How to install Peek on Ubuntu 20.04 | An Animated GIF Screen Recorder Tool for Linux

Peek is a Open-Source computer software program for Linux to create simple animated GIF file based on the GIF89a file format. It is beautifully designed, lightweight, and straightforward. Peek application makes it easy to create short screencasts of a screen area. You simply place the Peek window over the area you want to record and press “Record“. There’s a countdown after clicking on the ‘Record’ button.

Peek is optimized for generating animated GIFs, but can also directly record to WebM or MP4. You can open its preferences to choose to open the gif file after saving and the options to set delay count, resolution down-sampling, and framerate.Peek runs on X11 or inside a GNOME Shell Wayland session using XWayland.

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

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

Method 1: Installing Peek via PPA Repository

If you want to install the most recent version of Peek, you can use the official 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 Peek PPA to your system.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:peek-developers/stable

Step #2

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

$ sudo apt update && sudo apt install peek

If you want to use the latest development version there is also a PPA with daily builds available. Use the repository ppa:peek-developers/daily in the above commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:peek-developers/daily
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install peek

At this step, you have successfully installed Peek Animated GIF Screen Recorder Tool on Ubuntu 20.04 system.

Method 2: Installing Peek as a Snap Package

The easiest way to install Peek on Ubuntu 20.04 is by using the snap packaging system.

A snap package is a type of universal Linux package that you can enjoy irrespective of the distro. Its an self-contained software packages that include the binary all dependencies needed to run the application.

All you need is the snap service pre-configured, In the case of Ubuntu 20.04, it comes with snap pre-installed.

If snapd package is not already installed then you can install it by running following command.

$ sudo apt install snapd

Note: Snap packages can be installed from either the command-line or via the Ubuntu Software application.

This is actually the Snap version of the Peek. It can be used on any Linux distribution that has Snap support.

Open your terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and type the following command to install the Peek package.

$ sudo snap install peek

Once installed, launch it from your system application menu.

Type the following command to update Peek package.

$ sudo snap refresh peek

Starting Peek

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

Peek User Interface:

Image Credit: omgubuntu.co.uk

How to Uninstall Peek from Ubuntu 20.04

For some reason, If you want to uninstall Peek GIF Screen Recorder Tool, refer following methods.

Method #1

If you have installed the appication 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:peek-developers/stable

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 Peek package.

$ sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:peek-developers/stable

Method #2

If you have installed Peek via Snap type the following command:

$ sudo snap remove peek

Conclusion

I hope that now you have a good understanding of How to install Peek 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.

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