Bug 505818 - Spectacle can no longer read QR codes when launched normally
Summary: Spectacle can no longer read QR codes when launched normally
Status: RESOLVED NOT A BUG
Alias: None
Product: Spectacle
Classification: Applications
Component: General (other bugs)
Version First Reported In: 6.4.0
Platform: Other Linux
: NOR wishlist
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Noah Davis
URL:
Keywords:
: 506365 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2025-06-20 03:26 UTC by Greeniac
Modified: 2025-07-03 21:10 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

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Description Greeniac 2025-06-20 03:26:10 UTC
SUMMARY
Spectacle can only read QR codes when launched as a window, but right now the default is that it launches in the rectangle select mode, and reading QR codes is no longer possible unless manually launch it as a window as far as i know.

A sollution is to add a feature the scans the QR code if it's within the boundaries of the rectangle selection.
Comment 1 Filip 2025-06-30 11:29:09 UTC
*** Bug 506365 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 2 Noah Davis 2025-07-03 12:48:30 UTC
Unfortunately, I cannot reproduce this. If I press PrintScreen to open Spectacle in rectangle mode (default) and press Enter to accept the screenshot, I get a viewer window with the screenshot. If the screenshot contains a QR code, a banner above the image appears with info about the QR code's contents.

Nate, I see you marked this as confirmed. How did you confirm it?
Comment 3 Antti Savolainen 2025-07-03 12:58:57 UTC
Huh, neat. I didn't notice that since there was no hint in the UI that spectacle was capable of that. However if I press Super+Shift+PrintScr, there is no place where the text pops up because the spectacle UI doesn't show up. I personally wish the UI showed up after ever screenshot no matter the way it was invoked.
Comment 4 Greeniac 2025-07-03 13:30:55 UTC
I see what you mean, since I manually assigned a shortcut to launch spectacle, I assigned the option "Capture Rectangular Region" and that doesn't make spectacle be able to read QR codes because it saves the image instantly and doesn't open the viewer window, but assigning the option labeled just "Launch", does in fact open the viewer window so reading QR codes is possible, which is the same behavior as launching it normally with the application launcher.
Comment 5 Noah Davis 2025-07-03 21:10:31 UTC
(In reply to Antti Savolainen from comment #3)
> Huh, neat. I didn't notice that since there was no hint in the UI that
> spectacle was capable of that. However if I press Super+Shift+PrintScr,
> there is no place where the text pops up because the spectacle UI doesn't
> show up. I personally wish the UI showed up after ever screenshot no matter
> the way it was invoked.

That's because the mode specific shortcuts go straight to saving screen captures and close with a system notification.

There's a difference in behavior between PrintScreen (does different things depending on the user's settings) and various keys+PrintScreen (uses a specific mode and saves). The best way to think of it right now is that the mode specific shortcuts are quick actions that require minimal interaction to do a screen capture while the generic one (PrintScreen) lets you do a lot of different things before and after you take a screenshot. Shortcut behavior might need to be cleaned up, but it's not clear what the best course of action is. The current behavior is mostly an extension of the previous behavior from before we defaulted to opening in rectangle mode.

I'm marking this as RESOLVED NOT A BUG because this report seems to be a misunderstanding, but we might need to open a new report about solving confusion about differences in shortcut behavior.