Take screenshot of the entire desktop using Mathematica

Is it possible to get a screenshot of the entire desktop directly in Mathematica?

I am on Ubuntu running Mathematica 8. For some reason GUIScreenShot[] fails. But something like GUIScreenShot[{{0, 500}, {0, 500}}] works

It is strange that in the reference

GUIScreenShot[]


is given as an example (last one), with the caption Capture the entire screen:. But when I copy it and paste it in a notebook, it expects a parameter! (I have included the code Needs["GUIKit"])

I get the error as shown in this image

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I am trying to automate a simple game (!). So grabbing it using an external program, then saving it as a file and importing the file again from within Mathematica is a tedious job (if not realtime). Also I am not sure if I can pipe the output of a program as input to Mathematica (I could not find a way to get it done with Run[] command! - i.e. the piping large output from external program) –  my account_ram Aug 11 '12 at 23:16
GUIScreenShot[] works here (Win XP) –  belisarius Aug 11 '12 at 23:34
GUIScreenShot[] doesn't work for me (Arch Linux), it spits this error message on the terminal. Looks like a Linux issue... –  Renan Aug 12 '12 at 0:14
It works fine on my win7_x64 and mma8.0.4 (although a syntax indicator). Didn't know this function before. Very helpful! Thanks and +1! –  Silvia Aug 12 '12 at 6:52
GUIScreenShot[] works in version 7 under Windows 7. –  Mr.Wizard Aug 12 '12 at 7:55
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GUIScreenShot[] (without arguments) works perfectly fine on my Mac, although the front end syntax highlighter indicates a missing argument. As a workaround, you can explicitly give it the dimensions of your screen so that all of it is captured. Here's how you can programmatically get your screen size and use it:

Needs["GUIKit"]
GUIScreenShot["FullScreenArea" /. Flatten@SystemInformation["Devices", "ScreenInformation"]]

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This does not seem to work on Ubuntu .. Can any1 confirm this ... –  my account_ram Aug 12 '12 at 0:58
@myaccount_ram I'm having the same problem, but with Arch Linux. –  Renan Aug 12 '12 at 4:00
@myaccount_ram It doesn't work on Fedora. –  b.gatessucks Aug 12 '12 at 7:34
I got ** Raster data contains 0 values per pixel; 3 or 4 are required with ColorFunction->RGBColor** under Linux 64. –  Fred Kline Aug 12 '12 at 20:39
@everyone: The issue seems to be something related to linux and not Mathematica. I would've helped if I could, but I don't have a license to use on my Linux machine. –  rm -rf Aug 13 '12 at 1:53
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Confirming @R.M's answer (WinXP, Mac OSX 10.8)

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why not a comment? Also, why are you hiding your porn tabs? ;) –  rm -rf Aug 11 '12 at 23:44
@rm -rf The porn tabs are there ... look again –  belisarius Aug 11 '12 at 23:45
@belisarius Nest[GUIScreenShot[], "", 10] –  s0rce Aug 12 '12 at 3:29
@belisarius It's not a Droste effect until it is. –  rm -rf Aug 12 '12 at 11:57
The Droste Effect: Dynamic[Export["C:\\droste.png", GUIScreenShot[]]; Style[GUIScreenShot[], Magnification -> 1], UpdateInterval -> 3]. When the Dynamic object is not visible, it is not updated (it is sufficient just to reduce the Mathematica window). –  Alexey Popkov Aug 12 '12 at 18:33
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