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
• 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)
• 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

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.
• Pen: click-hold and drag to draw freehand using current thickness.
• 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 dragging/selecting anchored tools, a rectangle guide is shown.
• 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)