Since Mojave, Macs have featured a built-in tool to make taking a screenshot a simple and easy process. Here’s how to capture a screen grab, whether you want the whole screen or just part of it.

Capturing a screenshot is a simple way to share whatever it is you’re seeing on the screen. If it’s an error, you can snap a picture and send it to tech support. If it’s a message on social media, you can capture the moment and share the image with your friends and followers.

You can take high quality screenshots on any Mac computer, and then edit or share them however you like. They'll automatically be titled 'Screen Shot,' followed by the date and time you took them. Saving Your Screenshots. When you take a screenshot using your Mac device, the file is saved automatically on the desktop. However, this will make your desktop messy, especially if you need to take a lot of screenshots. Clean the folders on your desktop with Tweakbit MacRepair and keep your files organized. When you want to take a screenshot on your Mac, the first step is pressing the command + shift + 3 keys all at once. This will save a copy of the screen on the clipboard. You can also press this combination minus the command key so as to save this image on the desktop. How to take a quick screenshot in macOS The quickest, easiest way to take a screenshot is to press Command + Shift + 3. You don't have any options with this method—it captures the entire screen.

Screenshot tools for Mac have always been easy to use, yet somewhat rudimentary. You could capture just about anything if you knew the right keyboard shortcuts, but you had to know what you were doing first. Since the release of Mojave, macOS now has a built-in screenshot tool—similar to what you might find in Windows—that allows you to take screen grabs with the click of a button. Here’s how to capture what’s on your screen.

Screenshot Tool

If you want to open the screenshot tool, navigate to Launchpad > Other > Screenshot, or use the shortcut Shift+Command+5. You will have the option to take a screenshot of the entire screen, a selected window, or a custom section of the screen.

There are also options to capture recorded video, including the entire screen or a custom section of the screen. An options drop-down menu allows you to choose where to save screenshots, set up a timer, and other settings.

Grab the Whole Screen

You can take a screen grab of the entire screen from the screenshot tool, or you can use the shortcut Shift+Command+3. By default, the screenshot will save as a .png file on your desktop.

Screenshot Part of the Screen

To capture a specific part of your screen, press Shift+Command+4 and your pointer will change to a cross-hair. Click and drag the cross-hair so that it covers the area you wish to capture. Let go to grab the selected area or press the Esc key to cancel. By holding down Shift, Option, or Space Bar, you can change the shape, size, and position of the selection area before capturing an image. The screenshot will be saved as a .png file on the desktop by default.

Capture a Window or Menu

To take a screenshot of a specific window or menu, press Shift+Command+5 and the pointer will change into a camera icon. Move the camera over the a window to highlight it, then click to save the image as a .png file on your desktop. You can also switch back and forth between capturing a custom selection and grabbing a specific menu by hitting the space bar.

Take an Image of the Touch Bar

If you have a Mac with a Touch Bar, you can take a screenshot of it by pressing Shift+Command+6. The image will be saved as a .png file on your desktop.

Change Where Your Mac Screenshots Are Saved

By default, screenshots are saved to your desktop, but you can change that. Open the screenshot tool with Shift+Command+5, or by going to Launchpad > Other > Screenshot > Options. Under the menu section Save to, you can select a new default location, like Documents, Clipboard, Mail, Messages, or Preview. Or click Other Location to choose a specific folder.

Instead of saving screenshots directly to your computer, you can instead send them to the clipboard by adding the Control key to any shortcut command. For instance, use Shift+Command+Control+3 to capture the entire screen, or Shift+Command+Control+4 to take a screenshot of a portion of the screen. You can then paste the screenshot anywhere you like.

Change Image Format

By default, screenshots on Mac are saved as .png files, but those can get pretty big, especially if you have a large Retina display monitor. You can switch to .jpg format with a small amount of coding. Go to Launchpad > Other > Terminal and type the following inside the new window:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg

Enter your password if asked, then restart the computer. Future screenshots should save in the preferred format you specified. You can always change it back by typing the above command with PNG at the end instead.

How To Take A Screenshot Apple

Third-Party Options

If you prefer a third-party solution, Snaggit has everything you could need, but also comes with a $50 price tag. The same company also makes a free program called TechSmith Capture (formerly Jing). Other free options include Skitch and LightShot, while Snappy can sync screenshots with the Snappy app for iOS.

How to Take a Screenshot on Any Device

Here’s everything you need to know about capturing screenshots, no matter the platform—Windows, macOS, Chrome OS, iOS, Android, and even Linux.

Further Reading

• How to Factory Reset a Mac
• How to Make and Receive Phone Calls on Your iPad or Mac
• RIP iTunes: How to Sync Music and Media on Mac With Finder
• Farewell iTunes: How to Use the Music App in macOS Catalina
• More in Apple
• More in MacOS

MacOS Reviews

• Apple macOS Catalina
• Apple macOS Mojave
• Apple macOS High Sierra
• Apple macOS Sierra
• Apple OS X El Capitan

About Jason Cohen

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• How to Access Your Mac’s Hidden Files
• 11 Amazon Music Tips to Level Up Your Streaming Game
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• How to Protect Your Front Door Deliveries
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If you’re wondering how to take a screenshot on a Mac, we have some amazing tricks for you to explore. You can screenshot Mac using the tools and hotkeys within macOS.

Whether you have a Mac or a MacBook, the screenshot shortcuts remain the same. Though you have a bonus screenshot shortcut for MacBook Pro users, we’ll get to it towards the end. All these shortcuts run on macOS Big Sur, Mojave, and Catalina.

• Mac Screenshot Shortcuts
  • Capture Entire Screen
  • Capture a Window/Part Of The Screen
  • Master Screenshot Shortcut On Mac
  • Take Screenshot on a MacBook Pro (Touch Bar)
• Bonus: How To Save Screenshots In JPG/PDF Format

Mac Screenshot Shortcuts

One thing about having a Mac is that you don’t need anything else. From Word processing tools to screenshots and basic video editing, everything is already there. All you have to do is be curious and you’ll be surprised at the number of shortcuts in a Mac.

Just like everything else, there are dedicated Mac screenshot shortcuts that let you take a screenshot and also record screen on Mac. Let’s dive in and talk about these shortcuts.

Capture Entire Screen: command + shift +3

The simplest and quickest way to screenshot a Mac is command + shift + 3. This Mac screenshot shortcut captures the entire screen. It’s good for the times you want to grab a quick screenshot from a live stream.

Capture a Window/Part Of The Screen: command + shift + 4

This is where mac screenshot shortcuts show their versatility. When you use command +shift + 4, the mouse pointer changes into a crosshair. You can click and drag the crosshair to capture the desired area of the screen.

There’s more to this particular shortcut. You can quickly fine-tune your screenshot using the following shortcuts:

• Press command+ shift + 4 and then tap space, the mouse pointer changes from a crosshair to a camera. Now you can capture a window on your Mac.
• Select a part of the screen using command + shift + 4, and then hold down the space key to move the selection window around the screen.
• Go for command + shift + 4 and hold down the shift key while selecting an area. This will let you change the height without mistakenly changing the breadth, and vice-versa.

Master Screenshot Shortcut On Mac: command + shift + 5

If you want to set custom dimensions for a screenshot, select where it’s saved, decide whether you want the mouse pointer in the screenshot, and much finer things, this is the shortcut for you.

The command + shift + 5 shortcut summons a screenshot control panel to screenshot Mac. You can select to capture the entire screen, a selected part of the screen, or a selected window from this panel.

Click on “Options” and you can decide where to save your screenshot, set a timer for taking a screenshot, decide whether you want a floating thumbnail after taking a screenshot on Mac, and so forth.

You can also record the screen using this shortcut. There are two shortcuts that let you record the entire screen or a part of it. You can also use an external microphone to by selecting it from the options in the screenshot panel.

Pro Bonus: How To Take Screenshot on a MacBook Pro (Touch Bar)

You can capture a screenshot of your Touch Bar using command + shift + 6. This feature is a bonus exclusively for Touch Bar MacBook Pro. It captures a super slim, wide screenshot of the Touch Bar. There are other tricks on how to take a screenshot on MacBook Pro. If you use the Touch Bar, you can set a screenshot command in it to quickly take a screenshot on Mac.

The rest of the shortcuts apply to the entire range of Macs, including the MacBook Air, Mac Mini, and MacBook Pro models.

Bonus: How To Save Screenshots In JPG/PDF Format

Since I have to upload a lot of images to the web, JPG is the preferred format. My Mac thinks otherwise. By default, the screenshots you take on your Mac are saved in PNG format. You can change this using the following command

• Tap command + space to summon spotlight search.
• Type “terminal” and hit enter. This will open the terminal window.
• Copy and paste the following in the terminal window: defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg

Your Mac will now save screenshots in JPG format. If you want to save them in PDF format, replace the “jpg” in the above command with “pdf”.

On a Mac, you can take screenshots with a few quick keyboard shortcuts. But Mac OS X also includes more powerful screenshot tools, too. Here are some of the many ways you can get a screenshot on OS X.

Take a Screenshot of Your Entire Screen

Let’s start with those keyboard shortcuts. To take a screenshot of your entire screen, press Command+Shift+3. Press all three keys at once and your Mac’s desktop will flash, you’ll hear a camera sound, and the screenshot will appear on your desktop as a .png file.

Take a Screenshot of Part of Your Screen

To take a screenshot of part of your screen, press Command+Shift+4 instead. Your mouse cursor will turn into a crosshair icon. Click and drag to select part of your screen. Release the mouse button and that part of your screen will be saved as a .png file on your desktop. To cancel the screenshot, press the Esc key.

Take a Screenshot of a Window

You can also take a screenshot of a specific window. First, press Command+Shift+4. Your mouse cursor will turn into a crosshair. Press the Spacebar and your mouse cursor will turn into a camera icon instead. Move your cursor over the window you want to screenshot and it will appear highlighted. Click the window and a screenshot of that window will appear on your desktop as a .png file.

Save Your Screenshot to the Clipboard Instead of a File

If you’d like to save a screenshot to your clipboard so you can paste it into an application instead of saving it to a file, just add the Control key to the shortcuts above. For example, you’d press Command+Shift+Control+3 instead of Command+Shift+3 and Command+Shift+Control+4 instead of Command+Shift+4. (Yeah, you’ll need a lot of fingers for this.)

You can then use Command+V to paste the screenshot into an application, or click Edit > Paste in the application.

Change the Folder Where Your Mac Saves Screenshots

Screenshots you take with the keyboard shortcuts will be saved straight to your Mac’s desktop with the filename “Screen Shot [date] at [time].png”. However, you can change where your Mac saves these screenshots, if you like. For example, you could make your Mac save screenshots directly to a Dropbox, Google Drive, or Microsoft OneDrive folder.

Follow our guide to changing where your Mac saves screenshots, which will walk you through changing a hidden setting using the terminal and restarting a system process. You’ll only have to do this once.

Take a Timed Screenshot With the Grab Application

In some cases, you may want to take a screenshot using a timer. You start the timer, which lasts for a few seconds. When the timer expires, your Mac will take a screenshot of your entire screen. This is useful when you can’t take a screenshot of something–a menu, for example–that hides itself when you start pressing the keyboard shortcut keys.

To do this, use the Grab app included with your Mac. You can launch it by pressing Command+Space to open Spotlight search, typing “Grab”, and pressing “Enter.” You can also open the Finder and find it at Applications > Utilities > Grab.

Grab won’t open a window on your desktop, but launch it–or click it on your dock–and you’ll see a Grab menu at the top of your screen. Click Capture > Timed Screen to take a timed screenshot.

Click “Start Timer” in the Timed Screen Grab window and you’ll see the timer count down.

Your Mac will take a screenshot after ten seconds and it will appear in the Grab window. Click File > Save to save the screenshot if you’re happy with it.

You can also use the Grab application to take other types of screenshots with the Capture > Selection, Capture > Window, and Capture > Screen options. However, you’ll probably find it easier to take screenshots using the above keyboard shortcuts.

Take Screenshots With a Third-Party Application

There are a wide variety of third-party apps for your Mac that allow you to take screenshots, too. Many people have their own favorite application, but we’ve used and like Skitch for Mac.

Evernote purchased Skitch and has killed off the Skitch applications for all other platforms, but still offers the Mac app–probably because it’s so popular. Skitch offers a variety of simple editing features for easily resizing, cropping, and marking up your screenshots. It’s also completely free. You don’t even need to sign in with an Evernote account to use it.

Once you have your screenshots, you can double-click the .png files to open and view them in the Preview app included with Mac OS X (unless you’ve selected another image program as your default application for PNG files). Preview also included a variety of a variety of tools for editing these screenshots and other images. To record a video of your Mac’s screen instead of a screenshot, use the QuickTime application included with Mac OS X.

Keyboard shortcuts to take screenshots might seem straightforward on your Mac, but each technique captures a different part of your screen.

Ready, set, screenshot.

If your workflow requires taking regular screenshots on your MacBook or Mac Pro, then you’ll need to know three common keyboard shortcuts, and a fourth if you have a MacBook with a touch bar. One of these techniques is a little newer. You might remember it from MacOS Mojave, but if you didn’t, rest assured that it has carried over to MacOS Catalina .

Stick around, too, because we also walk you through how to work with those screenshots once you’ve taken them. Apple gives you a fair number of options to easily save, delete and open the screenshot for markup, tools that I’ve come to appreciate and regularly use.

Command-Shift-3

This keyboard shortcut captures a screenshot of your entire screen.

Shift-Command-4

Use this keyboard combo to turn your cursor into a crosshair, which you can drag to select a portion of your screen to capture. Release the mouse button or trackpad to take the shot.

You have a number of other options after hitting Shift-Command-4:

Press and release the space bar: The crosshair turns into a little camera icon, which you can move over any open window. Click on your desired window to take a screenshot of it. A screenshot captured by this method features a white border around the window with a bit of a drop shadow.

Press and hold the space bar (after dragging to highlight an area but before releasing the mouse button or trackpad): This locks in the shape and size of the selection area but lets you reposition it on the screen. It’s very handy if your initial selection area is off by a few pixels; just hold down the space bar to reposition it before releasing the mouse button to snap a screenshot.

Hold down the Shift key (after dragging to highlight an area but before releasing the mouse button or trackpad): This locks in each side of the selection area made with the crosshairs save the bottom edge, letting you move your mouse up or down to position the bottom edge.

Without releasing the mouse button, release the Shift key and hit it again to reposition the right edge of your selection area. You can toggle between moving the bottom edge and right edge by keeping the mouse button or touchpad engaged and pressing the Shift key.

Up close and personal with the new 16-inch MacBook Pro

Shift-Command-5

A relatively new shortcut command introduced in MacOS Mojave (2018), this combination calls up a small panel at the bottom of your display with your screen capture options. There are three screenshot buttons that let you capture the entire screen, a window or a selection of your screen.

Likewise, the two video-recording buttons let you record your entire screen or a selection of it. On the left is an X button to close the screenshot panel, but you can also just hit the Escape key to exit out.

On the right side is an Options button. It lets you choose where to save your screenshot — Desktop, Documents, Clipboard, Mail, Messages or Preview — and set a 5- or 10-second delay so you can line up items that might otherwise disappear when you engage your screenshot tool.

By default, the Show Floating Thumbnail option is enabled, which puts a little preview thumbnail of your just-capture screenshot in the lower-right corner of your screen, similar to the screenshot procedure with iOS. Unlike your iPhone ($899 at Amazon) , you can turn off this preview thumbnail on your Mac. Lastly, you can choose to show your mouse pointer in a screenshot or video.

If the screenshot panel is in your way, you can grab its left edge and drag it to a new spot on your screen.

Bonus for Touch Bar MacBooks: Command-Shift-6

If you’ve got the 16-inch MacBook Pro or another model with the Touch Bar, did you know you can take a screenshot of what’s currently showing on the Touch Bar? Just hit Command-Shift-6 to take a very wide and skinny screenshot of your Touch Bar.

Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

Easy annotation

If you embrace the Floating Thumbnail, then you’ll gain quick access to Markup tools to annotate your screenshot. You can swipe the Floating Thumbnail away or just let it slip away on its own and it’ll be saved to the spot you last saved a screenshot. Click the Floating Thumbnail and it’ll open in a Markup View preview window (but not Preview) with all of the markup tools you get in Preview.

You can right-click the Floating Thumbnail to:

• Save the screenshot to your desktop, Documents folder or clipboard
• Open it in Mail, Messages, Preview or Photos
• Show in Finder
• Delete
• Open in in the Markup preview window described above
• Close (and save)

Longtime Mac screenshotters may be slow to adopt the new Command-Shift-5 shortcut, but I find myself using it more for the ability to annotate screenshots without needing to open Preview and quickly delete screenshots that I know immediately I messed up. The 5- and 10-second delay options are also useful and appreciated additions.

This story is updated periodically with new information.

Capture your screen on Windows, Mac, Android, or iOS

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Screenshots, or screengrabs, can be helpful when you want to demonstrate something that would be difficult to explain in words. There are multiple ways to take screenshots on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS devices.

Instructions in this article apply to various operating systems, but some steps may differ depending on the model of your device.

What Is a Screenshot?

When used as a verb, screenshot means capturing a static image of a device’s display. In other words, it takes a picture of whatever shows on the computer, mobile, or tablet screen at the time.

Screenshots can be useful for many situations:

• Sharing screen images with friends on social media.
• Showcasing software for a review.
• Demonstrating how to do something in a tutorial.
• Showing an error message or software issue for technical support troubleshooting.
• Saving snippets of anything that cannot be easily printed.

How to Take Screenshots

You don’t need special software to take a picture of the screen because screenshot functionality is built into all current operating systems. Some devices even capture specific portions of the screen.

How to Take Screenshots on Windows

To capture the screen on a Windows PC:

• Press the Print Screen key to take a screenshot of the whole screen.
• Press Alt+Print Screen to screenshot the active window.
• Press Windows key+Print Screen to take a screenshot that includes the entire Windows interface (only available in Windows 8 and later).

The Print Screen button is abbreviated as PrintSc, PrtSc, or some similar variant on some keyboards.

How to Take Screenshots on Mac

To capture the screen on a Mac:

• Press Command+Shift+3 to capture the entire screen.
• Press Command+Shift+4 to take a picture of the window the mouse cursor is currently hovering over.

How to Take Screenshots on Android

To capture the screen on an Android phone or tablet, press Power+Volume Down simultaneously.

How to Take Screenshots on iOS

To take a screenshot on an iOS device:

• On the iPad, iPod touch, and iPhone 8 or earlier, press Home+Sleep/Wake.
• On the iPad Pro and iPhone X or newer, press Volume Up+Sleep/Wake.

Screen Capture Programs

Many graphics programs, such as Photoshop, also have built-in screen-capture capabilities. Dedicated screen capture software might offer several benefits:

• Automatically name and save screenshots to a specific folder.
• Auto-scroll functions to capture long documents like web pages that don’t fit on the screen.
• Timed captures to add a delay while you prepare the workspace before capturing.
• Markup tools that add callouts, arrows, shapes, and text annotations to screenshots.
• Options to include or exclude the mouse cursor.

There is screen recording software available that captures all of the activity on a computer monitor and turn it into a video file. Such options include:

If you see something great online, it’s only natural that you’ll want to share it with others. Obviously you could send a link, but what if you only want to point out a specific section or image?

This is where screenshots come in. You can take high quality screenshots on any Mac computer, and then edit or share them however you like. They’ll automatically be titled “Screen Shot,” followed by the date and time you took them.

If you’ve bought or updated your Mac since 2018, you even have access to the advanced screenshot menu, which will let you take videos of your screen too.

Best of all, taking screenshots on a Mac only takes a single keyboard shortcut. Which shortcut you use, though, depends on how you want to take the picture.

Here’s four ways to take screenshots on a Mac.

How to screenshot on a Mac

Every method for screenshotting on a Mac uses the Shift, Command, and number keys. In short:

• Shift + Command + 3 takes a screenshot of the entire screen.
• Shift + Command + 4 lets you highlight a specific part of the screen to capture.
• Shift + Command + 5 opens the screenshot menu, which lets you do both of the above, as well as record videos and edit your screenshot options.
• Shift + Command + 6 takes a screenshot of the Touch Bar, if your Mac has one.

It should also be noted that if you hold down the Control key while you take your screenshot, it’ll copy the screenshot to your clipboard instead of saving it.

We’ll go over all of them below, starting with the most widely applicable method: the screenshot menu.

Taking a screenshot with the screenshot menu

The screenshot menu was introduced in MacOS Mojave, the big 2018 update — if you’ve bought or updated your Mac since then, there’s a very good chance you have it.

To open this menu, press Shift + Command + 5. A small bar will appear at the bottom of the screen.

The three icons on the left will let you take a screenshot of the entire screen, a specific window, or a highlighted section, respectively. The next two icons to the right will let you record a video of the entire screen, or just a highlighted section.

The “Capture” button on the far right will take the screenshot, or begin recording the video.

There’s also a menu labeled “Options.” This menu lets you choose where to save the screenshot or video, how much time you want between pressing “Capture” and the screenshot or video being taken, and more.

Of note in this menu is the “Show Floating Thumbnail” option, which is turned on by default. When this is enabled, after you take a screenshot, a tiny thumbnail of it will appear in the bottom-right corner of the screen. The screenshot won’t be saved to your computer until this thumbnail disappears after a few seconds.

However, you can click this thumbnail before it disappears to open the screenshot in a new window. In this window, you can draw or type on it, crop it, share it via your Apple ID account, or delete it.

Taking a screenshot of a highlighted section or window

If you want to take a quick screenshot without going through the screenshot menu, you can use this shortcut.

When you press Shift + Command + 4, your mouse cursor will turn into a crosshair. You can then click and drag this crosshair across the screen to create a highlighted box — as soon as you let go of the mouse, your Mac will screenshot everything in the box.

But this isn’t all you can do with this shortcut.

If you press Shift + Command + 4, and then press the spacebar, your crosshair will turn into a camera icon. You can then click on any open window to take a screenshot of that window — when the screenshot is saved, it’ll have a gray border around it.

If you drag the crosshair to create a highlighted box, and then press andholdthe spacebar, it’ll lock the box so it can’t change size. You can then drag the box anywhere on the screen. Just release the spacebar to take your screenshot.

Similarly, if you drag to create a highlighted box and then press and hold the Shift key, you can adjust solely the height or width of the box. Move your mouse up or down to adjust the height, and left or right to adjust the width. Let go of the mouse to take the screenshot.

Taking a screenshot of the entire screen

Pressing Shift + Command + 3 will immediately take a screenshot of your entire screen. If you’re using multiple monitors, it’ll take and save screenshots of every monitor.

Note that unless you enable it in the screenshot menu, this won’t capture your mouse cursor. And if you have the floating thumbnail option enabled, taking screenshots in quick succession will capture the floating thumbnail in the corner, too.

Taking a screenshot of the Touch Bar

Not all Mac computers have the Touch Bar, a long but thin touch screen built into the keyboard. But if your MacBook does have one, you likely know how useful it can be.

If there’s something on your Touch Bar that you’d like to show others, you can screenshot it by pressing Shift + Command + 6. This will immediately capture everything on your Touch Bar.

If your Mac doesn’t have a Touch Bar, pressing this won’t do anything.

Maya Kachroo-Levine contributed to an earlier version of this article.

Related coverage from Tech Reference:

How to take a screenshot on Windows 10 computers in several different ways

How to change the language and ‘region’ on your Mac, for multilingual users and those living abroad

How to connect your AirPods to a Mac computer, whether or not you have a paired iPhone

How to clear the cache on your Mac computer to make it run more efficiently

How to restore your Mac computer from a Time Machine backup

Insider Inc. receives a commission when you buy through our links.

Insider Inc. receives a commission when you buy through our links.

• Screenshots can easily be taken using keyboard shortcuts, and will automatically appear on your Mac’s desktop.
• If you can’t find them there, there are a couple ways to check if your screenshot went somewhere else.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

For some, taking screenshots is an essential part of using a computer. They can act as digital sticky notes, help you share memes with friends, and even get work done.

Screenshots can be easily taken on a Mac using keyboard shortcuts like these:

• Hold down Command + Shift + 3 to capture the entire screen
• Hold down Command + Shift + 4 and then drag a box around whatever you want to capture

Once you enter those shortcuts, you’ll hear a camera-click noise (if your computer isn’t muted) and you should see a small version of the capture appear in the bottom right corner of your Mac’s screen. You can open the screenshot by clicking that preview open before it disappears (but you’ll have to be quick.)

Here’s where your screenshot will go after that.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

iMac (From $1,099 at Apple)

Where do screenshots go on a Mac?

By default, screenshots appear on your Mac’s desktop. So you’ll probably want to clean those up (i.e. organize them in a folder, or delete if you no longer need them) if you plan on taking a lot of screenshots. Your file names will include the date and time you took them, making it a bit easier to find the correct one if you take a lot of similar shots.

What if I can’t find my screenshots?

If you’re in a program with different keyboard shortcuts, your screenshot may be saved to a folder, instead of your desktop. In that case, you can figure out where it went by checking the program’s preferences.

It’s also a good idea to check your check the program’s folder within your Applications. To do that, go to your Finder (the half-tone face in your bottom toolbar) and toggle down to the Applications section.

If you still can’t find them, click the magnifying glass icon in your top toolbar (that’s the Spotlight feature) and search for “screenshots.” If that doesn’t work, it’s a good idea to check that your computer’s keyboard shortcuts haven’t been altered.

To do so, click the Apple icon in the top-left corner and select “System Preferences.” Then click “Keyboard” and toggle over to the “Shortcuts” tab, then click “Screenshots” in the left toolbar and pick “restore defaults” or tap a listed shortcut and input a new shortcut to change that one without altering the others.

If you recently made the switch from Windows to Mac, you may be wondering how to take screenshots in Apple’s operating system. There are several ways you can take screenshots on a Mac. You can capture all of your screen – the equivalent of Print Screen on a PC – or you can capture just a part of it with a few keystrokes. This article explains how to do both.

How to Take a Print Screen-Style Screenshot on Mac

In macOS, you can take a screenshot by hitting the Shift-Command-3 keys in combination. By default, screenshots are saved on your Mac’s desktop in PNG format. If you have additional displays connected to your Mac, these screens will be captured at the same time as separate individual images.

How to Capture a Selection of the Screen on Mac

If you want to capture just part of the screen, you can use the Shift-Command-4 key combination. This turns the cursor into a crosshair selection tool which you can then drag out with a left click to select what you want to capture. Simply let go of the left mouse button or the trackpad on a Mac notebook to take the shot.

If you just want to capture the contents of a specific window that’s open on your desktop, hover the cursor over the window in question and tap the spacebar. The crosshair will turn into a camera and the window will turn a shade of blue. Click the left mouse button or the trackpad to take the shot.

Tip: If you tack the Control key onto either of the shortcuts described above, macOS copies the captured image to the clipboard, which is useful if you want to paste it into an application that can edit or view images. Otherwise, screenshots taken using key shortcuts are saved straight to your desktop.

How Take Screenshot On Mac Laptop

Ready for more? Then be sure to check out our more extensive screenshots guide for Mac, which explains how to change the file format and save location of screenshots, and includes additional tips on controlling the behavior of selection screenshots.

In addition, Apple also provides a screen capture interface in macOS Mojave and later that unifies the screenshot and screen recording features on Mac, making accessing them easier from one place. You can launch it using the Shift-Command-5 keyboard combination. Read our special guide to learn how it works.

There may be times when you need to take a screenshot on your Mac. You might have a software bug to report, an important pop-up, threaded web conversations, or even just a payment receipt you need for your records.

There are several ways to take a screenshot on a Mac computer running OS X or MacOS operating systems. You can

• Take a screenshot on Mac with Grab Utility.
• Use keyboard shortcuts to grab a screenshot.
• Use third-party applications to take your screenshot.

Keep in mind, you can also record your screen instead of taking a picture by using the QuickTime application.

How to take a screenshot on Mac with Grab Utility

The most common way to take a screenshot on a Mac is by using the built-in Grab application. This application can be found within your Utility folder located inside Finder and Launchpad.

Click on Finder or Launchpad to locate the Utility folder.

Using the grab application is easy. There is no “windowed” user interface for this application. It is completely controlled from the MacOS or OS X menu bar and/or keyboard shortcuts.

Using the grab application, you can choose four different types of screenshots.

• Selection: This option allows you to highlight the desired area you want to capture. Select Selection or press Shift+Command+A on your keyboard. Click and drag the highlighted box to make your selection.
• Window: The Window option allows you to choose a specific window to capture. Select Window or press Shift+Command+W. Click on the desired window.
• Screen: Choosing the Screen selection lets you to capture the whole screen. Select Screen or press Command+Z. Click anywhere on the screen.
• Timed Screen: The Timed Screen choice captures the whole screen on a ten-second delay. Select Timed Screen or press Shift+Command+Z. Click anywhere on the screen to start the timer.

Choose the option that works best for your needs. Once you have taken the screenshot, a pop-up will appear to show you a preview of your shot. When you close the preview, your Mac will prompt you to save your image. If you are happy with the results, label the image, select a save destination, and click on the Save button. Otherwise, click Don’t Save and try again.

Grab saves in .tiff format automatically. If you need to convert the image into a friendlier format, you will have to do so with another application.

How to take a screenshot on a Mac using keyboard shortcuts

If you do not want to deal with launching the Grab application or converting your images from .tiff to formats such as .png or .jpeg , then you are in luck. Mac has offered a way to take screenshots with keyboard shortcuts for decades now. This little-known feature is easy to use.

• Screen: Press Shift+Command+3 and a .png of the entire screen will automatically save to your desktop.
• Selection: Press Shift+Command+4, click and drag curser to make your selection. Press Escape (esc) to cancel. A .png of your selection will be waiting on your desktop.
• Window:Press Shift+Command+4 and the spacebar. Select desired window. Press Spacebar again to return back to selection mode or esc to cancel. A .png of the selected window will be saved to your desktop.

If you are using a PC keyboard, the following commands are as follows:

• Control is the Ctrl key.
• Option is the Alt key.
• The button with the Windows logo is the Command key.

Newer versions of Mac OS or OS X label the saved file as “Screen Shot” followed by the date and time. Older versions of Mac OS or OS X label the saved file as “Image” followed by a number, but only if more than one file labeled “Image” is located on your desktop.

How to take a screenshot on a Mac using third-party applications

There are numerous applications available for taking screenshots. You can scour the web or look inside the Mac App Store for any screenshot application that might appeal to you.

Click on the App Store located on the MacOS and OS X dock to launch the application.

Type the word screenshot in the search box and hit enter.

Be aware that many screenshot applications do cost money. Check to see the cost before you download. If you do decide to download an application that costs money and you are not happy with it, you must remove it promptly in order to receive a refund.

Keep in mind, there are countless applications to try and using them will likely differ from the MacOS and OS X native process.

Lightshot, Apowersoft Screenshot, and Cloud App, are the top-rated applications in this category.

How to record your screen on a Mac using the QuickTime application

To record your screen instead of taking a photo, simply launch the Quickytime.app from Finder or Launchpad and press Control+Command+N on your keyboard.

1. When the black box appears labeled “Screen Recording,” click on the Record button.
2. Follow the on-screen instructions to finish recording your screen.

If you are a diehard Apple fan and also own iOS devices, you can take screenshots with them by pressing the Home and Lock buttons at the same time. The image will be saved to your camera roll and you can access it through the Photos app.

Do you need to take a screenshot of the Mac screen? Snapping screenshots on the Mac is very easy, achieved through the usage of keyboard shortcuts. Basically this means that you will press a combination of keystrokes on the Mac keyboard to capture the screenshot.

Mac OS has powerful screenshot tools that go beyond the simple print screen methods that some computer users are accustomed to from the Windows world. Read on to learn at least seven different methods to take a screenshot on any Mac computer. We’ll also have a short screenshot FAQ section about adjusting screenshot file types, screenshot saved file location, and capturing screen recordings too.

How to Take a Screen Shot on Mac: 7 Ways to Snap Screenshots

You can use any of the following keyboard shortcuts to capture and take screenshots directly in Mac OS, you can snap screenshots of the desktop, Finder, or any running and open applications. Whatever is on the screen of the Mac will be captured as an image file. If you have audio turned up on the Mac, you will hear an audible snapshot sound effect when the screenshot has bene successfully taken. The keyboard shortcuts to take screenshots on Mac are the same with all versions of Mac OS, including MacOS Catalina, MacOS Mojave, High Sierra, macOS Sierra, OS X El Capitan, Yosemite, Mac OS X Mavericks, Mountain Lion, Lion, Snow Leopard, and basically any other version of Mac OS or Mac OS X that you’ll possibly come across.

Command + Shift + 3 takes a screenshot of the entire Mac screen. This is the most commonly used screen shot method for most Mac users

The screenshot methods where you use the Control key in addition to the other key sequences requires the use of the paste function, which means you can paste the screenshot captured into any existing document, or into a new file from Preview or any other app. Using Paste is typically achieved with Command + V or the ‘Edit’ menu > Paste, these approaches will use the copy and paste functions on the Mac.

For Mac users who have switched to the Mac from the Windows world, the Command + Control + Shift + 3 approach can be thought of as the Mac equivalent to Print Screen in that it copies the screen capture directly to the clipboard of the computer.

Where do screenshots save on a Mac?

By default the screenshot file will save on the desktop of the Mac.

If you use one of the screenshot keyboard shortcuts that copies the screenshot to the clipboard, the screenshot will save to the clipboard to be pasted elsewhere. The screenshot will remain in the Mac clipboard until it is overwritten by something else copied to the clipboard.

How can I change image format of screenshots on Mac?

By default the screenshot image file type on Mac will be PNG.

If you want to learn how to change the screenshot image file type on a Mac you can do so with these instructions. You can choose from various image file types for the screenshot including JPEG, TIFF, PNG, PDF, or GIF.

Can you change the name of screenshot files generated?

Can I take screenshots from the command line?

Yes, it is possible to initiate screenshots from the command line on a Mac. Read more about the screencapture command line tool here.

Can you record videos of the Mac screen?

What do screenshots on a Mac look like?

Whatever is on the screen of the Mac will be captured in the screenshot. Thus screenshots look like whatever was on the display when the screenshot was initiated. That can be Mac desktop, open apps, windows, games, or anything else on the screen.

Here are some example screenshots from Macs, taken with the keyboard shortcuts to capture screenshots discussed above.

A sample screenshot of a Mac desktop:

An example screenshot of an application open on a Mac:

An example screenshot showing a game running on Mac:

An example of a screenshot showing an application running a virtual machine on a Mac:

As you can see, whatever is on the screen will be captured in the screenshot.

What about taking screenshots of iPhone or iPad?

You can also take screenshots of any iPhone or iPad, though how it is achieved differs per iOS device. You can learn how to take a screenshot on iPhone X, XS Max, XS, XR and other iPhone models without a Home button which is similar to taking screenshots of iPad Pro, though that is different from taking a screenshot on iPhone models with a Home button like the 8 Plus, 8, 7 Plus, 7, SE, etc and iPad models with a Home button.

There are bound to be moments when you want to take a screenshot on your Mac, whether it’s to illustrate an app’s behavior, capture a moment in time or simply to share what your desktop looks like. Thankfully, macOS includes multiple ways to capture your screen, most of which only require a simple keyboard command or shortcut — we’ll show you how to take a screenshot with those methods.

How to take a basic screenshot on a Mac

The simplest way to take a screenshot on your Mac is to capture the entire screen. That can be helpful if you want to snap a picture of multiple apps or windows, and makes it easier if you want to capture system elements like the menu bar, desktop, and dock. You just need to remember a simple system command.

1. Press Shift, Command, and 3 at the same time. You should hear a camera sound.
2. If you see a thumbnail in the screen corner, you can click it to edit the image.
3. The image will save to your desktop with a file name indicating when it was taken.
4. If you want to copy a screenshot to the clipboard, hold Control while you capture the screenshot.

Take Screenshot On Windows

How to capture a window or menu on a Mac

You’ll sometimes want to capture a screenshot for a single app or a menu. This not only produces a smaller, less cluttered image, but can save you the trouble of having to reshuffle your desktop to get a perfect picture. The process is only slightly more involved than taking a basic screenshot.

1. Find the app window or menu you want for your screenshot.
2. Press Shift, Command, 4, and the spacebar at the same time. The mouse pointer should change to a camera.
3. Click on the window or menu you want to capture. MacOS includes the window’s shadow by default (see above), but holding Option when you click eliminates the shadow.
4. If you see a thumbnail in the screen corner, you can click it to edit the image.
5. The image will save to your desktop with a file name indicating when it was taken.
6. If you want to copy a screenshot to the clipboard, hold Control while you capture the screenshot.

How to capture part of the screen on a Mac

In some cases, you’ll want to capture very specific parts of the screen on a Mac — a portion of a website, a social media post, or an important section in an app. This is quite an easy task, although you will want to remember a few extra commands and options.

1. Press Shift, Command, and 4 at the same time. A crosshair will appear with numbers indicating the pixel position on the screen.
2. Click, hold, and drag to select the screen area you want to capture. You’ll see numbers indicating the width and height of the resulting image in pixels.
3. Let go of the mouse or trackpad button to take the screenshot. Alternately, you can press Esc to cancel the screenshot.
4. If you see a thumbnail in the screen corner, you can click it to edit the shot.
5. The image will save to your desktop with a file name indicating when it was taken.
6. If you want to copy a screenshot to the clipboard, hold Control while you capture the screenshot.

How to capture using the Screenshot app on a Mac

If you want more control over how you capture screenshots on a Mac, you can open the Screenshots app in macOS Mojave or later. Most of its functionality is covered by the keyboard shortcuts we’ve discussed earlier, but there are some options that may be important if you need to specify a folder, set a timer, or even record your screen.

1. Press Shift, Command, and 5 at the same time. The Screenshots app will appear.
2. By default, part of the screen will be highlighted. You can click and drag the edges of this to customize the area you want to grab, and click Capture to take an image.
3. Click the icons in the floating interface to customize what you capture. From left to right, you can capture the entire screen, capture a window, capture a screen portion, record the whole screen, or record a portion of the screen.
4. Clicking Options lets you choose the destination folder for screenshots, set a timer, display thumbnails after capture or show the mouse pointer in captures.
5. The image will save to your desktop or specified folder with a file name indicating the time it was taken.
6. If you want to copy a screenshot to the clipboard, hold Control while you capture the screenshot.