There are lots of reasons why you'd want to take a screenshot on your Mac. Maybe you found a recipe you like and want to refer to the ingredients list later without scrolling through the writer's life story again, maybe you saw a photo of your ex on Facebook that you want to share with your group chat, or maybe it's a work thing. Whatever the reason, it's easy to do, you just have to know what to press.
How to screenshot the entire screen
- Press and hold these three keys together: Shift, Command, and the number 3.
- If a thumbnail pops up in the bottom right corner, it'll remain there for a few seconds. You can click on it to edit the photo. Or you can wait for it to save to desktop and edit from there.
How to screenshot part of the screen
- To screenshot a specific part of the screen (like a photo), press and hold these three keys together: Shift, Command, and the number 4.
- Drag the crosshair (the cross icon with a circle in the middle) to select the area you want to capture. Hold the mouse trackpad while dragging.
- To take the shot, release the mouse.
- If you captured the wrong area, you can cancel by pressing the Esc key.
How to screenshot a webpage or menu
- Open the webpage or menu that you want to capture.
- Press and hold these three keys together: Shift, Command, the number 4, and the Space bar. The pointer will change to a camera icon.
- To leave out the window's shadow, press and hold the Option key while you click.
- To cancel, press the Esc key.
- Let go and the highlighted window or menu will capture.
- If you see a thumbnail in the corner of your screen, click to edit or wait for it to save to desktop.
Where to locate your screenshots
Screenshots are saved to your desktop by default with the name "Screen Shot [date] at [time].png." You can drag the photo to a folder to change the location. If you use macOS Mojave or later, you can change the default location from the Options menu in the Screenshot app.