How to install Kazam on Ubuntu 20.04

Edumotivation Team

1 year ago

Kazam is a versatile tool that’s handy for taking both screenshots and screen recordings. The video file of the screen recording can be played in VP8/WebM format. Aside from visuals, this tool will also allow users to record accompanying audio from a compatible source.

Kazam is excellent because it offers versatility. With Kazam, you can record the screen or capture screenshots in different ways, including snipping a full screen, a specific region, or a whole window. In case of area selection, it will allow you to select the specific area and press Enter to capture.

Kazam is a lightweight application that won’t consume too much memory space.

Table of Contents

Key Features of Kazam

Record entire screen, part of screen, application window or all screens (for multi-monitor setup)
Keyboard shortcut support for easily pausing and resuming while recording screen
Capture audio from speaker or microphone while recording the screen
Capture video from webcam
Broadcast to YouTube live video
Take screenshots
Record in various file formats such as MP4, AVI and more
Capture mouse clicks and key presses
Insert a webcam window on the side

This article explains two methods of installing Kazam on Ubuntu 20.04.

Choose the installation method that is most appropriate for your environment.

Method 1: Installing Kazam from Ubuntu apt repository

Kazam is included in Ubuntu 20.04. Follow the step by step guide to install the application.

Step #1

Type the following command to update the apt sources.

$ sudo apt update

Step #2

Now execute this command to install the Kazam package.

$ sudo apt install kazam

With the help of && you can write both the commands in a single line. Something like this:

$ sudo apt update && sudo apt install kazam

At this step, you have successfully installed Kazam on Ubuntu 20.04 system.

If you are not comfortable with the command line, open Ubuntu Software, search for “Kazam” and install the application.

Method 2: Installing Kazam via PPA Repository

If you want to install the most recent version of Kazam, you can use the PPA repository.

Personal Package Archives (PPA) are software repositories designed for Ubuntu users and are easier to install than other third-party repositories. PPAs are often used to distribute pre-release software so that it can be tested.

Step #1

First of all open the terminal from system application launcher and type the following command to add the Kazam PPA to your system.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:sylvain-pineau/kazam

Step #2

Then, execute the following commands to install Kazam package on your Ubuntu system.

$ sudo apt update && sudo apt install kazam

Once installed, launch it from your system application menu.

Starting Kazam

Kazam can be launched from the command line by typing kazam or In the Activities search bar type “Kazam” and click on the icon.

Kazam User Interface:

How to Uninstall Kazam from Ubuntu 20.04

For some reason, If you want to uninstall Kazam, refer following methods.

Method #1

If you have installed Kazam from default ubuntu apt respository then uninstall by running the below command:

$ sudo apt remove kazam

Method #2

If you have installed the Kazam through PPA then uninstall it by following one of the below procedures.

Procedure #1

It’s most likely that you added the PPA using add-apt-repository command. You can use the same command to remove the PPA as well. Just give it --remove option in the command.

$ sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:sylvain-pineau/kazam

Note: Use this procedure only if you need to remove the PPA and not the applications installed by it.

Procedure #2

You must have noticed that in the above procedure we only talked about deleting or removing a PPA. What about the applications installed using these PPAs? Will they be removed as a result of removing the PPA? The answer is NO.

So this is when ppa-purge comes in picture. It not only disables the PPA but also uninstalls all the programs installed by the PPA or revert them to original version provided by your distribution.

So type the following command to install the ppa-purge package and uninstall the Kazam package.

$ sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:sylvain-pineau/kazam

Conclusion

I hope that now you have a good understanding of How to install Kazam on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa.

If anyone does have any questions about what we covered in this guide then feel free to ask in the comment section below and I will do my best to answer those.