# KDE Spectacle

21 Hacker News commenters recommended KDE Spectacle and 7 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a fully featured, native screenshot tool on KDE that works well on Wayland. Some critics say common settings were moved behind menus after an update.

## Why people recommend it

- Native KDE tool, works well (5 comments): "KDE has its own native screenshot tool called spectacle that I find works as least a well, if not better, than flameshot." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46824226)) "It has the same features as Flameshot and is .. well, native." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46817448)) "Kooha and KDE's own Spectacle work on Wayland fine" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46061550))
- Reliable, does what people need (3 comments): "Honestly the best screenshot software I've used so far is KDE's built-in printscreen thingy." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46817729)) "spectacle is everything I want in a screenshot tool and I do not want it to be any other way" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47284157)) "Still works, never a problem or glitch at all." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47498844))
- Built-in annotation and cropping (3 comments): "Most users will be perfectly happy with the included KDE application for screenshots/screen capture (it is really fully featured, much better than the default options for Windows or macOS)." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46087138)) "kde has all that built directly into the screenshot utility. highlighting, text, cropping, etc." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49435705)) "It has the same features as Flameshot and is .. well, native." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46817448))
- Shows preview and saved location (2 comments): "It shows the screenshot it just took, tells me where it’s been saved, lets me do stuff with it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47283471)) "Also a nice thing about Spectacle is that the window persists after you take a screenshot" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46856710))

## What people warn about

- Settings buried behind menus (2 comments): "they changed the app since Trixie was released and buried a lot of the really common settings behind menus" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47283513)) "I was less than happy to have my default changed" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47285909))
- Some features broken or failing (2 comments): "The "New Recording" button seems to be broken. It does nothing." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46062465)) "silently failed to copy/paste" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47334393))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Flameshot](https://hackerapproved.com/p/flameshot.md): 44 recommend
- [ShareX](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sharex.md): 10 recommend
- [Windows Snipping Tool](https://hackerapproved.com/p/snipping-tool.md): 7 recommend
- [CleanShot X](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cleanshot-x.md): 6 recommend
- [Shottr](https://hackerapproved.com/p/shottr.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "KDE Spectacle", https://hackerapproved.com/p/spectacle/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).