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How to Screenshot on Mac

Capturing your screen on a MacBook or iMac is done primarily through a few handy keyboard shortcuts. Here is how to capture exactly what you need.

How to Take a Screenshot on Mac

Capture the Entire Screen

Use this if you need to quickly save absolutely everything visible on your monitor.

  1. Press Cmd + Shift + 3 together.
  2. Your Mac will immediately capture the entire screen.
  3. If you have multiple monitors, it will save a separate screenshot for each screen.

Capture a Selected Area

This is the most useful method, allowing you to crop out the parts of the screen you don't want.

  1. Press Cmd + Shift + 4 together.
  2. Your cursor will turn into a crosshair pointer.
  3. Click and drag the crosshair to select the area you want to capture.
  4. Release your mouse or trackpad button to take the shot.

Capture a Window

This method perfectly captures a single app window, complete with a clean drop shadow, without capturing your desktop background.

  1. Press Cmd + Shift + 4.
  2. Before clicking anything, tap the Spacebar once.
  3. The crosshair cursor will change into a camera icon.
  4. Hover over the window or menu you want to capture (it will highlight in blue) and click on it.

Mac Screenshot Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Cmd + Shift + 3: Capture entire screen.
  • Cmd + Shift + 4: Capture selected area.
  • Cmd + Shift + 4, then Space: Capture specific window.
  • Cmd + Shift + 5: Open Screen Capture menu (macOS Mojave or later).
  • Add Control to any shortcut: Copy the screenshot to your clipboard instead of saving it to the desktop.

How to Screenshot on MacBook Air and MacBook Pro

The screenshot process is exactly the same across all Mac models (Air, Pro, iMac, Mac mini). If you have a MacBook Pro with a Touch Bar, you can also take a screenshot of the Touch Bar itself by pressing Cmd + Shift + 6.

How to Take a Scrolling Screenshot on Mac

macOS does not have a native scrolling screenshot feature for web pages. To capture a full page, you'll need to use browser extensions like GoFullPage (for Chrome/Edge) or the built-in developer tools in Safari and Firefox.

How to Screen Record on Mac

  1. Press Cmd + Shift + 5.
  2. Select either "Record Entire Screen" or "Record Selected Portion".
  3. Click "Record". To stop recording, click the Stop button in the menu bar at the top of your screen.

Where Are Screenshots Saved on Mac?

By default, macOS saves all your screenshots directly to your Desktop. The files are named "Screen Shot [date] at [time].png".

You can change this location by pressing Cmd + Shift + 5, clicking "Options", and choosing a new "Save to" destination.

How to Edit and Share Mac Screenshots

When you take a screenshot, a floating thumbnail appears in the bottom-right corner of your screen. Click this thumbnail to open Markup, where you can crop the image, draw on it, add text, and share it before it saves.

Mac Screenshot Not Working? Troubleshooting

If your shortcuts aren't doing anything, go to System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Screenshots and ensure the shortcuts are enabled and haven't been reassigned.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I copy a screenshot to the clipboard instead of saving it?
Simply add the Ctrl key to any shortcut. For example, Cmd + Ctrl + Shift + 4 will capture a selected area and immediately copy it to your clipboard.

Video Tutorial: How to Screenshot on Mac

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