Taking a screenshot is the simplest way to share whatever it is you’re seeing on the screen. Whether it’s an error you want to report, or a screen you want to share on social media or to your friends, or an illustration/presentation you want to make, screenshots might come in handy. MacOS keyboard commands are the easiest and quickest way to take a screenshot. On your Mac you can capture the entire screen, a window, or just a portion of the screen.
How to take a screenshot on your Mac
To take a screenshot:
- Press and hold these three keys together: Shift, Command, and 3.
- If you see a thumbnail in the corner of your screen, click it to edit the screenshot. Or wait for the screenshot to save to your desktop.
How to capture a portion of the screen
To capture a portion of the screen:
- Press and hold these three keys together: Shift, Command, and 4.
- Drag the crosshair
to select the area of the screen to capture. To move the selection, press and hold “Space bar” while dragging. To cancel taking the screenshot, press the “Esc” (Escape) key. - To take the screenshot, release your mouse or trackpad button.
- If you see a thumbnail in the corner of your screen, click it to edit the screenshot. Or wait for the screenshot to save to your desktop.
How to capture a window or menu
To capture a window or menu:
- Open the window or menu that you want to capture.
- Press and hold these keys together: Shift, Command, 4, and Space bar. The pointer changes to a camera icon
. To cancel taking the screenshot, press the “Esc” (Escape) key. - Click the window or menu to capture it. To exclude the window’s shadow from the screenshot, press and hold the “Option” key while you click.
- If you see a thumbnail in the corner of your screen, click it to edit the screenshot. Or wait for the screenshot to save to your desktop.
How to copy a screenshot to the clipboard
To copy a screenshot to the clipboard, press and hold the “Control” key while you take the screenshot. You can then paste the screenshot somewhere else. Or use “Universal Clipboard” to paste it on another Apple device.
Where to find screenshots
By default, screenshots save to your desktop with the name “Screen Shot [date] at [time].png.” In macOS Mojave or later, you can change the default location of saved screenshots from the “Options” menu in the “Screenshot” app. To open the app, press and hold these three keys together: Shift, Command, and 5. You can also drag the thumbnail to a folder or document.
