Learn to take screenshots in Mac OS X

July 10th, 2007 by Brendon Chase and Jeremy Roche Tagged with: , ,

Taking screenshots on your Mac is a relatively simple task but not initially intuitive for novices. In this short tip we'll go over the basics for taking screenshots.

Keyboard shortcuts
The easiest way to take screenshots is to remember keyboard shortcuts for the different types of pictures you are after. Depending on which version of OS X you are using will result in different files being saved. OS X Jaguar will save in the jpg format, OS X Panther will save in PDF, and OS X Tiger will save as a PNG file. Using the following commands will save a copy of your selected screenshots to your desktop:


Before getting started you might be wondering where the "Command" key is. The command key on most Apple keyboards is next to the space bar. The following screenshot points out where you can find the command key on your keyboard:

Command Key

Command-Shift-3 - Will take a screenshot of what is on your current screen.

Command-Shift-4 - Will bring up a target icon. Select the area you want to take a screenshot of and it will save that selection to your desktop.

Command-Shift-4, then space, then click a window - Will take a screenshot of the selected window.

The following commands will do the same thing as above but will save your picture to the clipboard for use wherever you want to paste it to:

Command-Control-Shift-3 - Will take a screenshot what is on the screen and save it to your clipboard

Command-Control-Shift-4, then select an area - Will take a screenshot of the selected area and be saved to the clipboard.

Command-Control-Shift-4, then space, then click a window - Will take a screenshot of the window you select and save it to the clipboard.

If you're feeling super nerdy then in OS X Tiger you can change the output format by opening a Terminal and typing:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type image_format
killall SystemUIServer

* Change image format to pdf, png, jpg, or others like bmp or tiff.

Use Grab
If you're hopeless at remembering keyboard shortcuts then there is an application included in OS X which can take screenshots called Grab. The application can be found at /Applications/Utilities/Grab

Look Ma, no UI
Using keyboard shortcuts and UI applications is wussy, right? There is a screen capture command in Terminal and can be handy for more advanced screenshot needs.

screencapture -iW ~/Desktop/screen.jpg - Will take a screen capture of a window

screencapture -S ~/Desktop/screen.jpg - Will take a screenshot of the entire screen

screencapture -ic - Will take a screenshot of a selection of the screen

That just about covers taking basic screenshots on your Mac. If you have any further screenshot tips leave them in the comments section below.

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6 Responses to “Learn to take screenshots in Mac OS X”

liefeld
September 7th, 2007 at 1:20pm

how can you change the output location of the screen captures? mine was on the desktop at first but it has somehow changed to my Macintosh HD location. major pain...

Igor Minar
October 24th, 2007 at 2:19am

good stuff! thanks for sharing

nadheem
August 7th, 2008 at 7:07am

that was commendable!!!

Steve
August 22nd, 2008 at 3:18am

Can you use Terminal's screencapture command to take the snapshot WITHOUT the shutter sound?

Steve
August 22nd, 2008 at 3:23am

Can you use Terminal's screencapture command to take the snapshot WITHOUT the shutter sound?

paint
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:03am

Of course. You'll need to RTFM though. Try "man screenshot". You'll find what you need there...

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