Record your screen with Simple Screen Recorder under Ubuntu

Ubuntu Screen Recorder

Screen recording or screencasting is a very important task that we have to perform while making video tutorials for software applications. You can use the screen recordings in your presentations, how-to tutorials and software reviews that you can share with people on the Internet.

Not only technical people, but everyday users also need to record the screen sometimes e.g, while trying to stream pc games for sharing. Although there are many screencasting tools available online for Ubuntu, the best in our opinion is the Simple Screen Recorder or SSR. Contrary to its name, it provides many advanced customization options for screen recording and output.

In this tutorial, we will explain how to install this software on your Ubuntu system and then how to use it to record a video of your Ubuntu screen.

We have run the commands and procedures mentioned in this article on an Ubuntu 18.04 LTS system.

Install Simple Screen Recorder

In order to install the Simple Screen Recorder application through the command line, first open the Terminal application either through the system Dash or the Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut.

Download SSR

You can install SSR through the official PPA repository. Add the repository to your system through the following command:

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:maarten-baert/simplescreenrecorder

Add Simple Screen Recorder Repository

Enter the password for sudo as only an authorized user can add a PPA repository on Ubuntu. The system will also prompt you for confirmation for adding the repository; please hit Enter to continue.

Now, you need to update your system’s repository index with that of the Internet repository. Please enter the following command to do so:

$ sudo apt update

Update package list

Install Simple Screen Recorder

Now you can install the SSR application through the repository you just added. Please note that only an authorized user can add/remove software from Ubuntu, therefore enter the following command as sudo:

$ sudo apt install simplescreenrecorder

Install SSR

The system will prompt you with a Y/n option to continue installation; please enter Y and then hit enter to continue.

SSR will now be installed on your system. You can check the version number of the installed software and also verify if it is indeed installed through the following command:

$ simplescreenrecorder --version

Check the software version

Record the Screen

Simple Screen Recording is only available as a graphical utility. You can launch the application by searching it through the system Dash or by accessing it from the Applications listing.

Find the software

This is the first screen you will see every time you launch SSR.

Start SSR

Please click the Continue button in order to open the application.

Though SSR comes with reliable default settings, you can make custom settings for Input Profile through the following window:

Setup Input Profile

All the custom configurations you can make come with tooltips that you can read while hovering over them. Either change the settings or keep the current settings and then click the Continue button. You can make custom settings for Output Profile through the following window:

Output Profile

The common settings that you can customize include filename and location for the output recording and also the audio bit rate of the output. Either change the settings or keep the current settings and then click the Continue button. The following window will open:

Start recording

In order to start recording your screen, simply click the Start Recording button. In order to save the file, you can click the Save recording button directly or click the Pause recording and then the Save recording button. The screen will then be recorded as a video in your output folder. This is the message you get when your screen has been recorded:

Recording has been saved

You can access the recorded video file by opening the output folder through the File manager.

Conclusion

Through this tutorial, you have learned how to record your Ubuntu screen through the Simple Screen Recorder tool. The tool can be installed graphically through the Ubuntu Software Manager or the Ubuntu command line-that we explained in detail. All you need is to keep the default settings or make a few custom settings and you have good quality audio and video recording of your Ubuntu screen.