There are several ways you can take screenshots on a Mac. Preview offers the option from its File menu. There's also a little screen capture app in the macOS Utilities folder called Screenshot. But the simplest and most common method is to use your Mac's built-in shortcut key combinations.

screenshot app 1
Taking a screenshot is as easy as hitting Shift-Command-3 to capture the whole screen, or Shift-Command-4 to capture a portion of the screen using the mouse cursor as a crosshair selection tool (a tap of the spacebar also turns it into a camera for capturing windows).

Screenshots taken using key shortcuts are typically saved on your desktop. However, if you tack the Control key onto either of these shortcuts, macOS will copy the captured image to the clipboard instead of saving it as a file on your desktop, which is useful if you want to paste it into an application that can edit or view images, or use Universal Clipboard to paste it on another Apple device.

In Preview, for example, Command-N creates a new document from the contents of the clipboard without you having to specify a filename until you're ready to save it. You can also access this function in Preview's menu bar (File ➝ New From Clipboard).

Top Rated Comments

Euge Avatar
3 weeks ago

There are just flat-out way too many modifier keys for these things. For a company like Apple that used to go out of their way to keep things simple by way of even eliminating buttons on our phones, it has always been ridiculous to figure out which finger salute you need to use to do certain things. Shift? Control? Option? Command? Maybe it's one of the 16 different combinations of them all together? There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to which ones you need at any given time, and don't even get me started on trying to memorize the cute little icons they have for each of them, and the fact that sometimes instructions will only give you IKEA instructions on which combination to use...

Keep it simple, stupid!

While cool, damn is that the hardest key combo to hold while dragging a mouse. Why can't it be close to paste match style shft+ctrl+optn+cmd and maybe hold down right click until selection is made.
I don't know why MacRumors doesn't just suggest using cmd+shift+5

It's such a better interface to access all screenshot options.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
coolfactor Avatar
3 weeks ago

There are just flat-out way too many modifier keys for these things. For a company like Apple that used to go out of their way to keep things simple by way of even eliminating buttons on our phones, it has always been ridiculous to figure out which finger salute you need to use to do certain things. Shift? Control? Option? Command? Maybe it's one of the 16 different combinations of them all together? There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to which ones you need at any given time, and don't even get me started on trying to memorize the cute little icons they have for each of them, and the fact that sometimes instructions will only give you IKEA instructions on which combination to use...

Keep it simple, stupid!
These keystrokes have been around for 20+ years. Apple isn't suddenly make it harder just recently.

These keystrokes used to be the _only_ way to capture screenshots (natively), but they more recently added the Screenshot app, as discussed in this article, for those that struggle with keystrokes.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
splitpea Avatar
3 weeks ago
Better too many shortcuts than too few. Nobody forces you to use or memorize them. And for those of us who prefer keyboard control, having to use the mouse for more than we already do would suck.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
eppsilon Avatar
3 weeks ago
Since no one has mentioned it: you can also right-click the little screenshot preview for more options on what to do with it.



Attachment Image
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mrgraff Avatar
3 weeks ago

you dont need to hold all those keys while dragging shift-cmd 4 and released and you'll have a cursor on screen you can drag
And if you let go of the keys and then press spacebar, you can screenshot the window under the cursor. Hit spacebar again to toggle window/screen portion.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
simon the diver Avatar
3 weeks ago

While cool, damn is that the hardest key combo to hold while dragging a mouse. Why can't it be close to paste match style shft+ctrl+optn+cmd and maybe hold down right click until selection is made.
you dont need to hold all those keys while dragging shift-cmd 4 and released and you'll have a cursor on screen you can drag
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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