Taking a screenshot on your Mac is a fundamental skill, whether you’re sharing something interesting online, creating a tutorial, or simply saving important information displayed on your screen. macOS offers several built-in tools and keyboard shortcuts to make capturing your screen incredibly easy and versatile. This guide will walk you through all the methods to take screenshots on your Mac, ensuring you can capture exactly what you need, every time.
Capture Your Entire Mac Screen
The quickest way to take a screenshot of your entire screen on a Mac is using a simple keyboard shortcut. This method captures everything visible on your display, from the menu bar to the Dock.
- Press and hold these three keys simultaneously: Shift, Command (⌘), and 3.
- You will hear a camera shutter sound, and a thumbnail of your screenshot will briefly appear in the bottom-right corner of your screen.
- To edit immediately: Click on the thumbnail before it disappears to open Markup, where you can crop, annotate, and share your screenshot.
- To save automatically: If you don’t click the thumbnail, the screenshot will automatically be saved to your desktop as a PNG file, named “Screen Shot [date] at [time].png”.
Capture a Portion of Your Mac Screen
Sometimes, you only need to capture a specific part of your screen. macOS allows you to select a portion of your screen to screenshot, giving you more control over what you capture.
- Press and hold these three keys together: Shift, Command (⌘), and 4.
- Your cursor will transform into a crosshair pointer.
Alt text: Diagram illustrating the keyboard shortcut Shift-Command-4 to capture a portion of the screen on macOS. - Click and drag the crosshair to select the area you want to capture. A rectangle will appear, outlining your selection.
- Release the mouse or trackpad button to take the screenshot.
- Edit or save: Similar to capturing the entire screen, a thumbnail will appear for immediate editing, or the screenshot will save to your desktop.
Tips for Capturing a Portion of the Screen:
- To reposition the selection while dragging: Press and hold the Space bar while dragging. This lets you move the entire selection area without changing its size.
- To cancel the screenshot: Press the Esc (Escape) key at any time before releasing the mouse button.
Alt text: Screenshot of a portion of the Safari browser window on macOS Big Sur, demonstrating capturing a selected area.
Capture a Specific Window or Menu on Mac
Need to screenshot a specific window, like a browser window or a dropdown menu? macOS has a shortcut for that too.
- Open the window or menu you wish to capture. Ensure it is active and in the foreground.
- Press and hold these three keys: Shift, Command (⌘), and 4, then press the Space bar once.
- The crosshair pointer will change into a camera icon.
Alt text: Camera icon representing the cursor when capturing a window screenshot on macOS. - Click on the window or menu you want to capture. The selected window will be highlighted.
- Optional: Exclude window shadow: To take a screenshot without the window’s shadow, press and hold the Option (⌥) key while clicking on the window.
- Edit or save: The screenshot will be available as a thumbnail for editing or saved to your desktop.
Alt text: Screenshot of a Safari browser window on macOS Big Sur, showcasing capturing a specific window.
Using the Screenshot App for More Options
For macOS Mojave and later, Apple introduced the Screenshot app, providing a more feature-rich interface for capturing screenshots and screen recordings.
- Open the Screenshot app: Press Shift, Command (⌘), and 5. Alternatively, find “Screenshot” in the Utilities folder within your Applications folder.
- A small control panel will appear at the bottom of your screen, offering various options:
- Capture Entire Screen: Takes a screenshot of the entire display.
- Capture Selected Window: Allows you to click and select a specific window to capture.
- Capture Selected Portion: Lets you draw a rectangle to select a screen area to screenshot.
- Record Entire Screen: Starts recording a video of your entire screen.
- Record Selected Portion: Starts recording a video of a selected area of your screen.
- Options Menu: The “Options” menu in the control panel provides further customization:
- Save to: Choose where screenshots and recordings are saved (Desktop, Documents, Clipboard, etc.).
- Timer: Set a delay timer (None, 5 seconds, 10 seconds) before the screenshot or recording begins.
- Show Floating Thumbnail: Toggle the display of the thumbnail preview.
- Remember Last Selection: Remembers your previous selected portion for quicker screenshots.
- Show Mouse Clicks in Video Recording: Useful for tutorials and demonstrations.
Finding and Managing Your Screenshots
By default, all screenshots and screen recordings are saved to your desktop. The files are named starting with “Screen Shot” or “Screen Recording,” followed by the date and time they were taken, and saved as PNG (.png) image files or MOV (.mov) video files.
If you can’t find your screenshots on the desktop, they might be hidden under other windows or desktop clutter. A quick way to locate them is:
- Open Finder.
- In the menu bar, click Go and select Desktop, or simply click Desktop in the Finder sidebar. This will bring your desktop files into view.
You can also change the default save location using the Screenshot app’s “Options” menu, allowing you to organize your captures more effectively.
Bonus Screenshot Tips for Mac Users
- Save Screenshot to Clipboard: To copy a screenshot directly to your clipboard instead of saving it as a file, hold down the Control key while using any of the screenshot shortcuts (e.g., Control-Shift-Command-3 for the entire screen). You can then paste the screenshot (Command-V) directly into applications like Messages, Mail, or documents.
- Working with the Thumbnail: The floating thumbnail is more than just a preview. You can:
- Click it to open Markup for editing.
- Drag and drop it to quickly save the screenshot to a different folder or application.
- Control-click (right-click) it for a shortcut menu with options like “Save to Clipboard,” “Open in Preview,” “Delete,” and more.
- App Restrictions: Some applications, particularly those displaying copyrighted video content like Apple TV app, may prevent screenshots from being taken of their windows to protect content.
Mastering screenshots on your Mac will significantly enhance your productivity and communication. With these versatile methods, you’ll be able to capture and share anything on your screen with ease. Experiment with the different techniques and find the ones that best suit your workflow!
