Gradia is a screenshot annotation tool for Gnome, a desktop environment on Linux. It complements the built-in screenshot tool, or can annotate existing files.

By default, the project only ships Flatpack or Snaps, which are not terribly convenient on Debian. Here is how to build the package locally, on Debian Trixie (v13).

Dev dependencies

First, install the required dependencies:

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apt install meson ninja-build libgtk-4-dev libadwaita-1-dev libgtksourceview-5-dev gir1.2-gtk-4.0 gir1.2-xdp-1.0 python3-gi python-gi-dev python3-pil libportal-gtk4-1 tesseract-ocr blueprint-compiler

And install this package from Debian development (SID):

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wget http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/p/pytesseract/python3-pytesseract_0.3.13+git20250218.df9fce0-1_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i python3-pytesseract_0.3.13+git20250218.df9fce0-1_all.deb

(of fetch the latest python3-pytesseract version for Debian here)

Fetch the git repo

Next, clone the Git repository:

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cd /tmp/
git clone https://github.com/AlexanderVanhee/Gradia.git
cd Gradia

Build

Configure with Meson:

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meson setup builddir --prefix=/usr/local

Build:

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ninja -C builddir

Install:

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sudo ninja -C builddir install

Keyboard shortcut

And then you can associate a keyboard shortcut to take a screenshot with Gradia:

  • Go to the Gnome Settings → Keyboard → View and Customize Shortcuts → Custom Shortcuts.
  • Name: Gradia Screenshot (for example)
  • Command: gradia --screenshot=INTERACTIVE
  • Shortcut: I use Super+Print, so that the built-in screenshot option is still available

Note that in Gnome settings, clicking the “X” on the dialog will save your settings. There is no save button.