Mac screenshots: 4 ways to capture your MacBook's screen. Keyboard shortcuts to take screenshots might seem straightforward on your Mac, but each technique captures a different part of your screen.
- Screenshot Captor. If you are looking for something that can do more than just capture a.
- To capture a portion of the screen, do the following: Press Command-Shift-4 to change a pointer to.
- Keyboard Shortcuts for taking screenshots on Mac Summary. Using hotkeys significantly increases the speed of your work. To take a screenshot on Mac, use the following commands. To take a screenshot of entire Desktop screen use: Shift +⌘ + 3; To take a screenshot of.
Best screen capturing app
For many new Apple users, particularly those who are migrating from Windows and are used to that Prt Scrn (Print Screen) button, the answer to the question of how to screenshot on Mac isn’t immediately obvious.
Although it only takes pressing a couple of keys to take a screenshot on Mac, the fact remains that Mac screen capture is something that hasn’t historically felt all that intuitive. For example, in addition to different key commands for screenshotting windows vs. smaller selections, recording video of your screen for a long time was only possible through QuickTime Player.
Best screenshot apps for macOS
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Although macOS Mojave has changed much of this, how to screenshot on Mac remains a heavy-hitting search query, as not everyone uses the latest version of macOS. Below you’ll find more information on taking a screenshot on Mac (and capturing video), as well as some useful tools to make your Apple screenshot life easier.
Exploring Mac Screenshot Basics
As there’s no dedicated button for print screen on Apple products, there are a few different commands associated with screen capture on Mac that vary slightly depending on your setup.
It makes sense to divide the world of how to take a screenshot on a Mac into pre and post-Mojave, since it was with this iteration of macOS that Apple really revolutionized their Mac screenshot command system.
1. Pre-Mojave Mac screenshot commands
If for whatever reason you don’t want to upgrade to Mojave then you’ll need to familiarize yourself with a couple of key Mac screenshot shortcut options:
- ⌘ + Shift + 3
- ⌘ + Shift + 4
The first of these commands is probably the easiest to get to grips with and the quickest one to take advantage of when taking a screenshot on Mac, as it captures the entire screen at once. If you’re using multiple screens, it takes a screenshot in Mac OS for every screen you’re using simultaneously.
The second of the commands represents a slightly more nuanced way to take a snapshot on Mac. Rather than capturing your entire screen, it prompts you to select the area you want to capture. If you follow it up with a press of Space, it allows you to choose the window you want to screencap instead.
Overall, while these commands do let you print screen on Mac, they feel sort of like an afterthought rather than a fully fledged feature of macOS. With so many people looking into how to screenshot on Mac, it’s not surprising that Apple recently decided to make it a little more clear how to screenshot in Mac OS Mojave.
2. Post-Mojave Mac screenshot command menu
In addition to the above commands, which still work for Mojave users, there’s now an option for them that’s very much in keeping with the existing format of how to print screen on Mac — ⌘ + Shift + [Number].
If you’re a Mojave user, you can use ⌘ + Shift + 5to bring up a screen capture menu that will allow you to:
- Capture Entire Screen
- Capture Selected Window(s)
- Capture Selected Portion
- Record Entire Screen
- Record Selected Portion
At the right-hand side of this menu there’s also Options that lets you (among other things) select where your MacBook screenshot and video output is saved.
In other words, anyone looking for an easy answer to the question “how do you screenshot on a Mac?” could do a lot worse than considering an upgrade to Mojave in order to streamline the process.
3. Third-party Mac OS screenshot apps
You might notice that, even with the inclusion of ⌘ + Shift + 5 Mac screen capturing menu, the options for taking a Mac screenshot remain pretty basic. If you’re looking for a snipping tool for Mac that can do a little more, you may need to turn to a third-party developer.
CleanShot X is unbeatable here. The app toolkit is tailored for 50+ different changes, which makes it an ultimate screen capturing tool for Mac. You can use CleanShot X to capture screen — whether it’s a window, full screen, area, or even scrolling content, as well as record video.
While capturing anything on your desktop, you can choose to hide all desktop clutter and disable desktop notifications in one click. Once you have your clean screenshot, open it from the overlay window that pops up, and start editing. You can add annotations, blur specific parts, or draw — CleanShot X will help you customize virtually anything.
A few not-so-obvious yet cool features to mention are self-timer, screenshot pinning, and internal cloud. Want to capture something with a delay? CleanShot X has a self-timer that will help you pick the right moment. If you want your screenshot to be visible on the screen, pin it to desktop. Finally, save your screen captures to the internal CleanShot Cloud and get shareable links in a flash.
If you’re looking for something with a little more emphasis on screen recording, Capto could be the ideal solution for you. In addition to recording video, or just taking a snapshot on Mac, you can also annotate and edit captures via an intuitive iMovie-esque interface.
Capto does wonders for software walkthroughs. And given its strong visual component, it’s also perfect for those with auditory shyness who would rather add captions than a voiceover. Capto’s built-in organizer is pretty helpful for keeping track of your screenshots too.
Mac OS screenshot organization
If you take a lot of screenshots then you’re probably way too used to your Downloads folder or Desktop being clogged up with images that have filenames like “Screen Shot 2019-XX-XX at 21.36.15”.
Unfortunately, this inelegant and cluttered outcome is the default Mac screenshot shortcut. Not particularly helpful for keeping all of your images in check, especially when macOS is prone to heavily abbreviating filenames.
While it’s possible to use Finder in conjunction with Preview to view all of your caps, that still isn’t a particularly satisfying visual experience. One of the best solutions is Inboard, which functions like a private Pinterest for your desktop and allows you to tag and filter all of your screenshots for later use.
Inboard takes care of the design savvy out there too with a feature that connects your Dribbble account to import all your likes for digestion at a later date.
But even once you’ve solved the question of how to do a screenshot on a Mac, sharing those screenshots with, say, colleagues or friends isn’t necessarily the easiest thing to do.
Rather than emailing files back and forth, or having to upload everything to a public Google Drive, you might consider a solution like Dropshare. As the name suggests, it makes sharing screenshots (and other files) as simple as dropping them into the relevant area.
Dropshare connects with a range of major third-party cloud apps, but you can also lean on proprietary Dropshare Cloud if you prefer, which is helpful if you want to keep your Mac screen capture sharing separate from your other sharing activity.
The future of how to take a screenshot on a Mac
As you can see from above, learning how to screenshot on Mac isn’t particularly difficult, and screen capture on Mac is now easier than ever thanks to the addition of a dedicated MacBook screenshot and video capture menu in macOS Mojave.
It’s clear from this new feature that Apple understands the issue of how to print screen on Mac is one that has been, to put it lightly, unintuitive in the past, so you can likely expect to see further tweaks to the process in the future.
In the meantime, there are some excellent options in the snipping tool for Mac market that facilitate the process and offer a range of diverse features you won’t find among those built-in options for taking a screenshot on Mac.
Best of all, you can try all the apps mentioned here: CleanShot, Capto, Inboard, and Dropshare absolutely free with a 7-day trial of Setapp, a Mac platform with over 150 essential apps for any task at hand. Now you’re all set for your screenshotting game.
Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.
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Shortcut For Taking Screenshot Mac
- Windows 10 provides several ways to take screenshots of your entire computer screen, or just select parts of it.
- The fastest way to take a screenshot on Windows 10 is by pressing the 'PrtScn' button on your keyboard. There are various key combos to take screenshots of portions of the screen.
- Microsoft also provides a Snipping Tool to take custom screenshots, and draw on the images.
- You can take screenshots within games by opening the Game Bar with the Windows + G keyboard shortcut.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
If you need to capture a screenshot of something on your computer screen, Windows 10 offers a variety of methods for doing just that.
Whether you want to save the entire screen, or just a piece of it, we've rounded up all the most common techniques for taking a Windows 10 screenshot.
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How to take a screenshot on Windows 10 with the PrtScn key
The simplest way to save a copy of whatever is on your computer screen is to simply press the 'Print Screen' key on your keyboard. It's usually labeled 'PrtScn' (or something very similar) and is located in the top row, among or near the Function keys.
On some keyboards (particularly laptops) you might need to trigger the Print Screen using the Function key (in other words, hold the Function key and then press PrtScn).
© Dave Johnson/Business Insider The PrtScn key copies the entire screen to the clipboard, so you can paste it elsewhere, but there are several modifier keys you can use to change the way this key works. Dave Johnson/Business InsiderWindows features several PrtScn variations:
- Press PrtScn. This copies the entire screen to the clipboard. You can paste the screenshot into any program that displays images, like Paint or Microsoft Word.
- Press Alt + PrtScn. This copies the active window to the clipboard, which you can paste into another program.
- Press the Windows key + Shift + S. The screen will dim and the mouse pointer will change. You can drag to select a portion of the screen to capture. The screenshot will be copied to the clipboard, which you can paste into another program. (This shortcut only works if you have the latest version of Windows 10 installed, called the Windows 10 Creators Update.)
- Press the Windows key + PrtScn. This saves the entire screen as an image file. You can find it in the 'Pictures' folder, in a subfolder called 'Screenshots.'
How to take a screenshot on Windows 10 with Snipping Tool
Microsoft includes a much more flexible screenshot utility with Windows 10, called Snipping Tool.
You can use Snipping Tool to grab a screenshot and save it as an image file without first pasting the screenshot into another program.
How To Take A Screenshot On My Mac
1. Start the Snipping Tool from the Start menu.
2. In the 'Mode' drop down, choose the kind of screenshot shape you want — you can choose anything from full screen to rectangular to a free-form shape.
© Dave Johnson/Business Insider You can choose the kind of screenshot that Snipping Tool takes with the program's menus. Dave Johnson/Business Insider3. Click New, and your screen will freeze. You can then use the mouse to create the screenshot. The screenshot will then appear in the Snipping Tool window.
4. If you want to include something like a tooltip, which only appears after a mouse movement, you can specify how long to wait before taking the screenshot using the Delay menu.
How To Paste Screenshot On Mac
5. If you want to, once you've taken your screenshot, you can use the drawing tools to annotate the screenshot.
6. When you're done, click 'File' and then click 'Save As' to save the completed screenshot to your computer.
7. You can also click the copy button in the Snipping Tool window — it looks like two pages laid over one another — to copy the image to your clipboard.
How to take a screenshot on Windows 10 with the Game Bar
The Game Bar is an overlay you can use within most Windows games to take screenshots and record video. Here's how to use it:
1. Start a game from the Start menu or the Xbox Console Companion program.
Taking Screenshot On Mac Air
2. While playing the game, press the Windows key + G. The Game Bar overlay should appear.
© Dave Johnson/Business Insider The Game Bar has a screenshot tool that appears as an overlay on top of games. Dave Johnson/Business Insider3. Click the camera icon to take a screenshot, or you can use the keyboard shortcut: Windows key + Alt + PrtScn.
The screenshot will be automatically saved to the 'Videos' folder in a subfolder called 'Captures.'
If you're playing a game on Steam, you can also press F11 to take a screenshot. It will be added to your screenshots folder on Steam.