- 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.
- Once the application has opened, you can easily make the screenshot that you just captured appear on the screen. The first way of doing this is by right clicking on the mouse and clicking “paste” on the options menu. Otherwise, you can hold down control (ctrl on the keyboard) and pressing the letter V.
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.
Capturing a screen, taking a screenshot, or in PC talk, printscreening are different terms for the same desired outcome. macOS and OS X both allow for at least 13 ways to take a screenshot. In the guide below, we’ll cover the most common ways to do so on a Mac. Whether you have an iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro, the process is essentially the same as long as you’re running macOS or older OS X operating system.
Easiest Ways to Take Screenshots on Mac
1) Full Screen Selection Screenshot
If you want to capture the whole screen, the following command is the easiest way to do so.
- Hold down Shift + Command and press 3.
- In case you run two or more monitors, you need to be working on the screen you want to capture.
2) Window Selection Screenshot
If you want to capture a certain window, the following command is the easiest way to do so.
- Hold down Shift + Command and press 4
- Hit spacebar and select window you want to screenshot.
3) Custom Selection Screenshot with Variable Dimensions
If you want to capture a custom size square or rectangle, the following command is the easiest way to do so.
- Hold down Shift + Command and press 4
- Make a custom selection with your mouse or trackpad.
Overview
Take a Screenshot with Grab
Using Grab has advantages. Grab is a default application on macOS that allows for taking four different kinds of screenshots. All four types of screen grabs can be done without using your keyboard at all. Your mouse or trackpad is all you need. Furthermore, you’ll be able to chose the format of the output file as well as it’s location destination on your hard drive.
4) Capture Custom Selection
- Open Grab by locating the application on your Mac or by hitting command + space bar and typing “grab”
- Navigate to a screen you want to screenshot
- Right-click on the Grab icon in your dock and select “Capture Selection” so a prompt appears
- Make a custom selection by using your mouse or trackpad
- Save the screenshot by selecting the format, destination, and name of the file
5) Capture a Full Screen
- Open Grab by locating the application on your Mac or by hitting command + space bar and typing “grab”
- Navigate to a screen you want to screenshot
- Right-click on the Grab icon in your dock and select “Capture Screen” so a prompt appears
- Click outside the prompt to select screen you want to capture
- Click “X” to close the screenshot window
- Chose to delete or save by selecting the format, destination, and name of the file
6) Capture a Desired Window
- Open Grab by locating the application on your Mac or by hitting command + space bar and typing “grab”
- Right-click on the Grab icon in your dock and select “Capture Window” so a prompt appears
- Click the “Select Window” button
- Click the window you want to screenshot
- Click “X” to close the screenshot window
- Chose to delete or save by selecting the format, destination, and name of the file
7) Capture Timed Screen
- Open Grab by locating the application on your Mac or by hitting command + space bar and typing “grab”
- Navigate to a screen you want to screenshot
- Right-click on the Grab icon in your dock and select “Capture Screen” so a prompt appears
- Click the “Start Timer” button
- Time will go by and after 10 seconds grab takes a screenshot
- Click “X” to close the screenshot window
- Chose to delete or save by selecting the format, destination, and name of the file
Take a Screenshot with Preview
Using the native Preview application is yet another way to take screenshots on your Mac. Preview, just like Grab, comes with the basic installation of macOS or OS X.
8) Screenshot From Custom Selection
- Open Preview by locating it on your Mac. Alternatively, hit Command + Space Bar and type in “Preview.”
- While in Preview, click on File in the upper-left of the top menu bar.
- In the drop-down menu, select Take Screenshot.
- Click on From Selection.
9) Screenshot From a Desired Window
- Open Preview by locating it on your Mac. Alternatively, hit Command + Space Bar and type in “Preview.”
- While in Preview, click on File in the upper-left of the top menu bar.
- In the drop-down menu, select Take Screenshot.
- Click on From Window.
10) Screenshot from the Entire Screen
- Open Preview by locating it on your Mac. Alternatively, hit Command + Space Bar and type in “Preview.”
- While in Preview, click on File in the upper-left of the top menu bar.
- In the drop-down menu, select Take Screenshot.
- Click on From Entire Screen.
Take a Screenshot of Your Touch Bar
Take Screenshot On Mac Laptop
This will only apply to some Mac users, but it’s still worth mentioning. If you have a newer MacBook model with a Touch Bar, you can take a screenshot of the actual “Touch Bar” itself. You can also use the Touch Bar to easily take screenshots by customizing it.
11) Screenshot Your Touch Bar
- Press Shift-Command-6
- This will screenshot your Touch Bar in its current state
12) Set up a Screenshot Button on the Touch Bar
- Click on View in the top menu bar.
- Select Customize Touch Bar.
- A new menu will appear. Simply drag the Screenshot button into the Touch Bar.
- When you tap on this Touch Bar button, you will get a set of options for the type of screenshots and where they will be saved.
13) Save a Screenshot into the Clipboard Rather Than a File
- To save a screenshot to your clipboard rather than as a file, you can simply add the Control key to any keyboard shortcut.
- For example Shift + Command + 3 would become Control + Shift + Command + 3
How to Edit Your Screenshot Options
Now that you know how to take screenshots, it’s worth learning other ways to edit them.
How To Take A Screenshot On Mac
For example, using the Terminal, you can change where screenshots are saved and the file format they’re saved as.
On a related note, there’s no way to change the default resolution or output for all screenshots (since they’re in the highest quality they can be already).
You can also save a screenshot to your Clipboard, rather than as a file, for easy pasting.
Where Screenshots Go By Default
- By default, screenshots will end up on your desktop.
- You can find screenshots on your actual desktop, or by opening a Finder window and clicking on Desktop.
Change Location of Screenshots
- Hit Command + N, which will open a new Finder window.
- Create a new folder by hitting Command + Shift + N.
- Hit Command + Space to open Spotlight and type in Terminal. Hit Enter.
- Type in the following phrase into the terminal, making sure there is a single space after the word “location”: defaults write com.apple.screencapture location
- Drag the folder you previously created into the Terminal window, which will input its directory path.
- Hit the Enter key.
- Make sure you DO NOT delete this folder, because it will cause problems for you later on.
Restore Screenshot Locations to Default
- Hit Command + N, which will open a new Finder window.
- Create a new folder by hitting Command + Shift + N.
- Hit Command + Space to open Spotlight and type in Terminal. Hit Enter.
- Type in the following phrase into the terminal, making sure there is a single space after the word “location”:defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Desktop
- This will restore the Desktop as the default location for screenshots
Change the Output File Format
- Hit Command + Space to open Spotlight and type in Terminal.
- Type in the following phrase into the terminal, making sure there is a single space after the word “type.” But do not hit enter yet: defaults write com.apple.screencapture type
- After the word “type” and a space, enter the image format you’d like to use. JPG, etc.
- Hit the Enter key.
Paste a Screenshot from Clipboard
- To paste a screenshot that is stored on your clipboard, simply use the keyboard command Command + V.
- Alternatively, you can right-click when in a location (such as a Finder folder) and click on Paste.
There are times when a person is browsing for something important on the internet, they want to capture the entire web page on a single page.
It is not known to all that they can actually can capture the page in a single screenshot.
When a person hears about the word screenshot, the immediate response that struck their mind is to do a Print Screen. But the catch here is that print screen applies only to the static windows.
In the case, when a person has the need to take screenshot of an entire web page.
Here if you think of performing the action of print screen then one has to create several screenshots and then in some photo editing software, they have to combine all these images into a single photo in order to have the entire page under same image.
A person can generate a single continuous image of the entire web page and thus retain a true depiction of the web page as it is.
You may be eager to know about the various options available to achieve this. Mac unpack zip.
![How to screenshot on a mac How to screenshot on a mac](https://www.webdevelopersnotes.com/wp-content/uploads/mac-keyboard-screenshot-shortcut-command-shift-3.jpg)
This article explains ways of how to take screenshots of a complete webpage. These include
- Third Party Screen Capturing Tools
- Web Based Services
- Browser Plugins
Take a Screenshot of Webpage Using Third Party Screen Capturing Tool
Though most operating systems come with inherent screen capture software their features are not as advanced as one might prefer them to be.
It most probably would be a primitive tool.
There is many third-party screenshot software that can be downloaded by a person from the internet, but the ones that serve the purpose are very few.
Most of these tools have the inbuilt scrolling capture feature.
This feature enables the tool to scroll across the web page and thereby capturing the component that is being scrolled and then combines the individual screenshots into a single continuous image.
This software is easy to find over the internet.
The interface is user friendly.
One can work over this software very easily.
The software does not charge any kind of money from a person.
A small tip is to search for the word ‘scroll’ in the documentation for any tool while looking for screen capture tools to check whether it has this most essential functionality.
The third party software are useful only if a person makes use of these tools in a regular sense.
Take a Screenshot of Webpage Using Web Based Tool
Another way a person might get the entire screenshot of the web page is by the application of web-based tools.
It is better to apply web-based screenshot tools to make screenshot in an online platform.
If you do not have to frequently take web page screenshots, there is no need to invest in the third-party screen capturing tools.
New word for mac. These web-based screen capturing tools are easy to use and also comes with zero cost.
You can access various websites where a similar functionality tools are available at no cost like Snapito website, CtrlQ.org, Web-Capture.net and many more.
At the Snapito.com‘s website, a person can type in the website URL in the URL field.
The screenshot of the web page whose url the person has mentioned would be captured by clicking on the option Snap!
The codes of the website make the screenshot to get loaded within the website.
A person can save the image which then could be downloaded automatically on your computer.
In the website of CtrlQ.org, a person can access the Screen Capture tool or on the website of Web-Capture.net a person would get a nearly similar application to capture the important thing on the screen.
Both these tools do a fair enough job in order to captivate the important web pages under a single frame. Web-Capture does have some advantages over the other mentioned website.
Firstly, a person can specify the format of the image requested. With bookmarklets you can perform actions on the current page at a mouse click or tap.
Another advantage which can be enjoyed by working on Web-capture website is that the image can be captured via bookmarklet.
This tool bookmarks the web page in the form of an image that can be accessed through a shortcut button mentioned on the toolbar of the browser.
Take a Screenshot of Webpage Using Web Browser Plugins
If a person require the capturing of screenshots in an occasional mode, then the screen capture tools is not the preferred option.
In such a case the browser-based tools will serve the purpose of the person.
There are several browser plugins which can be used in capturing the screen.
For example, an application named Nimbus Screenshot which has versions compliant for Firefox and Google Chrome can be used for this purpose.
The software provides easy and efficient user interface that is very good in helping to complete the image capturing task.
It is freely available and provides a person with the image at a single click.
The image can be saved over the computer of a person and in later options can be uploaded over the Google Drive and other cloud service software.
There are various other web browser plugins like the Monosnap tool which can be used in achieving the main purpose. Paparazzi!
Is also another small utility applicable in to Mac OS X, which also makes web page screenshot capturing very easy and effective?
Final verdict:
Depending on your requirement, whether regular or occasional, you can choose from the above options.
Whether you use third party screen capture tool or web-based services or browser plugins, your motive of capturing a screenshot of the whole web page can be accomplished.
Take Screenshot On Mac Pro
The end product is a single image file that you can retain for a long time and it is an exact replica of the entire web page without any modification whatsoever.
So, get ready and try out how to take screenshot of a complete webpage.