Question

Using python, one can read in an image:

from PIL import Image, ImageTk
image = Image.open("test.jpg")

Then one can write to klipper in the following way:

import dbus
bus = dbus.SessionBus()
proxy = bus.get_object("org.kde.klipper","/klipper")
iface = dbus.Interface(proxy,"org.kde.klipper.klipper")
iface.setClipboardContents("text")

But when I try to write an image I just opened – it says it can’t accept it:

iface.setClipboardContents(image)
TypeError: Expected a string or unicode object

So my question is: “how to put an image to klipper with python?”

Answer 1

Found some solution – not with python but with bash, and it doesn’t work for remote pictures – works only for local ones (because of gwenview). Here is a bash script:

#!/bin/bash
cd /home/boris/Downloads/
name=`ls -t1 | head -1`
gwenview $name &
sleep 3
id=`ps -e | grep gwenview | awk '{print $1}'`
qdbus org.kde.gwenview-$id /gwenview/MainWindow_1/actions/edit_copy trigger
sleep 3
kill $id

This could also be done with python of cource, but since I make a system call, not read in a picture – there’s no need to use python.

To explain it – suppose You downloaded an image to ~/Downloads. Then if you the this script it will finds the freshest file in there, opens it with gwenview, copies it to clipboard (!), then closes gwenview.

I think to work properly – no other gwen’s could be running. And if You want to use it – it’s wise to bind the script to a hotkey.

The reason I was looking for such a script – is because I want to switch to keyboard-driven webbrowser (such as Conkeror or Pentadactyl) – and it allows to save image quickly – while I mostly need to paste it to some .odt file).

This script can further be made a daemon – which will watch the Downloads dir. But now I to write a script which will download image, and put to clipboard automatically – please see my next question.

The way to find qdbus command you might need – is to open

qdbusviewer

and find the app you need, then the command you need, and then make call similarly it’s done to, e.g. lock the screen:

qdbus org.kde.krunner /ScreenSaver Lock