To take a screenshot on a Mac, you have several keyboard shortcuts depending on what you want to capture:
- Capture the entire screen: Press Shift + Command (⌘) + 3. The screenshot will be saved automatically to your desktop
- Capture a portion of the screen: Press Shift + Command (⌘) + 4. The cursor changes to a crosshair; click and drag to select the area you want to capture, then release the mouse or trackpad button. The screenshot will be saved to your desktop
- Capture a specific window or menu: Press Shift + Command (⌘) + 4 , then press the Space bar. The cursor changes to a camera icon. Click the window or menu to capture it. To exclude the window shadow, hold the Option key while clicking. The screenshot will be saved to your desktop
- Use the Screenshot app for more options: Press Shift + Command (⌘) + 5 to open a panel with options to capture the entire screen, a window, a selected portion, or even record your screen. You can also set a timer and choose where to save your screenshots
Additional tips:
- If you want to copy the screenshot to the clipboard instead of saving it as a file, add the Control key to the shortcuts (e.g., Control + Shift + Command + 3)
- On MacBooks with a Touch Bar, pressing Shift + Command + 6 captures the Touch Bar screen
Screenshots typically appear as PNG files on your desktop with names like "Screenshot [date] at [time].png"
. These methods work on most Mac models and macOS versions from Mojave onward.
