This tutorial will go through the different ways you can take a screenshot on macOS.
Being able to take a screenshot is a fundamental task, but it can be confusing if you are moving from a different operating system. On a Mac, you can achieve a screenshot by pressing a combination of keys which we cover further in this tutorial.
We will touch on the various methods you can use to capture the screen or part of the screen. In most situations, you will want to screenshot the entire screen. However, you may find the tools for capturing part of the screen or a specific window useful.
This tutorial has been tested on macOS Ventura. The steps might differ slightly if you use a different version of macOS.
Screenshot the Entire Screen
You will need to use the following keyboard shortcut to capture the entire screen. SHIFT + COMMAND + 3. If you also press CONTROL, it will save the screenshot to your clipboard instead of the default location.
Afterward, the screenshot will appear at the bottom right corner of the screen. If you click on the screenshot, you can edit it.
Below is an example of a screenshot of the full screen on macOS.
Screenshot Part of the Screen
You can use the SHIFT + COMMAND + 4 to capture part of a screen. Once you press the keys, your cursor will turn into a crosshair. Use the crosshair to click, drag and select the part of the screen you want to screenshot. Once you release the mouse click, the screenshot will occur.
Afterward, the screenshot will appear at the bottom right corner of the screen. If you click on the screenshot, you can edit it.
There are a few things to note when using this screenshot functionality.
- If you wish to cancel the screenshot, press ESC while you are still holding down the mouse button.
- Holding down the SPACEBAR while dragging the selection area will allow you to move the selection area to a different spot on the screen.
- If you hold down CONTROL, it will save the screenshot to your clipboard.
Below is an example of screenshotting part of the screen on macOS.
Screenshot a Window
If you want to capture a specific window or menu, you can use the SHIFT + COMMAND + 4 shortcut key combination, then press the SPACEBAR.
After pressing the SPACEBAR, your cursor will turn into a camera icon. When you hover over a window or menu, it will be highlighted in blue. The screenshot software will capture this highlighted area if you click on it. To cancel the screenshot, press ESC.
If you do not want to capture the window drop shadow effect, holding down the OPTION key will exclude it from your screenshot.
You can save the screenshot to the clipboard by holding down CONTROL. Otherwise, it will save in the default location.
Below is an example of a screenshot with the macOS window drop shadow effect.
Below is an example of a screenshot without the drop shadow effect.
Load the Screenshot Toolbar
The screenshot toolbar has a wide range of options you can pick from, such as screen recordings and many of the options we discussed above.
To load the toolbar, enter SHIFT + COMMAND + 5.
Starting from left to right, each choice allows you to do the following.
- Close the screenshot toolbar.
- Capture the entire screen.
- Capture a selected window.
- Capture a selected portion of the screen.
- Record the entire screen.
- Record a selected portion of the screen.
- Options allow you to change a range of settings such as where to save the screenshot, a timer, microphone selection, show floating thumbnail, remember last selection, and show mouse clicks.
- Record will start recording the screen. If you need to stop recording, press COMMAND + CONTROL + ESC.
Below is an example of how your screen will look after pressing the screenshot toolbar hotkey combination (SHIFT + COMMAND + 5).
Where Screenshots are Saved
By default, the software will save screenshots to the desktop of your Mac. They will have the name “screenshot [DATE] at [Time].png“. You can move the images off the desktop by dragging them into a folder.
To change the location of where screenshots are saved, open the screenshot toolbar by pressing SHIFT + COMMAND + 5. Next, click options, and at the top of this menu, you have a selection of different places where you can save your Mac screenshots and recordings.
Also, pressing the Control key while you take a screenshot will have macOS save the screenshot to the clipboard. If you are using the universal clipboard, you can access the screenshot on your other Apple devices.
Changing the Keyboard Shortcuts
You must go into the settings application if you wish to change the default keyboard shortcuts. The following steps will take you through all the steps that you will need to do.
1. First, click on the apple in the upper left corner of the screen and select system settings.
2. On this screen, enter “screenshot” into the search bar in the upper left corner. Next, click and open the keyboard shortcuts item that displays underneath the search.
3. In the next menu, select “Screenshots“. Here, you can disable or change any of the shortcut keys for taking a screenshot.
Conclusion
You should now have a good idea of how you can screenshot on a Mac computer. These methods are extremely useful whenever you want to capture your display. For example, all the screenshots in this tutorial were captured using the methods mentioned above.
If you want to learn more on Mac, we have plenty of macOS tutorials that cover a range of topics. For example, knowing how to do a traceroute on your Mac is useful for diagnosing network issues. I highly recommend checking it out.
Please let us know if you notice a mistake or if an important topic is missing from this guide.
