Posted on by bgt

Screen Capture in Mac OS X

The other day someone needed to screen print in Mac OS X, but as a Windows user they focused on the the absence of the Print Screen button on a Mac keyboard, which leads to the inevitable question “How do I Print Screen on a Mac?” As this is not the first time that requirement has surfaced, here are few ways to accomplish screen capture in Mac OS X.

  1. Switch to the screen that you want to capture
  2. Hold down Command (Apple key) + Shift + 3, then release all keys
  3. Use your mouse to click on the screen

You will see a picture file appear on your desktop, which is the captured image file.

You can Print Screen (screen capture) just a portion of your screen, which is really useful if you are wanting to focus on a particular part, say an icon.

  1. Switch to the application or screen where you want to screen capture
  2. Hold down Command (Apple key) + Shift + 4, then release all keys
  3. You will see the mouse cursor has changed to +
  4. Use your mouse to select the portion you wish to capture.

You will see a picture file appear on your desktop, which is the screen capture image.

If you want to print screen for a particular application window you can

  1. Switch to the screen that you want to screen capture
  2. Hold down Command (Apple key) + Shift + 4, then release all keys
  3. You will see the mouse cursor has changed to +
  4. Press the space bar once
  5. You will now see the mouse cursor has changed to a camera
  6. Use the camera to select which application window to screen capture

As before, you will see a picture file appear on your desktop, which is the captured image file.

However as Windows users are used to the captured image going straight to the clipboard, you can mimic this behavior on a Mac as follows:

  1. Switch to the screen that you want to capture
  2. Hold down Command (Apple key) + Control + Shift + 3, then release all keys
  3. Use your mouse to click on the screen

The captured image is now in the clipboard, ready to for you to paste into your chosen application.

The full list of built-in Mac Screenshot Commands are as follows:

Command+Shift+3 Capture entire screen and save to file
Command+Control+Shift+3 Capture entire screen and copy to clipboard
Command+Shift+4 Capture dragged area and save as to file
Command+Control+Shift+4 Capture dragged area and copy to clipboard
Command+Shift+4 then Space bar Capture a window, menu, desktop icon, or the menu bar and save to file
Command+Control+Shift+4 then Space bar Capture a window, menu, desktop icon, or the menu bar and copy to clipboard