With this blog, we have broken down a complete step-by-step guide on how to take a screenshot on a MAC.

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One cannot stress enough how convenient and useful a screenshot feature is. Using this feature you can easily capture what’s on your screen like an email, an image, a blog piece, or literally anything, and save it for your future use. 

Is there a funny comment you came across on Instagram, a Pinterest picture you liked, or a quote from your latest online read that captured your attention? Screenshot it, save it, and share it with your friends or anyone you like. Also, using it you can keep a record of all your payment confirmations, bookings, card payments and whatnot. So, it can never get simpler than that. 

That being said, this is a feature that no one wouldn’t want to miss out on. So, for all the Mac users out there, from our team at Graphy, we have brought for you a guide on how to take screenshots on MAC. If you have been using Mac for several years now, you might be versed in one or all of these methods but in case you switched to Mac just recently, this could be a great insight into the working of a MacBook. 

Now, there is not one but several methods to take a screenshot on Mac, using which you can capture a section of your window or your entire screen. You can pick the one that seems the most convenient to you and click screenshots like a pro, whenever and wherever. 

So, let’s get started and go step-by-step into the different ways to take a screenshot on a Mac. 


Related Blog: How to take a screenshot in Windows 

4 ways to take a screenshot on a Mac

How to screenshot your entire screen on Mac: Command+Shift+3

Let’s start with how to screenshot your entire screen on Macbook. Taking a screenshot of your entire screen would mean that you are capturing all your open tabs and toolbar. 

Capturing an entire screen is definitely the easiest because it involves just one simple keyboard shortcut and that is pressing down three buttons on your keypad, namely, Command+Shift+3 simultaneously. 

The moment you use this shortcut, the screenshot will directly appear at the bottom-right part of your screen as a thumbnail and it will be saved to your desktop by default. You don’t have to do anything more to save it. That definitely is the easiest way to take a screenshot on a Mac, right? 

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How to take a screenshot of a portion of your screen on Mac: Command+Shift+4

Next comes capturing a part of your screen or window.

You might want to send a screenshot of a mail to your co-worker but don’t want them to see the rest of your open tabs. You might have opened a PDF and want to share a specific part of it as a screenshot. For all such needs, you have the Command+Shift+4 option at hand, followed by a simple procedure. 

So, let’s go through this process step-by-step.

  • Use the keyboard shortcut Command+Shift+4. You would have to press down these buttons simultaneously. 
  • The moment you use this shortcut, your cursor will turn into a crosshair. And this is your sign that you have initiated the screenshot command. 
  • Move this crosshair to the section from where you want to start your screenshot, drag it down to the endpoint and then release your trackpad or cursor. 
  • Your screenshot would be saved to your desktop and can be conveniently accessed by you at any time. 

In case you don’t wish to proceed with the selected portion and capture it, you can simply click the escape button. 

And that was the second way to take a screenshot on a Mac

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How to take a screenshot of one window on your Mac: Shift+Command+4+Space

If there is a particular window on your mac that you want to capture what you need to do is use the Shift+Command+4+Space

Let’s follow the step-by-step instructions now:

  • Use the keyboard shortcut Command+Shift+4+Space. You would have to press down these buttons simultaneously.
  • The moment you use this shortcut, your cursor will turn into a camera. And this is your sign that you have initiated the screenshot command. 
  • You then have to move this cursor to the window or menu you want to capture. The moment you do this, the window/menu will be highlighted and you will know that the screen has been selected. 
  • Then as the last step, click your trackpad or mouse to take the screenshot on your Mac

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Screenshot Toolbar: Shift+Command+5

If you have macOS Mojave or the later versions, you can capture screenshots using the screenshot toolbar. 

If you want to view all screenshot options in a single menu, you can use the keyboard shortcut Shift+Command+5 and a toolbar will appear at the bottom of your window. As per your preference select options to capture an entire screen, window, portion of your screen or even record your screen. The screenshot toolbar could also be accessed to change your screenshot settings. 

The toolbar also allows you to customise your screenshots like:

  • Set a screenshot timer.
  • Change your screenshot save location and save them to your desktop, documents or downloads. 

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Bonus screenshot tricks for Macbook

  • You can take a screenshot of your Mac touch bar using the keyboard shortcut Command+Shift+6. This shortcut is applicable to any Macbook with a touch bar. 
  • If you add control to any of the shortcuts that we learnt before, i.,e:

Command+Shift+3+Control (entire screen)

Command+Shift+4+Control (a portion of your screen)

Shift+Command+4+Space+Control (window)

Shift+Command+6+Control (Touch bar)

Your screenshots will be copied to your clipboard instead of being saved to your desktop or any other location. You can then paste this screenshot to any page or space of your liking. Also, using the universal screenshot feature, you can access it across all your Apple devices. 

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Where to find your screenshots in Macbook?

All the screenshots that you take will be saved by default to your desktop. The name of the captured shot will follow the format “Screen shot [date] at [time].png”. 

In macOS Mojave or the later versions, you can change the location using the screenshot toolbar as mentioned before. Also, you can simply drag and drop the screenshot thumbnail that appears at the bottom right to a file or folder of your choice. 

Final words:

By now you would know all about how to take a screenshot on a Mac. All you need to do now is use these shortcuts to capture the screens/page/images of your choice. 

We hope this blog helped you become a pro at taking screenshots. For more useful guides and informative content, follow us at Graphy

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How to take a screenshot on a Mac

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