If you own any kind of modern Mac, there are three primary ways to take a screenshot in different ways using keyboard shortcuts — and if you have a MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, there’s a fourth method. Apple’s macOS software also gives you quite a few options To save, delete and open the screenshot easily for markup.
These tips also apply to the latest Macs, as Apple recently updated the 13-inch MacBook Pro with a new M2 chip, while a similar MacBook Air is coming soon, with a much deeper physical redesign.
Method 1: Cmd-Shift 3
This keyboard shortcut takes a screenshot of your entire screen.
Method 2: Cmd-Shift 4
Use this keyboard combination to turn your cursor into a crossed line, you can drag it to select a part of your screen to capture, release the mouse or trackpad button to take the photo.
You have a number of other options following pressing Cmd-Shift-4:
Press and release the space bar: the crossed line turns into a small camera icon, which you can move over any open window.
Click the window you want to take a screenshot of.
The screenshot captured this way features a white border around the window with a bit of a drop shadow.
Press and hold the spacebar (following dragging to highlight an area but before releasing the mouse or trackpad button):
This locks the shape and size of the selection area but allows you to change its position on the screen.
Very useful if your initial selection area is off by a few pixels; Simply hold the space bar to change its position before releasing the mouse button to take a screenshot.
Hold the Shift key (following dragging to highlight an area but before releasing the mouse or trackpad button).
This lock on each side of the selection area created with crosshairs locks the bottom edge, allowing you to move the mouse up or down to the bottom edge position.
Method 3: Cmd-Shift 5
A shortcut command was introduced in macOS Mojave in 2018, Cmd-Shift-5 invokes a small panel at the bottom of your screen with screen capture options.
There are three screenshot capture buttons that allow you to capture the entire screen, a window, or a selection of your screen.
Likewise, the two video recording buttons allow you to record your entire screen or a selection of it. On the left is the X button to close the screenshot panel, but you can also press the Escape key to exit.
On the right side there is an Options button. It lets you choose where to save your screenshot – Desktop, Documents, Clipboard, Mail, Messages, Preview, or another location, and set a 5 or 10 second delay so you can arrange items that might otherwise disappear when you engage the screenshot tool.
By default, the Show Floating Thumbnail option is enabled, which places a preview thumbnail of the screenshot just taken in the lower right corner of your screen, similar to the screenshot action with iOS.
Unlike on your iPhone, you can turn off this preview thumbnail on your Mac.
You can choose to show the mouse pointer in a screenshot or video.
If the screenshot panel is in your way, you can grab its left edge and drag it to a new location on your screen.
If you have an older 15- or 16-inch MacBook Pro or today’s 13-inch MacBook Pro, the latest model with Touch Bar, you can also take a screenshot of what’s currently displayed on the Touch Bar. Simply press Cmd-Shift-6 to take an ultra wide and slim screenshot of your Touch Bar.
If you have the thumbnail, you’ll get quick access to the markup tools to annotate your screenshot.
You can swipe the thumbnail away or let it slip by itself and it will be saved to where you last saved the screenshot.
Click on a thumbnail and it will open in the profile view preview window (but not a preview) with all the encoders you get in the preview.
You can right-click on the floating thumbnail to:
Save the screenshot to your desktop, documents folder, or clipboard.
Open it in Mail, Messages, Preview, or Photos.
Show in Finder.
Delete.
Open it in the tag preview window shown above.
Close (and save).
Long-running Mac screenshot capture tools may be slow to adopt the Cmd-Shift-5 shortcut, but it can be used more for the ability to annotate screenshots without having to open the preview. The 5-10 second delay options are also useful additions. and capacity.
