Take, crop and share a screenshot

manish · March 20, 2020, 12:06pm

Mission:

Learn to take a screenshot and crop it, if required. Also, share it over IM app or email.

Prerequisites:

A phone with /e/OS
Email or IM application or any other medium to share your screenshot

Let’s roll.

1. Take a screenshot

Open or navigate to desired application or screen that you wish to take a screenshot of. For instance, I have to screenshot Firefox Lockwise (a password manager by Mozilla) page from /e/ Apps Store.

What I desire to screenshot is list of ‘Trackers’ embedded in this App. Scroll down and tap on Trackers to see the list. It opens.

Now you press and hold the physical Power Button on your phone until a side-Menu appears, tap Screenshot there to take one as shown in the image above. Alternately, you can also take a quick screenshot by pressing Vol down and Power Button at the same time.

2. Crop a screenshot [Optional]

At times, you wish to share a selected area from a screenshot. You can quickly edit a screenshot to crop it. Once you take a screenshot, you see a notification regarding the same with available options viz. Share, Edit and Delete.

Tap on Edit to select Crop function which is 3rd option in the button Menu of the built-in image editor.

Select Crop again from sub-menu to mark the area to be cropped from a screenshot, now tap on ‘Tick’ icon in the bottom-right of the screen to display the cropped image.

Tap Save from top-right to finish cropping.

3. Share a screenshot

You can quickly share a screenshot right from the notification tray when you first take a screenshot by selecting ‘Share’ or edit it and then open it to tap on Share from bottom of the image viewer.

Following is the set of sharing options that you see on your phone depending on what Apps are installed:

3a. Share over email

Once you select to a screenshot to ‘Share’, tap on Mail and it would automatically use the default email account and annex your screenshot thereto. Enter the recipient’s email to send the screenshot.

3b. Share over IM like Telegram

Once you select to a screenshot to ‘Share’, tap on your favorite IM app like Telegram or Rocket.chat or whatever it is. In the following images as an example, Telegram is used.

You select a receipt or more.

Tap on Send button from bottom right to share the screenshot.

Thanks for reading!

Regain your privacy! Adopt /e/ the unGoogled mobile OS and online services phone

harvey186 · March 20, 2020, 2:10pm

There is an easier way. Make a long press on screenshot icon and you can select which part should be recorded

manish · March 20, 2020, 2:15pm

I know but not as reliable for a newbie. Plus with cases and covers, it isn’t as precise, I believe.

jpmeuret · March 20, 2020, 2:23pm

Thanks for sharing.
But no such “Edit” option for me on step 2 (Oreo) : only “Share” and “Suppress”.
Is it specific to Pie ?
Is there something to unlock somewhere in the settings (like the ScreenShot button on long Power button press) ?

manish · March 20, 2020, 2:30pm

Yes, these steps been tested on Android Pie only.

jpmeuret · March 20, 2020, 2:37pm

Thanks … may be you could add this detail to the prerequisites, as we don’t enjoy Pie yet all of us from far ?

manish · March 20, 2020, 2:54pm

Sure, but eventually or in immediate future, we all are moving to Pie or more recent builds AFAIK. Kindly bear with me until then.

Roger · August 20, 2020, 11:33am

I am puzzled. When I hold down power button I only See: power off and restart. No Screenshot. When I press Volume down and power on nothing happens. I am using a Xiaomi Redmi 4x with santorini. Did I Miss some settings?

harvey186 · August 20, 2020, 1:16pm

you have to enable ‘advanced Power menu’ in developer options

Roger · August 20, 2020, 1:37pm

@harvey186: THX. It worked.

Klaus · March 12, 2021, 11:17am

In my version 0.14 it was in Settings->System->Buttons->On/Off-Menue (translated from German)

coffeecraig · March 31, 2021, 1:48pm

I was struggling to take a screenshot as I am new to /e/, I searched for ‘screenshot’ in settings, only 1 option came up and it said ‘Screenshot’ I tapped on that and it opened ‘Power Menu’.
Here you can select Screenshot as one of the options that pops up when you hold the power button.

Manoj · March 31, 2021, 11:21pm

On my device (s) I can get a screenshot by pressing Volume - and Power
I have default setting on this phone and
Settings > System > Buttons > Power menu > screenshot is enabled

Daddy · April 1, 2021, 11:43am

It worked like this on Oreo 0.14.
After update 0.15 I don’t get notification or the option to edit or share any more. The screenshot is saved to the gallery directly.