For the uninitiated, it’s a nifty tool I’ve seen being used on Vista that lets you select an area of the screen to take a screenshot of, instead of the entire screen; and it’s been lying around on Gnome all this while!

To try it out:

• System –> Preferences –> Keyboard Shortcuts –> Add
  • Name: Snipe
  • Command: gnome-screenshot -ai
• Apply; then click on your new entry to configure a shortcut key

This binds your shortcut-key to the Gnome Screenshot tool, being started in the -a(rea) and -i(nteractive) mode. If you prefer seeing the sniping crosshairs directly instead of an interactive dialog, use gnome-screenshot -a as the command instead.