Taking screenshots on a Mac, often referred to as “Apple Print Screen” by users familiar with Windows, is a fundamental skill for anyone wanting to capture and share what’s on their screen. Whether you need to save a receipt, share a funny chat, or document a software bug, macOS offers a variety of built-in tools to make screen capturing quick and efficient. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about taking screenshots on your Mac, ensuring you master this essential function.
Capture Your Entire Mac Screen: The Full View
The simplest way to take a screenshot on your Mac is to capture the entire screen. This method grabs everything visible across all your displays.
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Press the Magic Keys: Simultaneously press and release these three keys: Shift, Command (⌘), and 3.
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Thumbnail Preview (Optional): A small thumbnail will briefly appear in the corner of your screen.
- Edit Instantly: Click the thumbnail right away to open Markup and edit your screenshot immediately. You can crop, annotate, and share it directly.
- Save to Desktop: If you don’t click the thumbnail, the screenshot will automatically save to your desktop as a PNG file, named with the date and time of capture.
Video thumbnail: How to take a screenshot and record your screen on a Mac. Shows keyboard keys Shift, Command, and 3.
Capture a Portion of Your Mac Screen: The Selective Snippet
Sometimes you only need to capture a specific area of your screen. macOS allows you to select a portion to screenshot with ease.
- Initiate Partial Screenshot: Press and release these three keys together: Shift, Command (⌘), and 4. Your cursor will transform into a crosshair pointer.
Keyboard shortcut for capturing a portion of the screen on Mac: Shift, Command, and 4 keys highlighted.
- Select the Capture Area: Click and drag the crosshair to define the rectangular area you want to capture.
- Capture Screenshot: Release the mouse or trackpad button to take the screenshot of the selected area.
- Cancel: Press the Esc (Escape) key to cancel the screenshot operation.
- Reposition Selection: Need to move the selection area without resizing it? Press and hold the Space bar while dragging the selected area to a new location.
Example of capturing a portion of the screen on macOS, showing a selected area in Safari browser.
- Thumbnail and Saving: Just like capturing the entire screen, a thumbnail preview may appear for immediate editing, or the screenshot will save to your desktop.
Capture a Window or Menu on Mac: Focus on the App
To capture a specific window, like a browser window or a menu, macOS provides a dedicated shortcut.
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Prepare the Window or Menu: Ensure the window or menu you want to capture is open and active on your screen.
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Engage Window Capture Mode: Press Shift, Command (⌘), and 4 keys together, then immediately press the Space bar. The crosshair cursor will change into a camera icon.
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Select the Window: Click on the window or menu you wish to capture.
- Exclude Window Shadow: Want a cleaner screenshot without the window’s shadow? Press and hold the Option (⌥) key while clicking the window.
- Cancel: Press the Esc (Escape) key to cancel the screenshot.
Example of capturing a specific window on macOS, showing a screenshot of a Safari window without the background.
- Thumbnail and Saving: The familiar thumbnail preview will appear, or the screenshot will be saved to your desktop.
Unleash the Screenshot App: Advanced Options
For more control and options, macOS includes the Screenshot app. This app, especially useful in macOS Mojave and later, provides a toolbar for screen capture and screen recording.
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Open the Screenshot App: Press Shift, Command (⌘), and 5 keys together. Alternatively, find “Screenshot” in the Utilities folder within your Applications folder.
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Screenshot Toolbar: The Screenshot app toolbar appears at the bottom of your screen. It offers buttons to:
- Capture the entire screen
- Capture a selected window
- Capture a selected portion
- Record the entire screen
- Record a selected portion
- Options: Set a timer, choose save location, remember last selection, and more.
Explore the “Options” menu within the Screenshot app to customize your screenshot experience, including setting a delay timer or changing the default save location.
Finding and Managing Your Screenshots
By default, your screenshots are saved to your desktop. The filenames start with “Screen Shot” followed by the date and time, and they are saved as PNG files.
If you can’t immediately locate your screenshots on the desktop, try these tips:
- Finder Window: Open a Finder window and navigate to your Desktop from the “Go” menu in the menu bar, or click “Desktop” in the Finder sidebar.
- Thumbnail Drag & Drop: If you see the thumbnail preview, you can immediately drag it to a different folder or document.
Bonus Tips for Apple Print Screen Mastery
- Save to Clipboard: To save a screenshot directly to your clipboard instead of a file, hold down the Control key while using any of the screenshot shortcuts (e.g., Control-Shift-Command-3). You can then paste the screenshot directly into documents, emails, or image editing applications.
- Screenshot App Customization: Experiment with the Screenshot app’s options to tailor the screenshot process to your workflow.
- Thumbnail Persistence: The screenshot thumbnail will remain visible until you interact with it or move your mouse pointer away, giving you time to decide whether to edit or save it.
- App Restrictions: Some applications, like video streaming services, might prevent screenshots of their content due to copyright protection.
Mastering “apple print screen” on your Mac is straightforward with these techniques. Practice these shortcuts and explore the Screenshot app to become a screenshot pro and efficiently capture and share information from your screen.
