An updated version of Kooha, a simple GTK app to “elegantly record your screen”, is available to install on Linux desktops.
Kooha 2.1.0 features a number of small improvements. These build out the application’s existing feature set, which is already fairly expansive for a Wayland-compatible screen recording tool.
For instance, it’s now possible to set a 3 second delay before recording begins, in addition to a 5 second or 10 second delay. When enabled, the main Kooha window counts down to recording. This gives you time to arrange windows, configure an app, or just prepare yourself!
The latest version of Kooha also remembers previously selected video sources. For example, if you often record the output of a second monitor, the second monitor will be remembered as a source the next time you come to record.
Other new additions include a ‘cancel’ option when flushing the recording begins (after you press stop); and different icons for settings so you can better discern the active/inactive state.
Kooha 2.1.0 also saves recordings in the ~/Videos/Kooha folder by default (though you can choose a different directory in the settings, and this setting doesn’t affect upgrades).
To help you access your recordings once done, the Kooha app notification now has a “Show in Files” button.
Kooha Screen Recorder
GNOME Shell has native screen recording capabilities built-in (accessed from the screenshot utility by pressing print screen key). GNOME’s native screen recording functionality is easy to use. It saves screen recordings in the .webm video format by default
Kooha is also simple to use, and offers more options.
It too lets you record a specific app window, a section of the screen, or the output of an entire screen or monitor. But you can save your screen-recordings in the .webm format, the .mkv video format, the .mp4 video format or, more uniquely, as an animated .gif.
Kooha also enables you to record audio from a microphone and/your computer’s internal sounds as part of your screen recording. This could be a big time saver if you want to create screen recordings with voiceover for a tutorial or guide.
Hidden settings allow you to enable hardware accelerated encoding (though be mindful as there are potential issues with this) and change frames per second to 60fps (though this may introduce flickering).
Note: this article is not a comprehensive guide to this app, more of a news update about a new release. Do read through the official GitHub page linked in the intro for further information on Kooha, what it can and can’t do, and how to build it from source.
Install Kooha on Linux
You’ll find Kooha on Flathub. This is the recommend way to install the latest version of the app on most Linux distributions.
Kooha is available in the Arch repos (thanks leo5) but has yet to be updated to the latest version at the time I write this. Kooha is not currently distributed on Canonical’s Snap Store, nor can I find a PPA for it (official or otherwise).
