Capture, Save or Record Screenshots in Mac OS X

Easier than ever without third-party software

Looking for an easy way to take screenshots, screen captures, or even screen recordings in Mac OS X? There are some convenient keyboard shortcuts and built-in OS X tools that make taking screenshots on a Mac easier than ever.

Screenshots

Screenshots are basically a picture of the entire screen, or the entire desktop. Screenshots work by taking a shot of everything exactly how it is arranged, with active windows open and everything. For example, if you have Safari and iTunes open, but iTunes is active and Safari is minimized, a screenshot will take a screenshot of your Mac OS X desktop just as you see it.

Alternatively, if you useCOMMAND + CONTROL + SHIFT, 3at the same time, Mac OS X will snap a screenshot and copy it to the clipboard, rather than save it to the desktop.

Screen Captures and Snippets

Screen captures and snippets are similar to screenshots in the fact that they take a photo of the active windows/desktop. However, they are also different because they allow you to specify a certain region or portion of the screen. Screen captures and snippets are basically the Mac OS X equivalent of theSnipping Tool, for Windows users.

Press the key combo and drag to select the portion of the screen to capture. Alternatively, if you useCOMMAND + CONTROL + SHIFT + 4at the same time, Mac OS X will copy the snippet to the clipboard rather than save it as an image to the desktop.

Additional Mac OS X screenshot shortcuts:

This takes a screenshot of an individual window and saves it to the desktop. Note that you only have to hold down CMD, SHIFT and 4 together, but can then let go of the keys and pressSpaceseparately. You can then click on any window to capture a screenshot. The cursor will also turn into a camera icon when you pressSpace.

Takes a screenshot of an individual window and copies it to the clipboard.

Screen Capture with Cursor

If you want to capture a screenshot in OS X with the cursor, you have to usePreview. None of the shortcut keys allow you to capture the cursor by default. OpenPreviewand then click onFile–Take a Screenshot–From Entire Screen.

A countdown dialog will appear and after a few seconds, the entire screen will be captured along with whatever the current cursor is. Some websites say to use the Grab utility, but using that tool, you have to pick the cursor you want captured whereas Preview will capture whatever the current cursor is.

Screenshot of Touch Bar

If you have a Mac with the new Touch Bar, you can easily take a screenshot by using the following key combo:

The screenshot will automatically be saved to the desktop as a PNG file.

Screen Recording

In some circumstances, you may want to do a screen recording rather than capture still frames with a snapshot. For example, screen recordings are highly popular for video tutorials. In Mac OS X, screen recording is actually quite easy. No software downloads required.

Those are pretty much all the ways you can capture a screenshot in OS X without using third-party software. If you need more advanced editing features, etc., then I would suggest Snagit for Mac. Enjoy!

Founder of Help Desk Geek and managing editor. He began blogging in 2007 and quit his job in 2010 to blog full-time. He has over 15 years of industry experience in IT and holds several technical certifications.Read Aseem’s Full Bio

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Capture, Save or Record Screenshots in Mac OS X#

Screenshots#

Screen Captures and Snippets#

Screen Capture with Cursor#

Screenshot of Touch Bar#

Screen Recording#