ImageGrab Module

The ImageGrab module can be used to copy the contents of the screen or the clipboard to a PIL image memory.

Added in version 1.1.3.

PIL.ImageGrab.grab(bbox=None, include_layered_windows=False, all_screens=False, xdisplay=None, window=None)[source]

Take a snapshot of the screen. The pixels inside the bounding box are returned as an “RGBA” on macOS, or an “RGB” image otherwise. If the bounding box is omitted, the entire screen is copied, and on macOS, it will be at 2x if on a Retina screen.

On Linux, if xdisplay is None and the default X11 display does not return a snapshot of the screen, gnome-screenshot or spectacle will be used as a fallback if they are installed. To disable this behaviour, pass xdisplay="" instead.

Added in version 1.1.3: (Windows), 3.0.0 (macOS), 7.1.0 (Linux)

Parameters:

  • bbox – What region to copy. Default is the entire screen. On macOS, this is not increased to 2x for Retina screens, so the full width of a Retina screen would be 1440, not 2880. On Windows, the top-left point may be negative if all_screens=True is used.

  • include_layered_windows –

    Includes layered windows. Windows OS only.

    Added in version 6.1.0.

  • all_screens –

    Capture all monitors. Windows OS only.

    Added in version 6.2.0.

  • xdisplay –

    X11 Display address. Pass None to grab the default system screen. Pass "" to grab the default X11 screen on Windows or macOS.

    You can check X11 support using PIL.features.check_feature() with feature="xcb".

    Added in version 7.1.0.

  • window –

    HWND, to capture a single window. Windows only.

    Added in version 11.2.1.

Returns:

An image

PIL.ImageGrab.grabclipboard()[source]

Take a snapshot of the clipboard image, if any.

On Linux, wl-paste or xclip is required.

Added in version 1.1.4: (Windows), 3.3.0 (macOS), 9.4.0 (Linux)

Returns:

On Windows, an image, a list of filenames, or None if the clipboard does not contain image data or filenames. Note that if a list is returned, the filenames may not represent image files.

On Mac, an image, or None if the clipboard does not contain image data.

On Linux, an image.