A very fast cross-platform multiple screenshots module in pure python using ctypes

Very basic, it will grab one screen shot by monitor or a screen shot of all monitors and save it to a PNG file, Python 2.6/3.5 compatible & PEP8 compliant. It could be easily embedded into games and other softwares which require fast and plateforme optimized methods to grab screenshots.

MSS stands for Multiple ScreenShots.

It's under zlib licence.

Installation

You can install it with pip:

pip install --upgrade mss

Support

Python	GNU/linux	MacOS X	Windows
3.5.0a3	True	True	True
3.4.3	True	True	True
3.3.6	True	True	True
3.2.6	True	True	True
3.1.5	True	True	True
3.0.1	True	True	True
2.7.9	True	True	True
2.6.9	True	True	True

Feel free to try MSS on a system we had not tested, and let report us by creating an issue.

Testing

You can try the MSS module directly from the console:

python mss.py

Instance the good class

So MSS can be used as simply as:

from mss import mss
screenshotter = mss()

Or import the good one:

from mss import MSSLinux as mss
screenshotter = mss()

save(output, screen, callback)

For each monitor, grab a screenshot and save it to a file.

Parameters:

output - string - the output filename. It can contain '%d' which
                  will be replaced by the monitor number.
screen - integer - grab one screenshot of all monitors (screen=-1)
                   grab one screenshot by monitor (screen=0)
                   grab the screenshot of the monitor N (screen=N)
callback - function - in case where output already exists, call
                      the defined callback function with output
                      as parameter. If it returns True, then
                      continue; else ignores the monitor and
                      switches to ne next.

This is a generator which returns created files.

Examples

One screenshot per monitor:

for filename in screenshotter.save():
    print(filename)

Screenshot of the monitor 1:

for filename in screenshotter.save(screen=1):
    print(filename)

Screenshot of the monitor 1, with callback:

def on_exists(fname):
    ''' Callback example when we try to overwrite an existing
        screenshot.
    '''
    from os import rename
    from os.path import isfile
    if isfile(fname):
        newfile = fname + '.old'
        print('{0} -> {1}'.format(fname, newfile))
        rename(fname, newfile)
    return True

for filename in screenshotter.save(screen=1, callback=on_exists):
    print(filename)

A screenshot to grab them all:

for filename in screenshotter.save(output='fullscreen-shot.png', screen=-1):
    print(filename)