Unisic
Unisic is a free, open-source screenshot and screen-recording tool for Linux systems using Wayland.
What Unisic is
Unisic is a free, open-source screenshot and screen-recording tool for Linux systems using Wayland. It captures full screens, regions, or active windows, with annotations available on the selection overlay before capture. Its editor has 15 tools, including highlighting, pixelation, a smart eraser, callouts, measurement, numbered steps, and cropping, plus undo, redo, and zoom. Users can upload captures to custom HTTP destinations, imported ShareX uploaders, FTP or SFTP servers, and built-in hosts. OCR can copy text from a screen region or selected words, and the tool can decode QR codes and barcodes. Recording supports GIF, MP4, or WebM, with optional system, microphone, or single-app audio. Instant replay buffers the previous 30 seconds, and recordings can be trimmed from the notification card. Captures are kept in a thumbnail history with options to star, pin, or drag them into another app. Unisic requires a Wayland session with xdg-desktop-portal; recording also needs PipeWire and ffmpeg, while OCR needs Tesseract and a language pack. Its site says it has no telemetry or accounts.
Good
- Captures screens, regions, and active windows
- 15 editor tools, including measurement and crop
- Records GIF, MP4, or WebM
- Supports OCR and QR or barcode decoding
- Free and open source under GPL-3.0
Watch out
- Requires a Wayland session and xdg-desktop-portal
- Recording needs PipeWire and ffmpeg
- OCR needs Tesseract and a language pack
Who it suits
Unisic is for Linux users with a Wayland session who need screenshots, screen recordings, annotation, or OCR. It may suit users who want to choose from multiple upload destinations or installation options.
Verdict
Unisic brings capture, editing, recording, OCR, and sharing tools together for Wayland desktops. Check its requirements first, especially if you need recording or OCR.
Plans and prices
From Unisic's own pricing page, checked 11 Oct 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | Free and open source · GNU GPL v3 |
The facts
Each one read from Unisic's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- Capture
- It captures full screens, regions, and active windows, and supports annotation on the selection overlay before capture.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Capture and annotation
- It supports full-screen, region, and window capture, with annotations drawn on the frozen selection overlay before capture.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Compositor support
- The site describes capture support for KDE Plasma, GNOME and other desktops, and niri and wlroots compositors.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Distribution
- The site lists Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, Arch, Nix, and AppImage installation options.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Distribution options
- The maker documents installation through distro repositories, Nix, direct downloads, or building from source.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Editor
- The editor has 15 tools, including highlight, pixelate, smart eraser, callout, measure, numbered steps, and crop, plus undo, redo, and zoom.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Export formats
- PNG, JPG, WebPchecked 20 Sep 2026
- History
- Captures appear in a thumbnail history where users can star favorites, pin previews, or drag thumbnails into another app.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Instant replay
- Instant replay buffers the last 30 seconds, and recordings can be trimmed from the notification card.checked 11 Oct 2026
- License
- Unisic is free and open source under GPL-3.0.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Measurement tools
- Yeschecked 20 Sep 2026
- OCR
- It can copy OCR text from a screen region, select words in the editor to copy, highlight, or redact, and decode QR codes.checked 11 Oct 2026
- OCR and codes
- OCR can copy text from a region or individual words, and QR or barcodes can be decoded to their payload.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Privacy
- The maker says Unisic has no telemetry, crash reporting, analytics, or accounts; its own network requests check GitHub for newer releases, and uploads occur only when triggered by the user.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Product
- Unisic is an open-source screenshot tool and screen recorder for Linux, built for Wayland.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Recording
- It records a region, full screen, or window as GIF or MP4/WebM video, with optional system and microphone audio and instant replay.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Redaction tools
- Yeschecked 20 Sep 2026
- Requirements
- It requires a Wayland session with xdg-desktop-portal; recording also requires PipeWire and ffmpeg.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Sharing
- Upload options include custom HTTP destinations, imported ShareX uploaders, FTP, SFTP, and built-in hosts.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Support
- The maker directs users to report bugs and request features through GitHub Issues, including desktop, compositor, GPU, and logs for problem reports.checked 11 Oct 2026
- System requirements
- It requires a Wayland session with xdg-desktop-portal and a backend; recording additionally needs PipeWire and ffmpeg, while OCR needs Tesseract and a language pack.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Upload destinations
- It supports custom HTTP destinations, imported ShareX uploaders, FTP/SFTP, and built-in hosts; the resulting link is copied to the clipboard.checked 11 Oct 2026
- What it does
- Unisic is an open-source screenshot and screen recorder for Linux, built for Wayland.checked 11 Oct 2026
Money
- Free plan
- Yeschecked 20 Sep 2026
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