- There are four ways to take a screenshot on a Mac, and all of them can be done with easy keyboard shortcuts.
- If you press Shift + Command + 5 on your Mac's keyboard, you'll open the screenshot menu, which lets you take screenshots and videos, as well as customize your settings.
- Pressing Shift + Command + 4 will let you take a quick screenshot anywhere on your screen, while Shift + Command + 3 will capture the entire screen at once.
- If you have a MacBook with a Touch Bar, you can use Shift + Command + 6 to take a screenshot of the Touch Bar.
- Visit Business Insider's Tech Reference library for more stories.
Dedicated Mac apps to make screenshots. Included in OS X is Grab, a handy utility that offers more advanced features than the screenshot keyboard shortcut such as a timer option. It gives you an extra ten seconds to prepare the screen before the screenshot is taken and pointer preferences to show or hide a variety of pointer styles. How to take a screenshot on a Mac hold down ⌘ command: and shift: and press # 3 = Your Mac captures the entire screen and saves it as a file on the desktop. The file name will look like “Screen shot 2021-01-25 at 08.45.00 AM.png”. How to Take a Screen Shot on a Mac. The basics, and more. After a few seconds, the computer will take a screen shot that includes your cursor and present it to you in a window, at which point. Lightshot is a free screenshot tool for Mac. You can select any area on your Mac computer to capture. Later, you can share the screenshot via Internet directly. Pros: Take a screenshot on Mac with any screen size. Upload your Mac screenshot to the server or get its short link to share. Use the online editor to edit screenshots on Mac.
If you see something great online, it's only natural that you'll want to share it with others. Obviously you could send a link, but what if you only want to point out a specific section or image?
This is where screenshots come in. You can take high quality screenshots on any Mac computer, and then edit or share them however you like. They'll automatically be titled 'Screen Shot,' followed by the date and time you took them.
If you've bought or updated your Mac since 2018, you even have access to the advanced screenshot menu, which will let you take videos of your screen too.
Best of all, taking screenshots on a Mac only takes a single keyboard shortcut. Which shortcut you use, though, depends on how you want to take the picture.
Here's four ways to take screenshots on a Mac.
How to screenshot on a Mac
Every method for screenshotting on a Mac uses the Shift, Command, and number keys. In short:
- Shift + Command + 3 takes a screenshot of the entire screen.
- Shift + Command + 4 lets you highlight a specific part of the screen to capture.
- Shift + Command + 5 opens the screenshot menu, which lets you do both of the above, as well as record videos and edit your screenshot options.
- Shift + Command + 6 takes a screenshot of the Touch Bar, if your Mac has one.
We'll go over all of them below, starting with the most widely applicable method: the screenshot menu.
Screenshot For Mac
Taking a screenshot with the screenshot menu
The screenshot menu was introduced in MacOS Mojave, the big 2018 update — if you've bought or updated your Mac since then, there's a very good chance you have it.
To open this menu, press Shift + Command + 5. A small bar will appear at the bottom of the screen.
The three icons on the left will let you take a screenshot of the entire screen, a specific window, or a highlighted section, respectively. The next two icons to the right will let you record a video of the entire screen, or just a highlighted section.
The 'Capture' button on the far right will take the screenshot, or begin recording the video.
© William Antonelli/Business Insider The screenshot menu will offer you a variety of options. William Antonelli/Business InsiderThere's also a menu labeled 'Options.' This menu lets you choose where to save the screenshot or video, how much time you want between pressing 'Capture' and the screenshot or video being taken, and more.
© William Antonelli/Business Insider The options menu will let you customize how your screenshots are taken. William Antonelli/Business InsiderOf note in this menu is the 'Show Floating Thumbnail' option, which is turned on by default. When this is enabled, after you take a screenshot, a tiny thumbnail of it will appear in the bottom-right corner of the screen. The screenshot won't be saved to your computer until this thumbnail disappears after a few seconds.
However, you can click this thumbnail before it disappears to open the screenshot in a new window. In this window, you can draw or type on it, crop it, share it via your Apple ID account, or delete it.
Screenshot For Mac
© William Antonelli/Business Insider You can make the floating thumbnail disappear faster by clicking and dragging it off the screen. William Antonelli/Business InsiderTaking a screenshot of a highlighted section or window
If you want to take a quick screenshot without going through the screenshot menu, you can use this shortcut.
Screenshot For Mac Pro
When you press Shift + Command + 4, your mouse cursor will turn into a crosshair. You can then click and drag this crosshair across the screen to create a highlighted box — as soon as you let go of the mouse, your Mac will screenshot everything in the box.
© William Antonelli/Business Insider Everything in the highlighted box will be screenshotted. William Antonelli/Business InsiderBut this isn't all you can do with this shortcut.
If you press Shift + Command + 4, and then press the spacebar, your crosshair will turn into a camera icon. You can then click on any open window to take a screenshot of that window — when the screenshot is saved, it'll have a gray border around it.
If you drag the crosshair to create a highlighted box, and then press and hold the spacebar, it'll lock the box so it can't change size. You can then drag the box anywhere on the screen. Just release the spacebar to take your screenshot.
Similarly, if you drag to create a highlighted box and then press and hold the Shift key, you can adjust solely the height or width of the box. Move your mouse up or down to adjust the height, and left or right to adjust the width. Let go of the mouse to take the screenshot.
Taking a screenshot of the entire screen
Pressing Shift + Command + 3 will immediately take a screenshot of your entire screen. If you're using multiple monitors, it'll take and save screenshots of every monitor.
Note that unless you enable it in the screenshot menu, this won't capture your mouse cursor. And if you have the floating thumbnail option enabled, taking screenshots in quick succession will capture the floating thumbnail in the corner, too.
Taking a screenshot of the Touch Bar
Not all Mac computers have the Touch Bar, a long but thin touch screen built into the keyboard. But if your MacBook does have one, you likely know how useful it can be.
If there's something on your Touch Bar that you'd like to show others, you can screenshot it by pressing Shift + Command + 6. This will immediately capture everything on your Touch Bar.
© Apple The Touch Bar screenshot will be as long as the actual Bar. AppleIf your Mac doesn't have a Touch Bar, pressing this won't do anything.
Maya Kachroo-Levine contributed to an earlier version of this article.
Related coverage from Tech Reference:
It is true that you can take a screenshot on Mac by pressing Shift, Command and 3/4/5/6 keys on the keyboard. As a result, you can quickly capture your Mac’s screen via keyboard shortcuts. Since there are premade key combinations to capture any portion on Mac, why you still need a Mac screenshot tool?
The main reason is that you cannot get drawing tools and other advanced features from the straightforward Mac screenshot feature. Mac will save the screenshot as PNG by default. You need to use an image converter to change the screenshot format. In many cases, a snipping tool for Mac really helps.
Part 1: Top 7 Best Free Screenshot Tools for Mac
To take a screenshot on Mac without keyboard, you can take a look at the following paragraphs. Here’re top 10 best screenshot tools for Mac free to use in 2020.
Top 1: Vidmore Screen Recorder
There is a built-in free screenshot tool for Mac in Vidmore Screen Recorder. It’s okay if you don’t get its full version or even register an account. You can take a Mac screenshot of the whole screen or single window. The Mac screenshot capture software offers real-time drawing tools. Thus, you can emphasize the key point and draw anything on the screenshot directly. The screenshot will be saved as PNG, JPG, JPEG, BMP, GIF or TIFF based on your need.
Main Features:
- Capture Mac screen with full screen or browser window.
- Save Mac screenshot picture as PNG, JPG, JPEG, BMP, GIF or TIFF.
- Add rectangle, ellipse, line, arrow, callout, text and more in any size and color to your screenshot.
- Safe, clean and totally free to use. No registration or hidden purchase.
- The free Mac screenshot software works with Mac OS X 10.10 or above.
Top 2: Lightshot
Lightshot is a free screenshot tool for Mac. You can select any area on your Mac computer to capture. Later, you can share the screenshot via Internet directly.
Pros:
- Take a screenshot on Mac with any screen size.
- Upload your Mac screenshot to the server or get its short link to share.
- Use the online editor to edit screenshots on Mac. (Find more video editor here)
Cons:
- Lightshot may close down suddenly.
- The copy function in Lightshot does not work.
Top 3: Snappy
You can capture any part of your Mac computer with Snappy automatically. The free screenshot tool for Mac allows users to annotate, resize and customize the screenshot picture. Moreover, you can organize, collaborate and share Mac screenshot within Snappy on Mac.
Pros:
- Grab Mac screen by drawing or shortcuts.
- Collect snaps stored on Mac and make then well organized.
- Share screenshots to Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, Email and more.
Cons:
- Lack editing features.
- Snappy becomes quite buggy.
You may want to know: how to record Facebook video
Top 4: Skitch
Skitch is a free screenshot for Mac that works with Evernote. If you are in the business of taking screenshots for your team, Skitch can be your good companion.
Pros:
- Snap, mark and send a screenshot on Mac.
- Add text, shape and draw on your screenshot image.
- Blur the obscured areas.
Cons:
- Skitch crashes and freezes in the half of time.
- Still need the UI improvement.
Top 5: Recordit
Recordit is a GIF-based screencast tool for Mac free to use. You can also install Recordit plugin to quickly take a screenshot on your Mac computer.
Pros:
- Use hotkeys to screenshot on Mac.
- Get free cloud storage space for screenshots.
- Provide multiple upload and share options.
Cons:
- Recordit free version is limited.
- Require the stable Internet connection.
Top 6: Snagit
TechSmith Snagit offers the free trial for screen capture and recording on Mac. You can capture a process and add drawing tools of what you see on Mac screen.
Pros:
- Draw on Mac screenshot with markup and annotation tools.
- Convert Mac screenshots into simplified graphics.
- Get direct file sharing feature.
Cons:
- Snagit free trial lasts for 15 days only.
- Snagit full version is expensive.
Top 7: Monosnap
Monosnap is a free online screenshot tool. You can capture screenshots on Mac with full screen, custom area or window. If you want to edit and add annotations, you need to register its user account first.
Pros:
- Highlight on screenshot with multiple drawing tools.
- Use blur tool to hide sensitive information in your screenshot.
- Share Mac screenshot to Twitter, Facebook, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.
Cons:
- Monosnap gets buggy with the new OS releases.
- You need to pay to unlock third-party services.
Part 2: FAQs about Mac Screenshot Tool
Where are screenshots saved on Mac?
If you capture Mac screen with official shortcuts, your screenshot will be saved on desktop by default. For macOS Mojave users, you can change the default screenshot destination folder. Just head to Options in the Screenshot app.
Is Preview the hidden screenshot software for Mac?
Yes. There is Take Screenshot feature in Preview. You can screen capture on an PDF file or image in Preview on Mac for free.
Can website see if you screenshot?
No. It is not allowed for the browser to detect whether users use a Mac screenshot tool or not. Your screenshots are not traceable.
Screenshot For Mac Desktop
Actually, you can use any screenshot app to capture Mac’s screen as JPG and other formats. It is also supported to copy and paste Mac screenshot to clipboard. Which can be your best free screenshot tool for Mac? You can feel free to share with us.