A minimal clipboard assistant written in PyQt6. It brings back the previous Plasma 6.1 (Kilpper) experience for the Clipboard's "Show at Mouse Position" shortcut.
ClipQture = Clipboard for Qt/KDE desktops capture program.
It is designed to co-exist with the Plasma widget, although the clipboard state isn't synchronised between the two programs. It is designed for selecting text and X11 only.
Otherwise, this is how it works:
- Listen to the clipboard and capture recently copied text.
- A global shortcut configured in your desktop environment (like Meta+V) executes the program, which tells the first instance to open a context menu.
- Use the context menu to quickly change the active clipboard text.
It extends original functionality by showing the window icon where the text was copied from!
Grab a copy from Releases. Or, build a package using the supplied PKGBUILD:
git clone https://github.com/lah7/clipqture.git
makepkg -i
(If this software is useful for many people ⭐, I'll consider submitting it to the AUR.)
Next, use KDE Menu Editor to configure a shortcut key to launch this program. This is required to open the context menu at your cursor position.
The program will be automatically started when you log in (/etc/xdg/autostart)
-
Make sure you have the Python dependencies installed.
-
Copy the files:
clipqture.pyto~/.local/bin/(you may need to update your PATH)clipqture.desktopto~/.local/share/applications/
Edit the
.desktopfiles to adjust the path of theExec=line to point to the full path where you placedclipqture.py.
Then, use your desktop environment to:
- Set up a global shortcut that executes this file.
- Add this script to run at startup.
- For example, in KDE, use System Settings > Autostart. In MATE, use Start-up Applications.
There are some basic settings to change with ~/.config/clipqture.conf.
It will be created with default settings on the first run. Restart the program
to apply changes.
Starting in Plasma 6.2.0, KDE's Klipper (Clipboard applet) went in a different direction. The shortcut for "Show Clipboard Items at Mouse Position" opens the full widget at the cursor. I used it often enough that it felt like a regression for this use case.
From a UI perspective, the widget has more buttons, more padding per item, and buttons getting in the way. Context menus had a border, but the Plasma widget does not (there's a shadow, but it's shallow, making it look flat). Not to mention the widget takes up lots of vertical space that it may need to scroll, and it has images and other data types I didn't need.
I was pretty happy and productive with the old menu, with one item per line. This project brings back that simplicity. Other clipboard managers seemed too much. Being written in Python, it's easy to modify and extend, and nobody can take that away!
It is recommended to keep Klipper enabled, but disable the "show at cursor" shortcut. This makes sure that the clipboard doesn't vanish if you copy text from a program and then close that same program.