If you’d like to take a screenshot on Mac you’ll just need to know simple key combinations. We’ll show you how to take a screen capture of the whole MacBook-Screen, of a section of the screen and a single window or other screen components. If you don’t feel like memorizing all the shortcuts we’re happy to show you how to take a screenshot on your MacBook without a keyboard
How to take a screenshot of the whole screen
- To take a screenshot of the entire screen, press [Shift] + [cmd] + [3].
Take a screenshot of a section of the screen
- Press [Shift] + [cmd] + [4].
- Hold down the mouse button and use the crosshair cursor to select the area to capture. Then release the mouse button – the screen grab is taken.
Screenshot a single window or other screen components
If you want to take a snapshot of a single window, e.g. only your mail inbox or of a menu, e.g. the menu bar at the bottom of your screen, just to this:
- Press [Shift] + [cmd] + [4]. Your cursor shifts to a crosshair.
- Press [Spacebar]. Your cursor shifts again to a camera symbol.
- Use the cursor symbol (camera) to select the part of the screen that should be photographed. Click once with the mouse button – the screenshot is taken.
How to take a Screenshot on Mac without using the Keyboard
You can also take a screenshot on the MacBook without using the keyboard, with the utility application “Grab”.
With this app you can take any kind of screenshot also known as grab shot without using shortcuts: full screen, only a portion of the screen or even timed screenshots. Here’s how you can use it:
- Go to applications, then choose “Utility” and click on “Grab“
- From the main menu of the app, click on the tab “Capture” and then on “Selection”.
- Now you can select the area which you want to take a screenshot of.
- Select “Capture” and then “Window” to select a window you want to screenshot
- To take a timed screenshot click on “Timed Screen”
- The timer will give you 10 seconds to adjust the screen for your screenshot otherwise the whole screen will be captured
- You can save your screenshots as a high resolution .tiff format or other formats like .jpeg or .png
Can you take a scrolling screenshot on Mac?
This is how so-called scrolling screen capture works with a MacBook:
- Open the web page you want to screenshot
- Launch “Capto”
- Click on the Capto icon in the menu bar
- Select “Snap active browser URL”
Where are my screenshots saved?
- Normally, your screenshot is saved to your desktop as a .png.
- If you want to save it to your Clipboard, simply add Control (ctrl) to your screenshot combination, e.g. press [Shift]+[cmd]+[crtl]+[3].
There are several ways to take a screenshot on the MacBook. The easiest way is to use the key combination [Shift] + [cmd] + [3] to caption the whole screen or [Shift] + [cmd] + [4] to capture a part of the screen.
There is no native snipping tool on Mac. However, when using the key combination [Shift] + [cmd] + [4] to take a screenshot of a section of your screen, a crosshair tool will appear which enables you to snip the screenshot to the size you need.
The default save location for screenshots on Mac is the Desktop folder. You will see the thumbnails of your screenshots on your Desktop. To change this, you will need to go to Utilities and open the Screenshot app. You can also do this by using the key combination [Shift] + [cmd] + [5]. Click on Options and Save To Options. You can change the save location there.
To take a screenshot on a Mac, use the key combinations [Shift] + [cmd] + [3] for full screen or [Shift] + [cmd] + [4] for part of the screen. On a Windows PC use [PrtScn] in the top right corner of your keyboard to capture the entire screen or press [Windows key] + [Shift] + [S] to take a screenshot and go to the Snip&Sketch tool within Windows 10 to edit your screenshot.
