How to Take a Screenshot on an Apple Computer
Sunday, August 13, 2023
How to Take a Screenshot on an Apple Computer
For many new Apple users, especially those transitioning from Windows and getting used to that Prt Scrn (Print Screen) button, the answer to the question about how to take a screenshot on Mac isn't immediately obvious.
While it only takes a few keystrokes to take a screenshot on a Mac, the reality is that taking a Mac screenshot has never been so intuitive. For example, in addition to the different key commands for window capture versus smaller selections, recording your screen for a long time is only possible through QuickTime Player.
In this guide, you'll find more information on how to take screenshots on your Mac (and video), as well as helpful tools to make your Apple screen capture easy. than .
Mac Screenshot Shortcut
On any Mac, you can take high-quality screenshots and edit or share them as you see fit. You have the option to capture the entire screen, a window, or just part of it. The Shift, Command, and Numeric keys are used in all Mac screen capture techniques.
Hold Shift + Command + 3 to take a picture of your entire Mac screen.
If you only need to capture part of your screen, use Shift+Command+4. This will turn the cursor into a crosshair. To capture an area, click and drag the area, then release the mouse to take a screenshot.
To take screenshots of specific Mac windows, hold down Shift + Command + 4, then press Space. The cursor's crosshair will change to a camera icon. To take a screenshot, click after highlighting different windows with your cursor.
However, Apple's native screenshot tool only gives you five options for how to take a screenshot of your Mac. And as you read on, you'll find that there are many more available with third-party apps. So see what suits you best.
Best Screen Capture Apps for Your Mac
If you're looking for a Mac screen capture tool that can do a little more, say you want to take a scrolling image, you know that native tools can't do it. So you have to switch to a third party developer. CleanShot X is unbeatable here. This app is designed for more than 50 different edits, making it the ultimate screen capture tool for Mac. You can use CleanShot X to take screenshots - whether it's windowed, full screen, regional or even scrolling content, as well as record videos and GIFs. When capturing everything on your screen, you can choose to hide all desktop clutter and turn off desktop notifications. Once you have your own screenshot, open it from the overlay window that appears and start editing. You can add captions, blur specific sections, or draw - CleanShot X will help you customize almost anything.
A few features that aren't so obvious but worth mentioning are self-timer capture, screenshot pinning, and the internal cloud. Want to capture something with delay? CleanShot X has a timer that will help you choose the right time. If you want your screenshot to show on the desktop, pin it to the desktop. Finally, save your screenshots to the internal CleanShot Cloud and get shareable links in a snap.
Take a screenshot on Mac using the Screenshot Menu
On macOS Mojave and later, you can open the screenshot menu, then choose how you want to take the screenshot, or use a dedicated keyboard shortcut for it. each task, such as capturing a window or an area. MacOS versions released before Mojave do not have a screenshot menu, but have commands to capture part of the screen or the entire screen.
If you are a Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur, or Monterey user, you can use Command+Shift+5 to bring up a screenshot menu that allows you to:
Capture the entire screen
Capture Windows )
Capture selected part
Record entire screen
Save selected part.
On the right side of this menu, there's an Options button that lets you (among other things) choose where to save your MacBook's screenshots and video output. In other words, anyone looking for a simple answer to the question "how do I take a screenshot on a Mac?" can do much worse than switching to Mojave to streamline the process.
Screenshot of a selected area
Remember to tell us about the keyboard shortcuts? Back to details. Here's how to take a screenshot of a specific area:
Shift, Command, and 4 are the three keys to press and hold
To select the portion of the screen to capture, drag the crosshair. Press and hold the spacebar while dragging to move the selection. Press the Escape (Esc) key to stop taking screenshot
Release the mouse or trackpad button to take a screenshot
Click the thumbnail to edit the screenshot if it appears in the corner of your screen. Otherwise, wait for the screenshot to be saved to your desktop.
Take a screenshot of the entire screen
On your Mac, follow these steps to take a screenshot:
Hold down the Shift, Command, and
keys simultaneously To edit the screenshot, click thumbnail if it appears in the corner of your screen. You can also wait for the screenshot to be saved to your desktop.
How to take a screenshot of a specific section or window on Mac
Now capture a window or menu:
Open the window you want to capture
Then hold down Shift, Command, 4 and the spacebar. The pointer changes to a camera icon. If you want to cancel the screenshot, press the Escape (Esc) key.
How to take a screenshot with the Touch Bar
If you still think you can't live without that Windows-style print screen button... does your Mac have a touch bar? If so, you can create a dedicated button for taking screenshots! Here's how it works:
Go to Apple menu > System Preferences > Keyboard
Click Customize Control Strip
Select the location of the screenshot button on the Touch Bar, drag and drop the button there, and save changes.
You can now take a screenshot of your Mac using just the Touch Bar. Click the screenshot button - this will bring up the screenshot menu. Click "Save To" if you want to change where your screenshots are saved. Select what you want to capture: the entire screen, a selected area, or a window. Then just move your cursor to take a screenshot.
Third-party macOS screenshot app
In addition to the CleanShot X we mentioned above, we recommend Capto if you're looking for something with a little more emphasis on screen recording. Besides recording a video or just taking a snapshot on your Mac, you can also annotate and edit photos in the intuitive iMovie interface.
Capto works great if you want to record a video tutorial and share it anywhere. And with its powerful visual component, it's also perfect for those with low hearing who prefer adding subtitles rather than dubbing. Capto's built-in organizer is also great for keeping track of your screenshots.
Tape is the app you should consider if you need a quick way to share information with your colleagues without distracting them with calls. We have too many virtual meetings on our calendar lately, don't we? Instead, try this asynchronous screen sharing tool loved by many remote workers around the world.
With the help of Tape, you can quickly record your screen or a specific window, add voice messages, captions, and even show the webcam if you want. Your teammates can test it when it suits them.
Finally, many advanced media players have a screen capture tool. This is useful if you want to capture specific moments in a movie or video - you usually can't do this when watching movies online as most streaming services block screen capture tools. Instead, consider using Elmedia Player to play any multimedia content and take screenshots on the fly.
All of these third-party apps are available with Setapp, so you can try them all for free.
How to screen print on Mac with Preview
Preview is Apple's native image and PDF viewer - which can be an essential part of your workflow. Its screen capture tool allows you to capture part of the screen, a window, or the entire screen. The advantage of taking a screenshot in Preview is that it automatically opens the screenshot you've taken in a new preview window, so you can edit it - resize it, add captions, and more.
How to take a screenshot on your Mac using Preview? It's simple. From the application menu, select File > Take Screenshot > select the portion of the screen you want to capture > take a screenshot. From there, you're free to edit and save your screenshot to any location on your Mac.
Organize Screenshots MacOS
If you take a lot of screenshots, you're probably used to having your Downloads or Desktop folders get clogged with images like "Screenshots 2019" -XX-XX at 21.36.15". Not particularly useful for controlling all your images, especially since macOS tends to abbreviate a lot of filenames.
While it's possible to use the Finder in conjunction with Preview to display all of your capital letters, it's still not a satisfying viewing experience. One of the best solutions is PhotoBulk, a batch photo editor designed for batch renaming, resizing and compressing photos. Just drag and drop the screenshot you want to rename, enter the group name and click get started. All your renamed images will be neatly stored in their own folder.
Pro Tip: You can set the exact format for your image names and choose the exact number from which the countdown begins.
How to Share Screenshots Apple
But even after you have solved the question of how to take snapshots on your Mac, for example sharing those screenshots with colleagues or friends is not necessarily the easiest thing to do. Instead of emailing files or having to upload everything to a public Google Drive, you could consider a solution like Dropshare. As the name suggests, it makes sharing screenshots (and other files) as easy as dropping them in the appropriate area.
Dropshare connects to a large range of third-party cloud applications, but you can also rely on the proprietary Dropshare Cloud if you wish, which is useful if you want to share screenshots of your Mac in isolation. with their other sharing activities.
Conclusion
As you can see above, learning how to take screenshots on a Mac isn't particularly difficult - in fact, it's easier now than ever thanks to a dedicated screenshot capture menu. MacBook picture and video recording in macOS.
While it only takes a few keystrokes to take a screenshot on a Mac, the reality is that taking a Mac screenshot has never been so intuitive. For example, in addition to the different key commands for window capture versus smaller selections, recording your screen for a long time is only possible through QuickTime Player.
In this guide, you'll find more information on how to take screenshots on your Mac (and video), as well as helpful tools to make your Apple screen capture easy. than .
Mac Screenshot Shortcut
On any Mac, you can take high-quality screenshots and edit or share them as you see fit. You have the option to capture the entire screen, a window, or just part of it. The Shift, Command, and Numeric keys are used in all Mac screen capture techniques.
Hold Shift + Command + 3 to take a picture of your entire Mac screen.
If you only need to capture part of your screen, use Shift+Command+4. This will turn the cursor into a crosshair. To capture an area, click and drag the area, then release the mouse to take a screenshot.
To take screenshots of specific Mac windows, hold down Shift + Command + 4, then press Space. The cursor's crosshair will change to a camera icon. To take a screenshot, click after highlighting different windows with your cursor.
However, Apple's native screenshot tool only gives you five options for how to take a screenshot of your Mac. And as you read on, you'll find that there are many more available with third-party apps. So see what suits you best.
Best Screen Capture Apps for Your Mac
If you're looking for a Mac screen capture tool that can do a little more, say you want to take a scrolling image, you know that native tools can't do it. So you have to switch to a third party developer. CleanShot X is unbeatable here. This app is designed for more than 50 different edits, making it the ultimate screen capture tool for Mac. You can use CleanShot X to take screenshots - whether it's windowed, full screen, regional or even scrolling content, as well as record videos and GIFs. When capturing everything on your screen, you can choose to hide all desktop clutter and turn off desktop notifications. Once you have your own screenshot, open it from the overlay window that appears and start editing. You can add captions, blur specific sections, or draw - CleanShot X will help you customize almost anything.
A few features that aren't so obvious but worth mentioning are self-timer capture, screenshot pinning, and the internal cloud. Want to capture something with delay? CleanShot X has a timer that will help you choose the right time. If you want your screenshot to show on the desktop, pin it to the desktop. Finally, save your screenshots to the internal CleanShot Cloud and get shareable links in a snap.
Take a screenshot on Mac using the Screenshot Menu
On macOS Mojave and later, you can open the screenshot menu, then choose how you want to take the screenshot, or use a dedicated keyboard shortcut for it. each task, such as capturing a window or an area. MacOS versions released before Mojave do not have a screenshot menu, but have commands to capture part of the screen or the entire screen.
If you are a Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur, or Monterey user, you can use Command+Shift+5 to bring up a screenshot menu that allows you to:
Capture the entire screen
Capture Windows )
Capture selected part
Record entire screen
Save selected part.
On the right side of this menu, there's an Options button that lets you (among other things) choose where to save your MacBook's screenshots and video output. In other words, anyone looking for a simple answer to the question "how do I take a screenshot on a Mac?" can do much worse than switching to Mojave to streamline the process.
Screenshot of a selected area
Remember to tell us about the keyboard shortcuts? Back to details. Here's how to take a screenshot of a specific area:
Shift, Command, and 4 are the three keys to press and hold
To select the portion of the screen to capture, drag the crosshair. Press and hold the spacebar while dragging to move the selection. Press the Escape (Esc) key to stop taking screenshot
Release the mouse or trackpad button to take a screenshot
Click the thumbnail to edit the screenshot if it appears in the corner of your screen. Otherwise, wait for the screenshot to be saved to your desktop.
Take a screenshot of the entire screen
On your Mac, follow these steps to take a screenshot:
Hold down the Shift, Command, and
keys simultaneously To edit the screenshot, click thumbnail if it appears in the corner of your screen. You can also wait for the screenshot to be saved to your desktop.
How to take a screenshot of a specific section or window on Mac
Now capture a window or menu:
Open the window you want to capture
Then hold down Shift, Command, 4 and the spacebar. The pointer changes to a camera icon. If you want to cancel the screenshot, press the Escape (Esc) key.
How to take a screenshot with the Touch Bar
If you still think you can't live without that Windows-style print screen button... does your Mac have a touch bar? If so, you can create a dedicated button for taking screenshots! Here's how it works:
Go to Apple menu > System Preferences > Keyboard
Click Customize Control Strip
Select the location of the screenshot button on the Touch Bar, drag and drop the button there, and save changes.
You can now take a screenshot of your Mac using just the Touch Bar. Click the screenshot button - this will bring up the screenshot menu. Click "Save To" if you want to change where your screenshots are saved. Select what you want to capture: the entire screen, a selected area, or a window. Then just move your cursor to take a screenshot.
Third-party macOS screenshot app
In addition to the CleanShot X we mentioned above, we recommend Capto if you're looking for something with a little more emphasis on screen recording. Besides recording a video or just taking a snapshot on your Mac, you can also annotate and edit photos in the intuitive iMovie interface.
Capto works great if you want to record a video tutorial and share it anywhere. And with its powerful visual component, it's also perfect for those with low hearing who prefer adding subtitles rather than dubbing. Capto's built-in organizer is also great for keeping track of your screenshots.
Tape is the app you should consider if you need a quick way to share information with your colleagues without distracting them with calls. We have too many virtual meetings on our calendar lately, don't we? Instead, try this asynchronous screen sharing tool loved by many remote workers around the world.
With the help of Tape, you can quickly record your screen or a specific window, add voice messages, captions, and even show the webcam if you want. Your teammates can test it when it suits them.
Finally, many advanced media players have a screen capture tool. This is useful if you want to capture specific moments in a movie or video - you usually can't do this when watching movies online as most streaming services block screen capture tools. Instead, consider using Elmedia Player to play any multimedia content and take screenshots on the fly.
All of these third-party apps are available with Setapp, so you can try them all for free.
How to screen print on Mac with Preview
Preview is Apple's native image and PDF viewer - which can be an essential part of your workflow. Its screen capture tool allows you to capture part of the screen, a window, or the entire screen. The advantage of taking a screenshot in Preview is that it automatically opens the screenshot you've taken in a new preview window, so you can edit it - resize it, add captions, and more.
How to take a screenshot on your Mac using Preview? It's simple. From the application menu, select File > Take Screenshot > select the portion of the screen you want to capture > take a screenshot. From there, you're free to edit and save your screenshot to any location on your Mac.
Organize Screenshots MacOS
If you take a lot of screenshots, you're probably used to having your Downloads or Desktop folders get clogged with images like "Screenshots 2019" -XX-XX at 21.36.15". Not particularly useful for controlling all your images, especially since macOS tends to abbreviate a lot of filenames.
While it's possible to use the Finder in conjunction with Preview to display all of your capital letters, it's still not a satisfying viewing experience. One of the best solutions is PhotoBulk, a batch photo editor designed for batch renaming, resizing and compressing photos. Just drag and drop the screenshot you want to rename, enter the group name and click get started. All your renamed images will be neatly stored in their own folder.
Pro Tip: You can set the exact format for your image names and choose the exact number from which the countdown begins.
How to Share Screenshots Apple
But even after you have solved the question of how to take snapshots on your Mac, for example sharing those screenshots with colleagues or friends is not necessarily the easiest thing to do. Instead of emailing files or having to upload everything to a public Google Drive, you could consider a solution like Dropshare. As the name suggests, it makes sharing screenshots (and other files) as easy as dropping them in the appropriate area.
Dropshare connects to a large range of third-party cloud applications, but you can also rely on the proprietary Dropshare Cloud if you wish, which is useful if you want to share screenshots of your Mac in isolation. with their other sharing activities.
Conclusion
As you can see above, learning how to take screenshots on a Mac isn't particularly difficult - in fact, it's easier now than ever thanks to a dedicated screenshot capture menu. MacBook picture and video recording in macOS.