Screenshots are a useful tool that you can use to show someone how to use a new app, save important messages, or even take embarrassing pictures of your best friend on WhatsApp. Apple desktops and laptops do not have a simple Print Screen key, which is a shame. The good news is that MacOS has a lot of keyboard shortcuts and a few apps that make it just as easy to get the shot you need. There are a lot of choices and ways to make it your own. Here’s everything you need to know about how to take a screenshot on Mac.
How to Take Screenshot on Mac
Screenshot on Mac with the screenshot menu
On macOS Mojave and later, you can either open the screenshot menu and choose how to take a screenshot, or you can use keyboard shortcuts for each action, like taking a screenshot of a window or a selected area.
Before Mojave, MacOS did not have a menu for capturing the screen, but it did have commands for capturing a part of the screen or the whole screen. If you are using Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur, or Monterey, you can press Command + Shift + 5 to open a menu that lets you:
- Capture the whole screen Capture the window you choose (s)
- Capture the Part You Want
- Record the whole screen. Record the part you choose.
On the right side of this menu, there is a button called “Options.” This button lets you do things like choose where your screenshots and videos are saved. In other words, anyone who wants an easy answer to the question “How do I take a screenshot on my Mac?” could do a lot worse than upgrade to Mojave to simplify the process.
Print screen of a selected area
Remember when we talked about ways to save time? Let us get down to business. Here’s how to take a picture of a certain part of the screen:
- Shift, Command, and 4 are the three keys to hold down at the same time.
- Move the crosshair to choose the part of the screen you want to record. To move the selection, press and hold the Space bar and drag it. If you press the Esc (Escape) key, the screenshot will not be taken.
- To take a screenshot, let go of the mouse or trackpad button.
- If a thumbnail shows up in the corner of your screen, you can click it to change the screenshot. You could also wait until the picture is saved to your desktop.
Capture a screenshot of the entire screen
Follow these steps to take a screen shot on your Mac:
- Hold down Shift, Command, and 3 at the same time
- Click the thumbnail in the corner of your screen to edit a screenshot. You could also wait for the screenshot to save to your desktop.
How to take screenshots using the Touch Bar
If you still think you can not live without that “print screen” button like the one in Windows… Do you have the Touch Bar on your Mac? If so, you can make a button that only takes screenshots. How it works is as follows:
- Go to Apple > System Preferences > Keyboard from the Apple menu.
- Click on Customize Control Strip
- Choose where on the Touch Bar you want your screenshot button to go, drag and drop it there, and save the changes.
- Now you can take a picture of your Mac’s screen with just your Touch Bar. When you click the screenshot button, a menu to take a picture of the screen will appear. If you want to change where your screenshots are saved, click “Save To.” You can choose to take a picture of the whole screen, a selected area, or a window. Then you can take a screenshot by moving your cursor.
FAQ
What is the easiest way to take a screenshot on a Mac?
Press Command-Shift-6. In Keyboard settings, you can change how these keyboard shortcuts work. Choose Apple > System Settings from your Mac’s menu bar, click Keyboard in the sidebar, click Keyboard Shortcuts on the right, and then click Screenshots. (You might have to scroll.)
How do you take a screenshot on a PC without a Windows key?
Place the cursor in one corner of the screen, hold down the left mouse button, and drag the cursor diagonally across the screen to the opposite corner. Let go of the button to take a picture of the whole screen.
How do you take a screenshot on a Mac without the shortcut?
When you press and release the spacebar, the crosshair turns into a little camera icon that you can move over any open window. Click on the window you want to take a picture of to do so.
How do I take a screenshot of just the open window?
Hit “Windows + Shift + S.” Your screen will look gray, and the pointer on your mouse will change. You can choose what part of your screen you want to capture by clicking and dragging. Your clipboard will get a copy of a screenshot of the area of the screen you chose.
