Don’t know how to take a screenshot on your Mac? If you’re just starting out with your Mac, you might have noticed that there isn’t any “Print Screen” button that you can use from your keyboard to capture screenshots. However, you can still capture screenshots and the process isn’t too complicated either. There are so many different keyboard shortcuts, as well as dedicated software, that can be used for capturing screenshots just as you may like.
macOS High Sierra offers various screenshot capturing methods as well – including the ones that allow you to capture particular windows opened on Mac screen –and all of them give you images that can be used for flaunting your high scores in Clash of Clans or simply for clarifying an issue with the tech support. Regardless of the reason why you want to capture screenshots on your Mac, here are different methods that you can use for capturing screenshots.
Jump To Section:
- How To Take Screenshot Of Entire Screen
- How To Take Screenshot Of Specific Part Of Your Mac Screen
- How To Take Screenshot Of A Particular Window
- How To Take Screenshot Of A Particular Window Without Shadow
- How To Take Screenshot Of A Dropdown Menu
- How To Measure The Size Of Screenshot
- How To Capture Timed Screenshots With Grab
- How To Take A Screenshot Of Mac Using Preview
How To Take A Screenshot On Your Mac
As mentioned earlier, there are different options you can try for capturing screenshots on Macs. Here we’ll be discussing most of them, starting with what different options are available for capturing screenshots using keyboard shortcuts. Let’s take a look:
How To Take Screenshot Of Entire Screen
Here are the steps that you have to follow for capturing screenshot of your entire Mac screen.
- Press and hold Shift and Cmd(also called Apple Key), and then press 3
- A screenshot will appear on the desktop and it will be in .png format.
The screenshot file saved on your Mac desktop will have ‘screenshot’ in the beginning of its name and current time and date added to it. If you want the screenshot to be saved as JPG file or, maybe, some other format, just drag the file into Preview, Photoshop or some other program that allows you to view images and use Save As option for saving the file with desired extension.
How To Take Screenshot Of Specific Part Of Your Mac Screen
Screenshots of entire Mac screen may be massive and you may not want to capture the entire screen in some instances. For such situations, it is possible for you to capture screenshot of specific part of your Mac screen. Here are the steps that you will have to follow:
- Press and hold Shift and Cmd keys on your Mac and press 4 right afterwards
- Crosshairs should now be dragged across specific area on the Mac screen that has to be captured in screenshot
- As soon as you do that, the screenshot will appear on the desktop and it will again be .png file labeled in exactly the same manner as described a
A quick tip here is that when you see crosshairs appearing on your Mac screen, you can let the keys on keyboard go of. Now after clicking mouse button and starting to drag the cursor, you can press Space key and the selection will become floating allowing you to drag it wherever you like on the screen. If you hold shift along with space as well then you’ll be allowed to move the selection horizontally only.
You can press Escape key anytime for aborting this screengrab functionality. Remember, this will not generate or capture any image.
How To Take Screenshot Of A Particular Window
If you are interested in capturing screenshot of particular window on your Mac screen, here are the steps that you will have to follow.
- Press and hold Cmd and Shift keys on your keyboard and press 4 simultaneously
- Press Space as soon as crosshairs appear on the screen and it will turn into camera icon
- Position the cursor on the window and then click the left mouse button. Remember, as your cursor will reach above the window, it will get highlighted in the blue color
- The desired window’s screenshot will appear on your Mac desktop and it will be in .png format
The screenshot that will be captured using this method will have shadow of the image appearing in the screenshot as well.
How To Take Screenshot Of A Particular Window Without Shadow
Now, here are the steps that you will have to follow for capturing screenshots of the desired window on Mac screen without shadow.
- Press and hold Cmd and Shift keys on your keyboard and press 4 simultaneously
- As crosshairs appear on the screen, press and hold Alt/Option button and then press the Space bar
- Position the cursor on the window and then click the left mouse button. Remember, as your cursor will reach above the window, it will get highlighted in the blue color
- The desired window’s screenshot will appear on your Mac desktop and it will be in .png format. Besides, it won’t have a shadow like the previous screenshot that you had captured with the method given above.
How To Take Screenshot Of A Dropdown Menu
Just like capturing screenshots of particular windows, it is possible for you to capture screenshots of dropdown menus or other similar portions on your Mac Screen. Here are the steps to follow:
- Press and hold Cmd and Shift keys on your keyboard and press 4 simultaneously
- Press Space as soon as crosshairs appear on the screen and it will turn into camera icon
- Position the cursor on the dropdown menu and then click the left mouse button.
- The desired dropdown menu’s screenshot will appear on your Mac desktop and it will be in .png format
Well, it does not stop here as you can apply this same technique for capturing screenshots of various other screen features such as Dock, top bar, icons on your Mac’s desktop along with top bar, etc.
How To Measure The Size Of Screenshot
When you will drag the crosshairs, you’ll be able to see a couple of numbers. They are the pixel numbers. The numbers are the coordinates that indicate the location of crosshairs on your Mac Screen. Basically, they are the horizontal pixels followed by vertical pixels.
As you click the selection window and start to drag desired screen selection, these numbers will start to show size of your selected space. That can be helpful when you are very specific about size and are looking to capture 800×450 pixels screenshot, for instance.
How To Capture Timed Screenshots With Grab
All options described above for capturing screenshots on Mac cover most of the possibilities with screengrab feature. However, if you want to take this a step further, you should better go for Grab application that you can find in Utilities section of Applications folder.
It comes pre-installed in all the Macs and allows users to directly create screenshots from menu bar. It even allows users to capture time-delayed screenshots as well. It turns out to be handy when you have to stage before you capture an image from the Mac display.
When the Grab app is launched, its icon becomes visible in the dock. If needed, the icon can be pinned for quickly accessing it whenever you need. It is not like conventional apps that have a window appearing on the screen when launched. Instead, you can run it completely from menu bar.
Using Grab, it is possible to take screenshot of specific section of your Mac screen, individual windows, or even entire screen. So, all sorts of screenshots described above can be captured with this simple application that comes built into your Mac. The difference, however, comes with “Timed screen” feature that offers a delay of 10-seconds before your screenshots are captured.
So, if you have to open some menu or just position the mouse in a particular position, you’ll have enough time for doing that before you are able to capture screenshot. Remember that the mouse cursor won’t appear in screenshot. That’s the default setting, however, and can be customized. And, if you want to make sure that it shows in the captured frame then go to Preferences in Grab menu where you have to select mouse icon in pop-up window that appears.
One thing to mention here is that the mouse cursor will now show only when you will be capturing time delayed screenshots. It’s obvious, as the mouse will be needed for capturing screenshots through other options.
How To Take A Screenshot Of Mac Using Preview
Preview is default tool which lets you open just about everything on your Mac from PDF files to photos and comes with some hidden features. The app allows you to edit images, for instance, with a simple click on toolbox icon. Besides, you can also use Preview for capturing screenshots as well.
Here is how you can do that:
- Open Preview
- Go to menu bar
- Click on File
- Select “Take Screenshot” option from drop-down list that shows up
The screenshot will be captured and show up on your desired location.
Despite the fact that both the Preview and Grab options are quite useful, still using keyboard shortcuts is preferable as that’s quite a quicker way of capturing screenshots. One benefit that you can get with Preview, however, is that it allows you to select where the screenshots go. Other options normally put the screenshots on your desktop if the destination is not changed from settings. Preview, on the other hand, opens up your screenshot, allows you to make some edits if needed, and then save your file in the desired location. So, if that’s the kind of flexibility you need with your screenshots then you should definitely go with Preview.
So, these are all the different options you have when it comes to taking screenshots on Mac. And if you didn’t previously know how to take a screenshot on your Mac then you can choose any of the options given above and start capturing screenshots for whatever reason you may want. In case of any queries, use the comment section below.
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