How To Screenshot On Mac
This short guide will teach you how to take a screenshot on your Mac. These instructions are the same whether you have OS X or macOS. If you’re using a Windows machine, check out this guide on how to take a screenshot on PC.
The screen capture functionality on your Mac is amazing because it’s capable of taking so many different kinds of screenshots: You can take screenshots of your entire screen, a single application, or even drag a marquee to screenshot a specific area. These screenshots can then be saved to the desktop or copied to the clipboard — all of this is controlled with different keyboard combinations.
Command (⌘)-Shift (⇧)-3
Capture the whole screen and save to desktop
This is a “normal” screenshot, the equivalent of a Mac print screen. This screenshots your entire screen and automatically saves the file to your desktop.
To do this, use the following key combination:
Command (⌘)-Shift (⇧)-3
A small preview of the screenshot will appear in the bottom right corner of your screen. Wait a few seconds for it to disappear or click on it, click the [x] close button, and your file will appear on your desktop.
Command (⌘)-Control (⌃)-Shift (⇧)-3
Capture the whole screen and copy to clipboard
This keyboard combination will screenshot your whole screen and copy it to the clipboard for pasting into Slack, Messages, or anywhere else:
Command (⌘)-Control (⌃)-Shift (⇧)-3
Command (⌘)-Shift (⇧)-4
Capture a portion of the screen and save to desktop
To take a screenshot of a particular part of your screen and save it to your desktop:
Command (⌘)-Shift (⇧)-4
After you press this key combination, your mouse pointer will turn into crosshairs. You can now click and drag over the portion of the screen you want to capture.
Command (⌘)-Control (⌃)-Shift (⇧)-4
Capture a portion of the screen and copy to clipboard
To take a screenshot of a portion of your screen and copy it to the clipboard:
Command (⌘)-Control (⌃)-Shift (⇧)-4
As with the previous version, you will see crosshairs after hitting this combination. You will need to click in drag in order to take the screen shot.
Command (⌘)-Shift (⇧)-4 then [SPACEBAR]
Capture a single window or application and save to desktop
You can also take a screenshot of a single window (or application) and save it to your desktop! To do this, press:
Command (⌘)-Shift (⇧)-4
Then, press [SPACEBAR], turning your cursor into a camera. Finally, click on the window you wish to screenshot. The screenshot will now be saved to your desktop.
By default, the screenshot will have a drop shadow around it. You can also remove the drop-shadow from your Mac screenshots if you wish. I did this since I think the screenshots look nicer without a drop-shadow.
Command (⌘)-Control (⌃)-Shift (⇧)-4 then [SPACEBAR]
Capture a single window or application and copy to clipboard
The following will take a screenshot of a single window/application and copy it to your clipboard:
Command (⌘)-Control (⌃)-Shift (⇧)-4
Press [SPACEBAR] and click on the window or app you wish to screenshot. The screenshot is now on your clipboard.