How to Take a Screenshot for Apple Mac

Authored by: Support.com Tech Pro Team

1. Introduction: Apple Mac: How to Take a Screenshot

Screenshots allow you to capture content on your screen which is saved as a picture on your computer. There are some built in tools with macOS that allows you to capture parts of, or the entire screen to your computer. This guide will show you how to take a screenshot on your Apple Mac.

This guide only specifically goes over built-in options that your Apple Mac comes equipped with out of the box. It will also touch upon 3rd party options that are very popular among users. All 3rd party options are a matter of preference and opinion and must first be installed.

2. macOS: Take a screenshot

Screenshots are saved on the desktop of your Mac.

Capture the entire screen

1. Press the Command + Shift + 3 keys at the same time.
   

Capture a portion of your screen

1. Press the Command + Shift + 4 keys at the same time.
   

1. Drag your cursor around the area you want to capture.
   

Capture a window

1. Press the Command + Shift + 4 keys at the same time.
   

1. Press the space bar to change the icon to a camera.
   

1. Click the window you want to capture.
   

3. Screenshot: 3rd Party Apps

There are 3rd party apps that allow you to take control of your screenshots and add additional functionality. These apps may take over the default keys or compliment them in other ways.

Some example programs are listed below.

DropboxAllows you to save screenshots directly to your Dropbox cloud storage.GreenshotAllows you to assign keys to capture your screen and edit the picture.PicPickAllows you to add annotations to pictures