3 Best Apps to Record Screen in Linux|Capture Screen Videos / Screencast in Linux easily! Ubuntu,Fedora,LinuxMint,ArchLinux etc
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Recently, i had to record some tutorials on my linux machine, but i found out that there are only a few rare options to record screencasts [screen videos ]in Linux / Ubuntu [LinuxMint is based on Ubuntu] , hence i came up with these three Best and Awesome apps to record screen linux . These apps are easy to use and easy to install as well plus they work on all major linux distros such as Ubuntu/LinuxMint/Fedora/ArchLinux etc. Let’s have a look on each one of them one by one.
App 1 . Kazam Screencaster
This app may be called as the best screencast recorder or Screen video Recorder for Linux ! I found out some really interesting features of the app such as
- Kazam is really very easy to install and setup .It is available on almost all linux repositories i tested it from Ubuntu 11.04 to Ubuntu 14.10 . Simply type the “sudo apt-get install kazam” if you are using Ubuntu based distro such as Ubuntu/LinuxMint/etc or “pacman kazam” or any package get command according to your distro , kazam will be surely there!
- It also enables to select the area to be recorded be it a particular window/particular screen area or complete screen! Kazam allows it all.
- Its really lightweight and works superbly on my Virtual Machine too.
- You can check out the Download Instructions[Steps]/Working Demo / Tutorial for Kazam here.
App 2. Simple Screen Recorder
SimpleScreen Recorder is yet another fantastic App for recording screencasts on Ubuntu , it allows easy recording and is based on qt , thus works very smoothly , some of its unique features include
- Record OpenGL apps directly, without any extra required codecs/filters.
- Automatically reduces frame rate on slow computers.
- Pause/Resume the Video recording anytime.
- Optional audio recording , if audio is not the Priority.
- Specify the Codecs / Encoding to be Used for Recording the video.
- Not only this, but the main app lets you keep an eye on the increasing file size, memory size,frame rate,time,thus enhancing the usability !
To install SimpleScreenRecorder on your Linux/Ubuntu enter the following commands in the Terminal
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:maarten-baert/simplescreenrecordersudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install simplescreenrecorder
If you are using Fedora or any other distros you can get the Pre-built builds from here .
App 3 . RecordMyDesktop
This app “RecordMyDesktop” is yet another Free Screen Recorder / Screencasting app for Linux , It also supports recording the Screen in various Video Formats and sizes as well as window recording . The App also supports pausing and resuming the recording of Screencast ., but the only drawback was its lag on the Virtual Machine, thus indicating its more hardware dependent , but overall its another small size tool which can be used for Recording Screen.
RecordMyDesktop can be downloaded from the Default app Directory / App Center of Ubuntu/Arch/Fedora. If not available,you can use the command
“sudo apt-get install recordmydesktop” from the terminal to download and install RecordMyDesktop
Besides these three you can also use tools such as “DemoRecorder – Linux”[Adware], “Xvidcap” [Works on 32bit Distros Only],”VLC”,”ffmpeg”[lag in UI] to capture the ScreenVideos or Screencasts but because of the Bracketed Cons i don’t recommend them,If you encounter any problem while downloading/installing/using any of the apps mentioned, feel free to comment :) and also if you know of another screencaster app for Linux, Do let us know !
Maybe i am an ungrateful wretch but with their bloated outputs they are pretty much useless for their primary purpose which is to make video tutorials, this and Flash are the two areas where GNU/Linux comes out a poor third.
Hello Sinai, well i partly agree to you, but we can reduce the bloated outputs if we use the proper codec format to record videos 🙂
Hi Chaitanya, Thanks for the reply, i wasn’t expecting one so i didn’t get back to you earlier. I couldn’t find any option to choose the codecs or alternate file format to save the recording in. I am using LMDE 2 now, btw. Will have a go at Kazam and let you know how it goes. 🙂
Wow, the difference is amazing, a 4min.32sec. recording came to just 10.3 MB. Next step, look for video format converter and/or compressor. Thanks Chaitanya, you are peach! 🙂
RecordMyDesktop is nice quality 🙂
For local recording i suggest to not allow frame skip.
unfortunately produced corrupted files for me a couple of times 🙁
Thanks, Kazam works great.
Hey! Look Im on RH Oracle Linux 6 x86_64 I need to record both the screen video on a webcam and the audio from an USB mic. I used to do it with Win 81 and camtasia but I had to swith to bare metal install etc My webcam driver works fine (Im impressed btw) so I only need the Linux tool .. any clues or ideas? bet regards
Donot go for kazam, it creates video without audio and extension are .movie which will not play anywhere
Hi MtArun, well kazam does support custom video formats in its configuration settings and audio is recorded too once the audio setting is enabled from the settings. 🙂
Im trying to make some gaming videos with kazam, but when ive recorded a video i cant find it anywhere. Someone, please tell me should i save it manually (if so then how) or what is the folder where kazam saves all screencasts.
Thanks very useful tips.
Good to know these screen recording tools and thanks for the sharing. I always create screencast with a web-based software calls Acethinker Online Screen Recorder, free and works fairly well. It is an online tool that lets you record your screen right from the browser.