Taking a screenshot on a Mac, often referred to as “print screen” by users familiar with Windows, is a straightforward process that allows you to capture exactly what you see on your screen. Whether you need to save a receipt, share an error message with tech support, or capture a memorable moment from a video, macOS offers a variety of built-in tools to get the job done. This guide will walk you through the different methods of taking screenshots on your Mac, ensuring you can capture your screen exactly as you need it.
Capture Your Entire Mac Screen: The Quickest Method
The fastest way to take a screenshot of your entire screen on a Mac involves a simple keyboard shortcut. This method captures everything visible on your display, from the menu bar at the top to the dock at the bottom.
- Press and hold the Shift (⇧), Command (⌘), and 3 keys simultaneously.
- You will hear a camera shutter sound, and a thumbnail of your screenshot will briefly appear in the bottom-right corner of your screen.
- By default, the screenshot will be saved as a PNG file on your desktop, named something like “Screen Shot [date] at [time].png”.
Keyboard shortcut Shift Command 3 for capturing the entire screen on a Mac
If you click on the thumbnail before it disappears, you can quickly edit the screenshot using Markup tools, allowing you to crop, annotate, or share it instantly. If you miss the thumbnail, don’t worry – your screenshot is safely saved on your desktop.
Capture a Portion of Your Mac Screen: Focus on What Matters
Sometimes, you only need to capture a specific area of your screen. macOS provides a tool that allows you to select and screenshot just a portion of your display, eliminating unnecessary elements and focusing on the essential information.
- Press and hold the Shift (⇧), Command (⌘), and 4 keys simultaneously.
- Your cursor will transform into a crosshair pointer (+).
- Click and drag the crosshair to select the rectangular area you want to capture. As you drag, you’ll see a rectangle outlining the area you are selecting.
- Release the mouse button or trackpad to take the screenshot.
- Similar to capturing the entire screen, a thumbnail will appear, allowing for quick edits, and the screenshot will be saved to your desktop.
Selecting a portion of the screen to capture a screenshot on macOS using Shift Command 4
Pro Tip: While dragging the crosshair, you can hold down the Space bar to move the entire selection area without resizing it. This is useful when you’ve selected the right size but need to adjust its position slightly. To cancel the screenshot at any time before releasing the mouse button, simply press the Esc (Escape) key.
Capture a Specific Window or Menu on Mac: Precision Screenshots
macOS also allows you to capture a screenshot of a specific window or menu, automatically excluding the background and focusing solely on the active window or dropdown menu. This is perfect for capturing application interfaces or menu options for tutorials or documentation.
- Open the window or menu you wish to capture. Ensure it is active and visible on your screen.
- Press and hold the Shift (⇧), Command (⌘), and 4 keys simultaneously, then press the Space bar.
- The crosshair pointer will change into a camera icon (📷).
- Move the camera icon over the window or menu you want to capture. macOS will highlight the window in blue, indicating it is selected.
- Click on the window or menu to take the screenshot.
Bonus Tip: To capture the window without its shadow, press and hold the Option (⌥) key while clicking on the window. This can be useful for cleaner screenshots in certain contexts.
Screenshot of a specific Safari window on macOS, demonstrating window capture feature
Using the Screenshot App: Unlock Advanced Screenshot Options
For more advanced screenshot options and screen recording capabilities, macOS provides the Screenshot app. This built-in utility, introduced in macOS Mojave and later, offers a toolbar with various screenshot and screen recording tools.
- Press and hold the Shift (⇧), Command (⌘), and 5 keys simultaneously.
- A toolbar will appear at the bottom of your screen, offering the following options from left to right:
- Capture Entire Screen: Takes a screenshot of the entire display, similar to Shift-Command-3.
- Capture Selected Window: Allows you to click on a window to capture it, similar to Shift-Command-4 and Space bar.
- Capture Selected Portion: Enables you to drag a selection area for a screenshot, similar to Shift-Command-4.
- Record Entire Screen: Starts recording a video of your entire screen.
- Record Selected Portion: Lets you select an area of the screen to record a video.
- Options: Provides settings to choose where to save screenshots (Desktop, Documents, Clipboard, etc.), set a timer for screenshots, and choose whether to show the mouse pointer in screenshots or recordings.
- Capture/Record: Button to initiate the selected action.
Using the Screenshot app provides greater control over your screenshots and screen recordings, allowing you to customize settings and choose specific capture modes easily.
Finding and Managing Your Mac Screenshots
By default, all screenshots taken using the methods described above are saved to your Desktop. They are named with the prefix “Screen Shot,” followed by the date and time the screenshot was taken, and saved as PNG files.
If you cannot locate your screenshots on the desktop, they might be hidden or misplaced. You can easily find them using Finder:
- Open Finder.
- In the Finder menu bar, click on Go and select Desktop, or simply click Desktop in the Finder sidebar.
- Look for files starting with “Screen Shot” to find your screenshots.
You can also change the default save location for screenshots using the Options menu in the Screenshot app (Shift-Command-5), allowing you to save screenshots directly to your Documents folder, Clipboard, or other locations.
Mastering Mac Screenshots: Tips and Tricks
Here are some additional tips to enhance your screenshot experience on a Mac:
- Save to Clipboard: To save a screenshot to your Clipboard instead of saving it as a file, hold down the Control (Ctrl) key while using any of the screenshot shortcuts (e.g., Control-Shift-Command-3 for entire screen to clipboard). You can then paste the screenshot directly into applications like Messages, Mail, or image editors.
- Screenshot Timer: Use the Screenshot app (Shift-Command-5) to set a timer for taking screenshots. This is useful when you need to capture a menu that disappears when you press a key or click the mouse.
- Edit Screenshots Instantly: Take advantage of the thumbnail preview that appears after taking a screenshot. Click on it to open Markup and quickly crop, annotate, rotate, or share your screenshot without needing to open a separate image editor.
- App-Specific Restrictions: Some applications, particularly those displaying copyrighted video content like Apple TV app, may prevent you from taking screenshots of their windows to protect content.
By mastering these methods and tips, you can efficiently capture anything on your Mac screen for various purposes, from sharing information to creating visual content. Whether you need a quick full-screen capture or a precise window screenshot, macOS provides the tools you need right at your fingertips.
