How do I take a screenshot on a 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.
Method 1: Capture a Specific Area (Most Common)
This is the most useful method, allowing you to crop out the parts of the screen you don't want.
- Press Cmd + Shift + 4 together.
- Your cursor will turn into a crosshair pointer.
- Click and drag the crosshair to select the area you want to capture.
- Release your mouse or trackpad button to take the shot.
Method 2: Capture a Specific Window
This method perfectly captures a single app window, complete with a clean drop shadow, without capturing your desktop background.
- Press Cmd + Shift + 4.
- Before clicking anything, tap the Spacebar once.
- The crosshair cursor will change into a camera icon.
- Hover over the window or menu you want to capture (it will highlight in blue) and click on it.
Method 3: Capture the Entire Screen
Use this if you need to quickly save absolutely everything visible on your monitor.
- Press Cmd + Shift + 3 together.
- Your Mac will immediately capture the entire screen.
- If you have multiple monitors, it will save a separate screenshot for each screen.
Advanced: The Screen Capture Menu
If you prefer a visual menu over memorizing shortcuts, or if you need to record a video of your screen.
- Press Cmd + Shift + 5.
- An onscreen capture menu will appear at the bottom of your screen.
- You can choose to capture the entire screen, a window, a portion, or start a screen recording.
Where do I find my screenshots?
By default, macOS saves all your screenshots directly to your Desktop.
- The files are named "Screen Shot [date] at [time].png".
- If you use the Cmd + Shift + 5 menu, you can click "Options" to change where screenshots are saved (e.g., to Documents or Clipboard).