How to Take a Screenshot on Your Macbook

Master the art of capturing your screen with these simple, step-by-step guides. Select a method below to get started.

1. Capture the Entire Screen

Press Shift + Command + 3 simultaneously.
The screenshot will appear as a thumbnail in the bottom-right corner of your screen for a few seconds. If you don't interact with it, it will be saved to your desktop as a .png file.

Example of a full screen screenshot

Visual example of a full screen capture.

2. Capture a Selected Portion of the Screen

Press Shift + Command + 4.
The pointer changes to a crosshair. Click and drag the crosshair to select the area you want to capture.
Release the mouse or trackpad button to take the screenshot. The screenshot will be saved to your desktop.
Tip: While dragging, press and hold Space bar to move the selection area without changing its size.

Example of a selected area screenshot

Visual example of capturing a selected area.

3. Capture a Specific Window or Menu

Press Shift + Command + 4, then press the Space bar.
The pointer changes to a camera icon. Move the camera over a window or menu to highlight it.
Click the highlighted window or menu to take its screenshot. The screenshot will be saved to your desktop.
Tip: To exclude the window's shadow, press and hold the Option key while you click.

Example of a window screenshot

Visual example of capturing a specific window.

Editing & Saving Tips

After taking a screenshot, a small thumbnail appears in the bottom-right corner. Click it to open in Markup for quick edits (crop, annotate, sign) or drag it directly into an app.
To change the default save location or other options (like setting a timer or showing the mouse pointer), open the Screenshot app (Shift + Command + 5), click 'Options', and choose your preferences.
By default, screenshots save as PNG. To save to the Clipboard instead of your desktop, press Control in addition to the other keys (e.g., Control + Shift + Command + 3).
You can also change the default file format (e.g., to JPG, GIF, or PDF) using a Terminal command (e.g., defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg).