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Even if you just press a few keys to take a screenshot on a Mac, taking a screenshot on a Mac remains something that history has never felt so intuitively. For example, in addition to the various keyboard shortcuts for anti-small selection windows, on-screen video recording is only possible with QuickTime Player in the long run.
Basics of Mac Screen Shot
There is no dedicated screen print button on Apple products, but there is a dedicated menu. And some even say it’s even better! With the release of macOS, Mojave Apple has actually updated its Mac screenshot program by adding a command that opens a screenshot menu. If you control this command, taking screenshots will be fast and intuitive.
However, Apple’s native screen capture tool gives you only five ways to capture the screen on your Mac. And as you read, you’ll find that there’s a lot more in third-party applications. So let’s see what suits you best.
How to take a screenshot on a Mac?
In macOS Mojave and later, you can open a screenshot menu and then choose how to capture the screen or use dedicated keyboard shortcuts for each action, such as capturing a window or selected area. macOS versions released for Mojave did not have a screen capture menu, but there were commands to capture part of the screen as a full screen.
How to capture screen with the screen shot menu?
If you are a Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur or Monterey user, you can use ⌘ + Shift + 5 to bring up a screenshot menu that allows you to:
- Capture the whole screen
- Remove selected windows
- Delete the selected part
- Full screen recording
- Record the selected part.
To the right of this menu is the Options button, which allows you (among other things) to select where your MacBook screenshot and video output are stored. So anyone looking for a quick answer to the question “how do I take a screenshot on my Mac?” much worse can be done than upgrading to Mojave to make the process more efficient.
Print Screen of a Selected Area
We can bet that in 80% of cases you will take a screenshot of a specific area of ​​your screen. Take a picture, take a joke from a work chat or show something on the screen – there are many use cases that justify why you always print the screen in the selected area. And the clear thing: if you decide to capture the selected area, you can use this method to capture the entire screen – just select them all. This is why, whatever way you prefer screen printing, remember this command: ⌘ + Shift + 4. Allows you to quickly print the screen to a selected area.
How to take screenshots by the Touch Bar?
If you still think you can’t live without a Windows-style button … does your Mac have a Touch Bar? If so, you can create a dedicated screenshot button! Here’s how it works:
- Go to System Preferences> Keyboard
- Click on “Customize control bar”
- Select the location of the screenshot button on the Touch Bar, drag it there, and save your changes.
Third-party macOS screenshot apps
You might notice that, even with the inclusion of ⌘ + Shift + 5 Mac screen capturing menu, the options for taking a MacBook screenshot remain pretty basic. What if you want to take a scrolling capture? The native tool can’t do that. If you’re looking for a snipping tool for Mac that can do a little more, you need to turn to a third-party developer.
CleanShot X is unbeatable here. The app is tailored for 50+ different changes, which makes it the ultimate screen capturing tool for Mac. You can use CleanShot X to capture a screen — whether it’s a window, full screen, area, or even scrolling content, as well as record video and GIFs.
Some less obvious but great features to discuss are the self-timer, screenshot, and internal cloud. Do you want to get something late? CleanShot X has a self-timer to help you choose the right time. If you want the screenshot to be visible on the screen, pin it to your desktop. Finally, save the screenshots to the internal CleanShot cloud and capture shared links in a flash.
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If you are looking for something with a little screen capture weight, we recommend Capto. In addition to capturing video or just taking a picture on a Mac, you can also annotate and edit photos in an intuitive iMovie-like interface.
Capto works wonders if you want to upload a video tutorial and share it anywhere. And due to the distinctive visuals, it is also ideal for those who suffer from hearing loss and want to add captions instead of comments. The built-in Capto organizer is also very useful for viewing screenshots.
Yac is an app you need to consider if you need a quick way to share information with your colleagues without disturbing them during conversations. We’ve had so many virtual appointments on our calendars lately, haven’t we? Instead, try this asynchronous voice and video messaging tool, which is preferred by millions of remote workers around the world.Just record an instant voice message – you can add a screenshot of your notes and view a webcam if you want – and let colleagues check to see if it suits them. It is possible to integrate Yac with Slack so you know when someone sends you Yac.
Finally, many advanced media players have a screen capture tool. This is very useful if you want to capture specific moments in a movie or video – you normally can’t do this when watching a movie online, because most streaming services block screenshots. Instead, consider using Elmedia Player to play any media content and take screenshots.
All of these third-party applications are available in Setapp, so you can try them all for free.
How to print a preview screen on a Mac?
The view is Apple’s own image and PDF view – probably an important part of your workflow. The screenshot tool allows you to capture part of the screen, the window, or the entire screen. The advantage of taking screenshots in a preview is that the screenshot you created automatically opens in a new preview window, so you can edit it, add annotations, and so on.
How do you take a screenshot on your Mac using Preview?
It’s simple. In the app menu, select File > Take Screenshot > to choose which part of the screen you want to capture > take a screenshot. From there, you’re free to edit and save your screenshot to any location on Mac.
Pre-Mojave Mac screenshot commands
⌘ + Shift + 3
⌘ + Shift + 4
The second command is a slightly smoother approach to Mac screen capture. Instead of capturing the entire screen, it will ask you to select the area you want to capture. If you do this by pressing the space bar, you can select the window you want to take a screenshot of. In general, although you can print these commands to your Mac screen, they act as an idea rather than as a full feature of macOS. With so many people watching how to take screenshots on a Mac, it’s no surprise that Apple has decided to make it even easier on the Mojave.
Organizing screenshots in macOS
If you take a lot of screenshots, you’re probably used to having a Downloads folder or a desktop clogged with images like “Screen Shot 2019-XX-XX at 21.36.15”. Keeping all the images under control doesn’t help much, especially if the macOS file names are getting shorter.
Although it is possible to use the Finder with a preview to display all your packaging, it is still not a satisfying visual experience. One of the best solutions is PhotoBulk, a bulk image editor for bulk renaming, resizing, and compressing photos. Just drag the screenshots you want to replace, type the group name, and click Start. All your updated images are neatly stored in their own folder.
How to share screenshots with Apple?
But even if you already have the question of how to take a picture on a Mac, sharing screenshots with colleagues or friends may not be the easiest. Instead of emailing your files repeatedly or uploading them to your public Google Drive, you may want to consider a solution like Dropshare. As the name suggests, sharing screenshots (and other files) is as easy as throwing them in the area.
Dropshare connects to a number of great third-party cloud applications, but if you want, you can also rely on the proprietary Dropshare cloud, which can help you if you want to separate Mac screenshot sharing from others.
Conclusion
As you can see from the above, learning how to take a screenshot on your Mac is not that difficult – in fact, it’s easier now than ever by adding a dedicated MacBook screenshot and a video upload menu to macOS.
Best of all, you can try all the apps mentioned here: CleanShot X, Capto, Elmedia Player, Yac, PhotoBulk, and Dropshare for free with a 7-day trial of Setapp, a membership with over 200 basic apps ready for every task. . . You are now ready to take a screenshot of the game.
