If we enable compositing in xfwm4 when we run 'xfce4-screenshooter -r' the screen becomes black and so we can't select the region for the screen-shot properly (specially since the region can't be moved after selection as the screen-shot is taken on button release). I've tried playing a bit with the compositor settings but it didn't change this behaviour. So the black background could have instead a reasonable transparency by default. Something like 25% opacity. Name : xfce4-screenshooter Version : 1.8.0 Release : 7.fc18 Architecture: i686
Current transparency is 80%, but I also noticed when testing the latest Xubuntu release that it is not very usable on dark backgrounds. I'll see if lowering the value helps. Being able to modify the selection has been on my planning but I don't know when/if I'll get to it.
As a workaround, how about lowering opacity to 25% (or if you feel it's too transparent, maybe max 40%)? I use a CRT monitor and I notice it has bad contrast in the dark region or maybe the issue is that the glass of the screen reflects light. Running 'xfce4-screnshooter -r' in this same page I can see it through but I have to look close for that.
I've build it from source here changing 0.8 to 0.4 in xfce4-screenshooter/lib/screenshooter-capture.c lines 525-526: /* Restore the transparent background */ cairo_set_source_rgba (cr, 0, 0, 0, 0.8); lines 549-551: /* Draw the transparent background */ cr = gdk_cairo_create (GDK_DRAWABLE (widget->window)); cairo_set_source_rgba (cr, 0, 0, 0, 0.8); And it's very usable this way.
Ok, I'll get to this when I have access to my development computer. Meanwhile, you could get a patch ready (see git format-patch).
Created attachment 4780 Increase background transparency for selection screenshot. It's working for me but since I'm not a programmer I don't know if anything else should be changed.
Pushed patch to git master branch, thanks a lot for your contribution!