How to do print screen in Mac OS X

advertisement

Yesterday, i wanted to do a print screen in Mac OS X but there is not print screen button in Mac keyboard :p This is the first time i use Mac machine. So i ask one of my friend to teach me how to do screen capture in Mac OS X.

There are few ways to do screen capture in Mac OS X.
Follow the steps below and you will be able to do a screen capture in Mac OS X.

  • Switch to the screen that you wan to to do screen capture
  • Hold down Apple key ⌘ + Shift + 3 and release all
  • then use your mouse to click on the screen
  • Done. You will see a picture file in at your desktop. That’s the screen capture picture.

You can also do a screen capture for a portion of your screen.

  • Switch to the screen that you wan to to do screen capture
  • Hold down Apple key ⌘ + Shift + 4 and release all key
  • Now, You will see the mouse cursor will change to +
  • You can start to drag your mouse to select the portion you wish to capture.
  • Once finish, you will see a picture file in at your desktop. That’s the screen capture picture!

If you want to do a screen capture for a particular application window, you can follow this:-

  • Switch to the screen that you wan to to do screen capture
  • Hold down Apple key ⌘ + Shift + 4 and release all key
  • Now, You will see the mouse cursor will change to +
  • Press the space bar once
  • You will see the mouse cursor change to a camera
  • Now you can use the camera to select which application window to screen capture
  • Once finish, you will see a picture file in at your desktop. That’s the screen capture picture!

It’s easy to do screen capture in Mac OS X right?
No need to open any program like Paint to paste the copy from clipboard :)

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , , ,


Posted at March 11th, 2008 by chua

If you think this article helps you to solve your problem and clear your headache, feel free to buy me a drink :)


61 Responses to “How to do print screen in Mac OS X”

  1. Luci Savu Says:

    thanks for the help

  2. Henry Says:

    DUDE!, I have been wondering how to do print screen with my mac, this method is easier than Windows — thanx a lot for the knowledge!

  3. Anon Says:

    “It’s easy to do screen capture in Mac OS X right?
    No need to open any program like Paint to paste the copy from clipboard ”

    No it’s not – compared to pressing one printscreen button and then being to paste it wherever you like. 3 key presses and a click – whats the point.

  4. Ci Says:

    but on a pc, you dont have as many options as you do with the mac: screen shot of entire window, a certain area or a certain app window.

    and c’mon… holding down three keys and letting go is not difficult at all. pc users should know (ctrl, alt, delete).

    besides.. after you do that.. you don’t need to paste and save.. it saves it for you automatically. duh!

  5. JDP Says:

    Hy thanks for this, you’re a life saver. Grape, I think.

  6. Gaz Says:

    The fact I have to google this every month or so I need it says its not so easy. And I actually want it in the clipboard, so I ‘ll have to google further…

  7. Jon Says:

    If you cant to make this a PC vs. Mac thing then let it be known that you can take a screen shot of individual programs, apps, full windows, and if you are using dual monitors you can screen shot both screens or just one of the screens… All using a PC

  8. Catherine-Grace Says:

    Arghhhh it’s not working! I keep getting a chirping sound like it’s not a real combination of keys. I checked under keyboard shortcuts and it should work, but it’s not! FRUSTRATING!!

  9. sogua Says:

    Catherine-Grace: if you still not able to do the print screen, you can check your key settings at “System Preferences” => “Keyboard & Mouse” => “Keyboard Shortcuts” tab => look for “screen shot” and their related key.

    Hope this help.

  10. Chris Says:

    What I need is a way to capture both monitors of my OS X setup. This method, and grab, and skitch, and all the other capture apps I’ve tried can only take a shot of one monitor at a time. Unlike print screen. Or every other windows screenshot app I’ve used.

  11. Annaouneimeus Says:

    @Jon – you can do the same and more on a Mac – w/o special software :D
    @Chris – it can work with dual-monitors as well… wonder why it’s not working for ya :/ hmm….

    – thank you for the post! –

  12. Vina Says:

    thanks a lot! this advice really saved me.. I’m a new Mac user and the more I know stuff about Mac the more I love it! Thanks again!

  13. coogan Says:

    Yeah this is great. Just used it in a game rather than needing Fraps or something like you do in windows.

    I dont mind the extra keys, still only one hand and the bonus is you dont have to open a dedicated program to paste the capture. Its already on the desktop !

  14. chiaoju Says:

    cool! :) Thanks for the tip! I love Mac. Hehehe

  15. Andy Says:

    Gaz, use Help in Finder instead of Googling.

    If you want to put the screen shot in the Clipboard, rather than create a file, hold down the Control key when you press the other keys. You can then paste the picture into a document.

  16. Amanda Says:

    Thanks! It helped a lot! :)

  17. Sami Says:

    One question came to my mind. How to specify to which folder the screenshots are saved? I would love to have a keyboard shortcut to control the folder.

  18. Aji Says:

    Thanks a lot.
    A sunflower for you then :) Once again, thank you so much.

    Need it for my task..

  19. Delta Says:

    Thanks. Grab kept making my document too small but this tip worked excellent.
    Thanks again

  20. charlee Says:

    I wanted to capture the (phenomenal) results map for the Presidential election but couldn’t drag it, save a html page or pdf! Thanks for the tip!

  21. Magda Says:

    Thanks a lot for the info. It couldn’t be easier ;)

  22. A.T.TIPSCAST Episode #23: Wiggle, Push, Paste « A.T.TIPSCAST: The Blog Says:

    [...] 2. How To Screen Capture Using A Mac [...]

  23. Mark Says:

    Just got my mac and this is the niftiest thing I have seen so far.. Thanks for the tip.. 1000000x better and easier than windows!

  24. Allison Says:

    Friggin’ awesome! Thanks!

  25. Christian Says:

    Hi I tried and it is saving a file.
    But it was not capturing the screen correctly.
    The saved file shows like random lines! =(

    I’m very new to mac (just got my macbook pro 15″ the other day)
    My resolution is 1440×900. Does this matter?

    Thanks in advance!

    Christian

  26. chua Says:

    Christian: you are not selecting the area correctly. ALT + Shift + 4 will allow you to select the area you want to capture. if you wan to capture window then you may wan to try ALT + SHIFT + 4 and release then follow by Space bar and select the window to capture. You may also wan to try ALT + SHIFT + 3 to capture the whole screen.

  27. DrownedInSound7 Says:

    Cheers, this is awesome. =]. So much better than the “windows” way ;) .

  28. Tbert Says:

    So we can do it with a mac. Thanks for the pointer on using the space bar, thats a new one for me that i have added to my shortcut glossary (whiteboard on wall) However, I can still get things done a lot faster on the PC…
    prt scrn, open email, paste. no editor needed. I love my mac, but there are just some things that are so much easier to do on the pc. Also, here is the odd thing. My Mac crashes at least 1 time a week. The PC maybe once a month…

  29. ross Says:

    I’m trying to love my Mac but it’s difficult at times. Many of the things I take for granted on my PC are just not very intuitive on the Mac, case in point, I had to search the web to figure out how to take a simple screen shot. Other previously intuitive functions are a nightmare on the Mac, setting up network printing, trying to configure my wireless connection because my Mac cannot seem to hold an IP and the only fix I’ve got is to restart. Simple things made hard!

  30. rc Says:

    surprised no one is complaining about the file … PNG?… those file types are HUGE.

    is there a way to change out of PNG to JPEG… fucking christ!

  31. Don Smith Says:

    This is way more help than I was expecting to find. Excellent! Muchos Gracias.

  32. Cath Says:

    After being advised print screen wasn’t possible on a Mac, was happy to learn otherwise. Have even printed this screen to pass on to my tutor. Thanx!

  33. Chris Allen Says:

    you CAN do a one window screenshot in windows…. its ALT and PRINTSREEN whilst on the correct window

  34. Ellen Says:

    This is helpful, but not easy. What a pain. Thanks for posting the answer because I could not find it in the MAC help which is useless.

  35. Alex Says:

    Searching some of the documentation on Apple’s site will give you these options. They’ve been standard on Macs since about System 7, I think.

    Holding ctrl during any of the screen shot variations will send it to the clipboard.

    Ctrl-Cmd-Shift-3 = entire screen to clipboard
    Ctrl-Cmd-Shift-4 = selected area to clipboard

    There used to be a built in pref for changing the file format. It was PDF but now is PNG which, for a screen shot, I don’t think is huge. You can use some Terminal tricks or any number of free apps (TinkerTool, Onyx, MacHelpMate) to accomplish this via a GUI.

  36. Breanna Adams Says:

    This is beyond helpful for my Mac OSX partition, however I also have windows running on my computer. I am an engineering student and our programs are mostly only PC compatible, unfortunately. How might I do it on that part of my computer?

  37. chua Says:

    Breanna Adams: For Windows, you can print screen using the Print Screen key on your keyboard. just press once and goto Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Paint. once Paint started, press CTRL + V. you will see the print screen image in the Paint application. from there you can save it as file.

  38. chrisco Says:

    How to capture an entire window that takes up more than one screen, such as a web page where you have to scroll or arrow or page down? The screen capture utility should handle that use case no problem… but how? Or does it not do it? If not, which program do you recommend for that? Preferably free! Thanks :)

  39. chua Says:

    Chrisco: If you are using Firefox, you may want to try Screengrab add-on – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1146

  40. Rob Says:

    Hey, Thanks for the help – it works great. :)

  41. Gabe Says:

    Thanks man, that works great. I am new to mac too, but so far this is the best thing I have ever used.

  42. alex Says:

    ohhhhhhhhhhhh is that how you do it. thanks.

    i was trying to look for a key named “iPrintscreen”. Silly me…

  43. kumar Says:

    Hey thanks for information……..my doubt is cleared……..

  44. tiff Says:

    OMG thanks for the info! haha now i know how to print screen on my macbook :]

  45. Eftychia Says:

    So we can prin screen in mac! And we have more options. Really helpful cause I had no idea . Thanks! :) ))

  46. Digimancer Says:

    Hahaha you have no right click or print screen button? Thats sooo sad. I guess holding 3 buttons down at once and clicking is way better! haha that was sarcasm btw… I know u Mac users are a lil’ slow.

  47. ari_78641 Says:

    YOU made me sooo happy!

  48. Khai Says:

    Really helpful tips! Thanks a bunch!

  49. sam Says:

    thanks so much for these tips, your instructions were uber-clear. you’re an angel sent to bless my essay! (:

  50. vijay Says:

    thx dude

  51. Rob Says:

    Hi, this doesn’t work exactly as the article describes for me. I have a 2009 iMac with osx 10.5.7. By pushing the key combo the cursor changes, and after selecting a region the camera sound plays, but there’s no file saved on the desktop?? Where are my capture files being saved? Argh!!!!

  52. CJ Says:

    I’ve been using PCs FOREVER. A few weeks ago, I switched to a Mac. I’m in love, and really appreciate you taking the time to document how to do this. :)

  53. marye Says:

    HI thank for the tip but how can i do printscreen without saving the picture ? If that’s posible on a Mac ? Like for mac ; cmd + C and cmd + v = for windows ctrl + c + ctrl v ?

    I’m sorry for my bad english, but I’m from Holland and only 13 years old,
    hope someone can help me out ?

    x

  54. POP Says:

    Thanks a lot…

    Thanks you also for Alex… for more hint of using the +ctrl

    This really works!!!

  55. beans Says:

    thank you soo much
    being a new mac user this was the simplest step to follow and the quickest to locate on the search engine

  56. Allison Says:

    This helped! thanks

  57. Geneviève Says:

    Thank you soooo much, helps a lot!! :)

  58. Geneviève Says:

    By the way, Mac computers are THE BEST!!!

  59. Thomas Says:

    Thank you so much. This is so much easier on the Mac than on the PC.

  60. huggie Says:

    When I do screenshot on PC, I usually intent to paste straight into Powerpoint. This actually requires me to open the file up again to copy and paste. On the rare circumstances where I do need to save into file, I use IrfanView, which is more complicated than the Mac screenshot but duh..about four more clicks.

  61. Sarah Says:

    I know this post is old, but I just had to add a few things. First of all many of you are wrong, it is much easier on a PC. On a PC you just press the Prt Sc (Print Screen) button and then you can paste (Ctrl V) anywhere you want – into an email, into Paint, into anything. If you only want to capture the current screen on a PC, you just press the Alt button and the print screen button – Prt Sc. The great thing is that you can screen scrape anything and paste it anywhere – even into Photoshop – and alter it.

    I hate when people say something is easier on a PC or MAC without fully knowing how to do whatever they need to do on both systems. On a Mac you have to press multiple keys to do something that takes one key on a PC.

Leave a Reply