How to Install Peek on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

In this guide, we’ll cover how to install Peek on Ubuntu to screen record animated GIFs. so, let’s start!

Peek Application – Overview

Peek application is mostly used in Linux -based systems to screen record GIFs or silent videos in MP4 or WebM format. It is not a full-fledged screen recorder application. Instead, it is a single-task GIF-optimized application to produce short clips or generate GIFs.

Features of Peek

Some prominent features of the Peek application are:

• Selecting a region for recording
• Saving recorded videos as GIFs
• Simple user interface optimized for the recording task
• Supporting HiDPI screens
• Supporting recording in WebM and MP4 format
• Downscaling recorded videos

Prerequisites

For this guide, you’ll need a Ubuntu system equipped with the 22.04 LTS version. In addition, you’ll need sudo access or root privilege to update and install the application.

How to Install Peek on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

For this installation guide, we’ll cover two methods. The first method is using the Ubuntu APT package manager. Another method is using the Peek PPA manager to install the application. So, let’s get started.

Install Peek on Ubuntu Using the APT Package

The Peek application exists by default in the Ubuntu APT repository package manager. So, we can easily install it by using the apt install command. Follow the steps to get the Peek up and running.

Update the APT Package

First, open the terminal by pressing “Ctrl + Alt + T”. Next, update Ubuntu by using the update command. Specifically, type:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install wget apt-transport-https gnupg2

The output should look something like this:

Wait for the installation to complete.

Install Peek on Ubuntu

Next, use the install command to install the Peek application. For instance, type:

sudo apt install Peek

You should get a similar output:

Check Peek Version

Once the installation is complete, we’ll check the Peek version by using the –version option as shown below:

peek –version

Install Peek on Ubuntu Using the Peek PPA Repository

Personal Package Archive, also known as PPA, is another repository system that Ubuntu supports. Furthermore, this archive mostly consists of the latest software versions and releases. Follow the steps discussed below to install Peek on Ubuntu using PPA.

Add the Peek Reference in PPA Repository

For this step, first, open the terminal by pressing “Ctrl + Alt + T”. After that, using the “add-apt-repository”, we’ll add the Peek PPA. Specifically, type:

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

Hit the “Enter” key to complete the process. You should get a similar output:

Update the APT Package

After that, add the APT package using the update command as shown below:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install wget apt-transport-https gnupg2

The output should look something like this:

Wait for the installation to complete.

Install Peek on Ubuntu

After that, use the install command to install the Peek application. For instance, type:

sudo apt install Peek

Wait for the installation to complete. Once done, we’ll check the Peek version by typing the –version with the peek command. Specifically, type:

peek –version

It is essential to check the version to verify the installation.

How to Launch Peek on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

Once the installation is finished and verified, we can launch the Peek application. 

Launch Peek from the Applications Menu

To get started with the application, go to the Applications menu and type “Peek” in the search bar as shown in the output below, and the the application should appear in the search result like this:

Next, press the “Enter” key to launch the application and get started with the GIF screen recording.

Output:

To launch Peek Preferences, click the Peek logo at the top of the application bar. This will launch the preferences dialogue box. 

The screen is divided into two sections: User Interface and Recording. 

From the User Interface, you can change the shortcut key for starting/stopping the record. In addition, you can also receive a desktop notification once the video is saved.

Alternatively, in the Recording section, you can modify various options. The options include the output format, the frame rate of the video, and resolution downsampling. Lastly, you can also choose to capture the mouse cursor in the recording.

Launch Peek from the Terminal

Alternatively, we can also launch the application from the terminal by typing peek. For example:

peek

After a few seconds, you’ll see the green recording option. From there, you can select any format for recording from the arrow button beside the green record button. Once you click on it, you’ll see a drop-down list. From this list, you can choose the supported multimedia options. Output:

In addition, you can also adjust the Window Size by pressing the three horizontal lines icon. From the drop-down, choose the Set Window Size. After that, add the values for Height and Width and click the Set window size button.

Once you’ve configured the settings, you can start the recording. For this step, press the green button. However, if you no longer wish to record, press the Stop button. 

Lastly, enter the file name, select the location where you want to save the file, and Save the button to save the recorded file successfully.

Uninstall Peek on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

Perhaps, if you no longer wish to use the Peek application, you can uninstall it. For this step, first, open the terminal by pressing “Ctrl + Alt + T”. Next, use the remove command as shown below:

sudo apt remove --autoremove peek

The output should look something like this:

To verify the uninstallation, type peek in the terminal. You should get this error:

Error: Command Not Found

Alternatively, you can also uninstall Peek from the Software Center. For this step, click the Software Center from the Menu bar. After that, locate Peek from the installed program list and press Uninstall. 

In this guide, we’ve covered how you can install, launch and use Peek applications effectively for mini-video recordings in various formats. We hope the article was helpful. 

For more information, check out the Peek GitHub repository. If you’re interested and multimedia and video editing, check out the FFmpeg editor.

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