How to Take a Screenshot on a Mac

In this article, you will learn about How to Take a Screenshot on a Mac step by step. So without much to do, let’s get started.

Taking a screenshot lets you save text, share photos, and show tech support what you spot on your display. You can take a screenshot of your entire display, a part of your display, a single window, and more. Here’s the way to take a screenshot to your Mac the usage of keyboard shortcuts in numerous unique ways.

In this article, you will learn-

1 How to Take a Screenshot of the Entire Screen on a Mac
2 How to Take a Screenshot of a Portion of Your Screen on a Mac
3 How to Use the Screenshot Toolbar on a Mac
4 READ NEXT

How to Take a Screenshot of the Entire Screen on a Mac

Keyboard Shortcut	Function
Shift + Command + 3	Capture a screenshot of the entire screen.
Shift + Command + 4	Highlight a specific part of the display screen to screenshot.
Shift + Command + 5	Open the screenshot menu to record video or edit your screenshot options.
Shift + Command + 6	Take a screenshot of the Touch Bar, if your Mac has one.

To take a screenshot of the complete display screen on your Mac, press the Command + Shift + 3 keys to your keyboard on the same time. You will then see a small preview inside the bottom-right-corner of your screen. If you do nothing, your screenshot will be saved on your desktop.

If you click on the preview icon, it’s going to open a photo editor with a toolbar at the top of the window. This allows in you to draw on your screenshot, add a shape, insert a signature, add text, and more.

If you wait for a few seconds, your screenshot could be saved to the desktop as a PNG file. You can save your screenshot faster by using clicking and dragging it off the display screen to the right. It will then be saved to your desktop right away.

How to Take a Screenshot of a Portion of Your Screen on a Mac

To take a screenshot of a part of your display screen on a Mac, press the Command + Shift + 4 keys in your keyboard at the same time. Then your mouse pointer will change into a crosshair. Finally, click and drag your mouse to draw a box around the area of your display screen you want to capture.

Once you let to go of your mouse or trackpad, your Mac will take a screenshot of the entirety in the box you drew.

You can also take a screenshot of a single window through urgent the Space Bar as soon as once you press the Command + Shift + four keys in your keyboard. This will turn your mouse pointer into a camera icon.

Then left-click on your mouse on any window to take a screenshot of it. You can inform which window you will capture because it will be highlighted in blue. This will even work in case you are taking a screenshot of a window this is behind other windows.

Note: If you press and hold the Option key at the same time as you left-click on on a window, your screenshot won’t have any border around it.

How to Use the Screenshot Toolbar on a Mac

To use the screenshot toolbar on a Mac, press Command + Shift + 5. Then pick one of the buttons inside the toolbar at the bottom of your display to take a screenshot of your complete display, a portion of your screen, or a window. Finally, click on the Capture button, hit Enter, or left-click your mouse.

Note: These steps will only work if you are running macOS Mojave or later software versions.

Once you press the Command + Shift + 5 keys for your keyboard on the same time, you will see a screenshot toolbar pop up at the bottom of your display screen.

The first button in the toolbar will let you take a screenshot of your entire screen. Once you press this button, it’ll change your mouse pointer into a camera icon. Then you can click on the Capture button inside the toolbar, hit Enter on your keyboard, or left-click your mouse on any part of the display.

The second button inside the toolbar lets you take a screenshot of a window, much like you can with the Command + Shift + 4 keyboard shortcut. Once you click on this button, hover your mouse over the window you want to capture and left-click on the window or hit the Enter key on your keyboard.

Note: You can also maintain down the Option key as you take a screenshot of the window without a border.

The third button at the toolbar helps you to take a screenshot of a part of your display screen. Unlike the Command + Shift + 4 keyboard shortcut, clicking this button will make a dotted box appear on your screen. Then use your mouse to reposition the edges of the dotted box across the portion of the screen you want to capture. To take the screenshot, you can click on Capture or hit the Enter key on your keyboard.

Finally, you can click the Options button within the toolbar to change wherein your screenshots are saved, set a timer in your screenshots, and more.