Support ImageGrab from clipboard on Linux via xclip and wl-clipboard

[AllanChain]

Currently, grabclipboard raises NotImplementedError on Linux. But I think we can use xclip or wl-clipboard if they are installed. A subprocess call saving the image to a temporary file should be enough.

xclip -selection clipboard -t image/jpeg -o > test.jpg  # Edit 1
wl-paste --type image/jpg > test.jpg

I'm willing to help implement this feature.

What did you do?

Try to grab an image from the clipboard on Linux

What did you expect to happen?

The image is grabbed

What actually happened?

NotImplementedError: ImageGrab.grabclipboard() is macOS and Windows only

What are your OS, Python and Pillow versions?

• OS: Linux (Manjaro KDE)
• Python: 3.10.8
• Pillow: 9.3.0

from PIL.ImageGrab import grabclipboard
grabclipboard()

[radarhere]

Considering that we support gnome-screenshot in ImageGrab.grab, this seems reasonable.

[radarhere]

I experimented with this, but found when I copied an image, xclip didn't work.

xclip.mov

I have however created PR #6783 for wl-paste.

[AllanChain]

Sorry for the wrong command. I've tested the command for xclip in X11 environment and updated the command.

I don't know whether you are using X windows on Ubuntu when testing the xclip commands though.

[radarhere]

Thanks. I've added xclip to PR #6783 as well.

[benzen3]

I'm trying to use ImageGrab in Google Colab and getting the error:

NotImplementedError: wl-paste or xclip is required for ImageGrab.grabclipboard() on Linux
which brought me here.

wl-paste and xclip are not Python projects and so not supported in Google Colab.

Any workarounds possible?

[AllanChain]

@benzen3 I think Python on Google Colab have no access to your system clipboard, because the Python process is running remotely. Therefore, it is impossible, and makes no sense, to support Google Colab.

As a workaround, you can try to run the notebook locally.