How To Take A Screenshot On Your Mac
Taking screenshots on your Mac is a great way to capture images or portions of your screen for later use. Whether you want to save a full-screen image or just a selected portion, there are several ways to do it. In this blog post, we’ll show you how to take a screenshot on your Mac using keyboard shortcuts, Preview, and more.
Main point.
To take a screenshot of your entire screen, follow these steps:
- Press Shift-Command (⌘)-3. Find the image file on your desktop. The file is saved as a .png file.
- To take a screenshot of just part of the screen, press Shift-Command-4 instead. The pointer turns into a crosshair .
- Drag the crosshair to select an area, then release your mouse or trackpad button to capture that area. To cancel taking the screenshot, press the Esc (Escape) key before you release the button.
A thumbnail of the screenshot briefly appears in the lower-left corner of your screen. To see it, click the thumbnail or press Spacebar. If you don’t do anything, the screenshot is automatically saved to your desktop when you release your mouse or trackpad button.”,
How to take a screenshot of a selected portion of your screen
If you want to be more selective about what appears in your screenshot, use one of these methods:
To take a screenshot of a selected portion of the screen:
- Press Shift-Command-4. The pointer changes to a crosshair .
- Drag the crosshair to select the area you want to capture, then release your mouse or trackpad button. To move the entire selection, press and hold Space bar while dragging.
To cancel taking the screenshot, press the Esc (Escape) key before you release the button.
How to take a screenshot of a selected window
You can also take screenshots of windows—for example, if you want to capture an error message or dialog box that appears on your screen. To do this:
- Press Shift-Command (⌘)-4, then press the Space bar. The pointer changes to a camera icon .
- Move the camera icon over the window to highlight it, then click your mouse or trackpad button (or press Space bar) to capture that window’s contents. To cancel taking the screenshot, press the Esc (Escape) key before you click your mouse or trackpad button.”,
Main point.
On your keyboard, press and hold these three keys together: Shift, Command, and 3. If you see a thumbnail in the corner of your screen, click it to edit the screenshot. Or wait for the screenshot to save to your desktop.
How to take a screenshot using Preview
Open Preview, go to the File menu, then choose Take Screenshot from the drop-down menu. A camera icon will appear in the center of your screen. To take the screenshot, click any key on your keyboard or click Capture in the bottom-right corner of the window. The screenshot will be saved as a .png file on your desktop.
Main point.
There are two ways to save a screenshot as a file: using keyboard shortcuts or using Preview.
To save a screenshot using keyboard shortcuts, first press Command + Shift + 3 to take a screenshot of your entire screen. This will save the screenshot as a PNG file on your desktop. Alternatively, you can press Command + Shift + 4 to take a screenshot of a selected portion of your screen. To do this, simply click and drag your mouse over the desired area before releasing the button. The screenshot will be saved as a PNG file on your desktop. Finally, if you want to take a screenshot of just one window, press Command + Shift + 5 and then click on the desired window. The screenshot will be saved as another PNG file on your desktop.
To save a screenshot using Preview, open the application and select File > New from Clipboard > Screen Capture (Command+Shift+N). This will create a new document with your screenshots in Preview. From here, you can crop or edit your screenshots as desired before saving them as files.
Conclusion
As you can see, taking screenshots on your Mac is a fairly simple process. Whether you want to capture your entire screen, a selected portion, or a selected window, there are several ways to do it. And with the built-in Preview app, you even have some options for editing your screenshot before saving or sharing it. So next time you need to take a picture of what’s on your screen, don’t hesitate to give it a try!