Pin It

Take a screen shot on a mac

Marcel | Apr 29, 2011 |

0 Comments | Rating: 0

Taking a screen shot on the mac is really simple and there are a several ways you can do it by either using some easy keyboard shortcuts or with the applications "Grab" or "Preview" which come free with your mac. Alternatively you can download one of several third party applications which will be listed below.

"Preview" and "Grab"
The simplest way to take a screen capture is to use the application "Grab" which is located in the "Utilities" folder (inside the "Applications" folder). Simply double-click on the application "Grab" to open it and use the menu "Capture" which gives you the option to take a screen shot of either a selection, the window, the screen or to perform a timed capture.

Similarly, the application "Preview", which is located in the "Applications" folder, has a function in the "File" menu called "Take Screen Shot". This allows you to perform a screen capture from either a selection, a window or from the entire screen.

Keyboard Shortcuts
If you want to take a screen grab without opening an application there are several keyboard shortcuts which will allow you to either take a shot of either the screen, a selected area or a particular window.

• Command-Shift-3: Takes a screen grab of the entire screen, saving it as a file on the desktop.
• Command-Shift-4, select an area: Takes a screen grab of an area, saving it as a file on the desktop.
• Command-Shift-4, space, click a window: Takes a screen grab of the selected window, saving it as a file on the desktop.
• Command-Control-Shift-3: Takes a screen grab of the screen, saving it to the clipboard.
• Command-Control-Shift-4, select an area: Takes a screen grab of an area, saving it to the clipboard.
• Command-Control-Shift-4, space, click a window: Takes a screen grab of a window, saving it to the clipboard.

Note: in the first three keyboard shortcuts the files are saved to the desktop. It would be wise to create a folder to store these files since you don't want them sitting all over the desktop. It is possible to send the files to this folder using the application "Terminal" using the command:
"defaults write com.apple.screencapture location #**/Users/username/Desktop/screenshots"
Change "username" to your Mac username and "screenshots" to the name of the folder you want the files to be saved into.

A few things to keep in mind
- The terms screen shot, screen grab and screen capture are all the same thing.
- Different versions of Mac OS X will create different formats for screen shots (Jaguar = jpg; Panther = pdf; Tiger = png). However, If you are running Tiger or above, screenshot format can be changed using Terminal with the command:
"defaults write com.apple.screencapture type png"
Replace "png" with the desired format such as jpg, pdf, tiff)

Third Party Applications
"SnapNDrag": Lets you take a screen shot by just clicking a button and dragging the resulting screen shot off. It's freeware but also has a Pro version.
"Snapz Pro X": Allows both screen shots and video screen capture so you can create QuickTime® movies of your screen. Costs $69 but has a free trial.
"Jing": Also allows video capture as well as screen shots. Very user-friendly with functions to quickly share screen shots via email or social networks. Has both a free version and a Pro version.