s)
• , / .: rotate selected object by 15° (counter/clockwise)
• < / >: rotate selected object by 1° (fine)

Text mode note:

• Pressing Esc while typing exits text input first; pressing Esc again then quits.

Tool flow:

• Arrow/Circle/Pixelate/Blur keyboard flow: first Space sets anchor, second Space commits.
• Arrow/Circle/Pixelate/Blur mouse flow: press sets anchor, release commits at current cursor.
• Text: click or Space enters text input mode; type with live preview; Enter or click commits text.
• Text live-preview: while typing, current text is previewed on image before commit.
• Picker: Space samples color under cursor into active color.
• Selection: click object to select (shows configurable bounding box), drag moves only the bbox preview until release, then commits object move. Hold Shift while dragging to constrain movement to a single axis.
• Marquee multi-selection: in select mode, drag from an empty area to draw a selection rectangle; every object whose bounding box is fully or partially inside the rectangle is selected. With multiple objects selected you can drag any of them to move the whole group, or press Backspace/Delete to remove them all at once.
• Rotation: when a shape or text object is selected, a small round handle appears above its bounding box. Drag the handle to rotate; hold Shift to snap to 45° increments. Keyboard ,/. and </> also rotate the selection.
• Marker: a freehand text highlighter (like the pen). The cursor becomes a text I-beam while the tool is active. A vertical guide at the cursor shows the band height (adjust with [ / ]). Press and drag along the text to lay down a semi-transparent stroke of that height in the selected color; the stroke follows your free movement and overlapping parts of a single stroke do not darken (single-blend highlighter look).
• Pen: click-hold and drag to draw freehand using current thickness. Both pen and marker paint live into the canvas as you drag.
• Number: each click places a filled numbered circle (1, 2, 3, ...) using current color; number size follows text-size.

CLI additions:

• -C <class> sets X11 WM_CLASS (instance/class) for window rules in WMs like dwm.
• -D <absdir> sets absolute save directory for Ctrl+S timestamp files (overrides config default).
• --normal-window uses X11 normal window type instead of the default dialog window type.

UI behavior:

• While placing any anchored tool (arrow, line, rect, circle, highlight, pixelate, blur), a rectangle guide is shown (plus a line guide for arrow/line), during both keyboard and mouse placement.
• Status is shown in a dedicated bottom bar (not drawn on top of the image).
• Window/status colors follow a best-effort light/dark preference detection from environment/X resources.
• Window resize scales image and all objects to fit window canvas.
• Editor enforces a minimum usable window size so very small captures remain operable.

config.def.h now includes font_name for text rendering defaults.

Text fill styling in config.def.h:

• text_fill_padding: background padding around filled text
• text_fill_corner_radius: rounded corner radius for filled text background
• window_padding: outer margin around canvas/status so bars stay visible at large sizes
• max_text_scale: max text size reachable with ] in text tool

Keyboard movement:

• Cursor movement now uses arrow keys only (Left/Right/Up/Down)