How to capture your desktop in an animated GIF

Byzantium is a simple, easy-to-use recording tool. Can Record with format Animated gif, Ogg Theory (optionally with sound), and other formats. A panel applet for GNOME 2 and a command line tool are included in the package.

Its installation is very simple since it is included in the official repositories of almost all popular distributions.

How to use it…

A "typical" run of byzanz-record would look like this:

byzanz-record -d 20 -x 0 -y 0 -w 1024 -h 768 TUTORIAL.GIF

-d 20 = the time (in seconds) to record
-x -y = the coordinates to save. Putting 0 will record the entire desktop
-wy -h = width and height of the GIF, it must be according to the resolution of your screen

Byzanz-record applet for GNOME 2

In the help you will see the details of all the possible parameters. Running byzanz-record –help will display the following:

Use:
  byzanz-record [OPTION…] record your current desktop session

Help options:
  - ?, --help Show help options
  --help-all Show all help options
  --help-gtk Show GTK + options

Application options:
  -d, --duration = SEGS Duration of animation (default: 10 seconds)
  --delay = SEGS Initial delay before start (default: 1 second)
  -c, --cursor Record mouse cursor
  -a, --audio Record sound
  -x, --x = Pixel X coordinate of the rectangle to be engraved
  -y, --y = Pixel Y coordinate of the rectangle to be engraved
  -w, --width = Pixel Width of the rectangle to engrave
  -h, --height = Pixel Height of the rectangle to engrave
  -v, --verbose Verbose
  --display = VISOR Viewer [display] X to use 

Ogg Theory

The latest versions of byzanz also allow you to save the video in ogg / ogv format, including the ability to capture audio.

Just specify the extension, the -ay byzanz option does the right thing.

byzanz-record -a -w 640 -h 400 -x 320 -y 200 -d 10 mis-terminals-3.ogg

Source: Gomix