Here is a quick FYI prompted by some recent emails we’ve received from readers:
In Mac OS X Tiger, use these shortcuts to take pictures of the screen:
⌘-Shift-3 (Command-Shift-3): Take a picture of the entire screen and save as a file
⌘-Control-Shift-3 (Command-Control-Shift-3): Take a picture of the entire screen and copy to the clipboard
⌘-Shift-4 (Command-Shift-4): Take a picture of the dragged area and save as a file
⌘-Control-Shift-4 (Command-Control-Shift-4): Capture dragged area and copy to the clipboard
⌘-Shift-4 then Space bar (Command-Shift-4 then Space bar): Capture a window, menu, desktop icon, or the menu bar and save as a file
⌘-Control-Shift-4 then Space bar (Command-Control-Shift-4 then Space bar): Capture a window, menu, desktop icon, or the menu bar and copy to the clipboard
By default, Mac OS X Tiger saves screenshots as .png files to the Desktop.
You can also take pictures of the screen using the Grab application (in the Utilities folder).
Use Bruce Phillips’ free Screenshot Settings 1.1 to change default location and file formats (bmp. gif, jp2, jpg, pdf, pict, png, psd, sgi, tga, tif) of your screenshots.
MacDailyNews Note: To record video and audio from the Mac’s screen, we use iShowU (US$20) from shinywhitebox.
[UPDATE: 1:54pm EDT: Revised default format to .png and added “Command” in parenthesis.]
If you run Onyx, you can also change the file type and location from there.
There’s a great widget for doing screen captures available for download from Apple’s site called “Screenshot Plus”. I use it to do technical documentation writing. It can do timed captured, windows, widgets, and import the pics directly into a program like iPhoto.
I happen to use
⌘-Shift-4: Take a picture of the dragged area and save as a file and
⌘-Control-Shift-4: Capture dragged area and copy to the clipboard
an aweful lot. Good going MDN.
I write loads of system books for companies and use Screen Grab a lot to produce the booklets… it’s just always been there for me, from OS 8 to OS X 10.4.8
Now I’m doing a manual for InDesign on a PC… does anyone know if XP has this feature, or am I havin’ a laugh (to quote Ricky Gervais)?
You can also hold a camera up to your screen and take a picture. Brilliant!
Or, you can take a shot while in front of your screen…thus “screenshot”.
I’m a genius.
Microsoft is far better than Mac.
Jim, In Windows, Print Screen will take a screenshot of the entire screen and put it in the clibboard ready for pasting. Alt+Print Screen will take a snapshot of the frontmost window only and put it in the clipboard.
An easy way to change the format of your screenshots is to download the free copy of Cocktail, go to the Interface tab and select the ‘Misc’ option. You will then be given access to a drop down menu that allows you to choose from a range of formats for your screen shots. Works a treat!
You can hold your Macbook in front of the mirror and take a picture with the iSight in Photo Booth.
Problem is everything on the screen is backward.
Aw shoot.
I need to get back to work.
Command-shift-option-F5-M-Tab-F15-page down-esc does nothing but it’s a lot of fun to tell a coworker that it opens a really cool Easter egg in OS X.
that’s fantastic news – I always used to place my monitor on the photo copier – or if I needed better resolution – a scanner.
Anybody know of a good utility to capture video inside OS X?
Hey Dirty Pierre le Punk,
Your suggestion sounded good and I tried it, now when I do a screen shot, it clicks as always, but nothing shows up, not on the desktop, not anywhere i can find. I switched back to the default, same thing. Click, no picture.
Any ideas what happened? I kinda need this, and since I almost always open screen shots in Photoshop, I just wanted to save myself the old “open with.”
Thanks
how on earth can you call yourself MacAddict and not know about SnapzPro? The app is still one of a kind and has been around for eons.
http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/
Never mind, I downloaded the Screenshot Settings thing and fixed it.
How do you take a screenshot of a page that requires scrolling to view the entire page. For example is there a way to capture (in one shot) this entire page instead of taking multiple and stitching it together.
⌘-Control-Shift-4: Capture dragged area and copy to the clipboard
Open Preview, ⌘-n. Presto! Automagically pasted and ready to save in any format Preview supports.
New there was a reason for coming to MDN…
Thanks to M.X.N.T.4.1 and Artisticulated for great tips… (Onyx for changing file type from PNG to JPG and opening a grab to memory snap in Preview…)
To the Original Author:
The Control key does nothing on a Mac when used in combination with the Shift-3 or Shift-4. Use the Command (“Apple”) key instead. For example, to capture the entire screen, type a Command-Shift-3. Also, the default file format in Tiger is .PDF, not .PNG, although this can easily be changed, as you mentioned in your article. For further details about screen captures using Max OS X Tiger, see the Apple KB article 61544.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61544
To the poster Fugly: I use Macs and PCs on a daily basis. Windows is fine for some things, Macs for others. Any blanket comment that one platform is better than another is without merit. In my experience, I much prefer Mac OS X over Windows. All of the innovation coming to market these days seems to show up first on Apple’s systems, and eventually to Windows. And need I say anything about the far-too-tardy Vista? Not a single original idea there…. Best of all, I can run both Windows and Mac OS X on an Intel Mac out of the box, using Boot Camp or Parallels. Let’s see a PC do that!
To the poster asking about a built-in capability to capture movies, I presume you mean the ability to capture screen movies (e.g., opening folders, capturing screen navigation, launching applications, etc.), Mac OS X has nothing built-in; but then, neither does any other platform, AFAIK. To do movie screen caps, try SnapZ Pro X by Ambrosia Software. $69 for the full package including movie screecap capture.
Tom
I once did a moneyshot on my screen and it took days to clea…. what, that was SCREENshot? Oh, forget what I just said.
philip Gallo,
I have something for you that works with web pages, its called “Paparazzi!” and it works well…
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/24625
Correction to my previous post…
The Control key does, in fact, have an impact with the Shift-3 and Shift-4 key combinations. My error was that I viewed the article, and the “Apple” doesn’t appear in IE. For others viewing this article using a PC, the keyboard combinations follow:
Command-Shift-3: Take a picture of the entire screen and save as a file
Control-Shift-3: Take a picture of the entire screen and copy to the clipboard
Command-Shift-4: Take a picture of the dragged area and save as a file
Command-Control-Shift-4: Capture dragged area and copy to the clipboard
Command-Shift-4 then Space bar: Capture a window, menu, desktop icon, or the menu bar and save as a file
Command-Control-Shift-4 then Space bar: Capture a window, menu, desktop icon, or the menu bar and copy to the clipboard
Best,
TBNTX
Macaday –
Thanks for your post. The problem I am running into with Paparazzi is that the site that I need the screenshots for is a secure intranet site and when I put in the address into Paparazzi it just automatically goes to the login page. Is there any way around this? Thanks again for your help.
What’s the key combo for taking potshots on the Mac?
That’s easy!
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/
I just draw the whole thang from scratch in photoshop. Needs a good eye.
PNG by default these days. Changed with Tiger.
Fugly,
You forgot a couple things.
“1.Buy or borrow digital camera to take picture of screen.
2.Install associated software to manipulate image.
3.Hold a camera up to your screen and take a picture.
4.Download pictures to computer.
Brilliant!
Or, you can take a shot while in front of your screen…thus “screenshot”.
I’m a genius.
Microsoft is far better than Mac.”
Definitely far better than doing it on a Mac.
Tiger saves Mac screenshots as PNG files, not PDF. Panther saved as PDF.
You forgot to mention the best option: Open the Preview application and go to “Grab” in the drop down “File” menu. It’s great, it saves immediately as bitmap.
@Jim
I do Documentation on Windows boxes and use Gadwin PrintScreen.
http://www.gadwin.com/printscreen/
@Phil Gallo
You could try just printing the webpage and in the print dialogue box choose PDF > Save as PDF. That would capture the whole page.
ScreenCaptureGUI2
One of the fastest ways to capture an entire webpage (like this one) in Safari is to do the obvious!!
Go up to Safari’s menu item “File” >”Print” and then save as a PDF. It saves the entire page. Granted, it’s NOT one obnoxiously long image file but is divided into more logical and easily manageable PDF pages.
By the way, check out the other new PDF options!
i HATE THE sCREENShOOTiNg Of a Mac.
Who was the idiot who came up with using 3 and 4? I mean seriously!! Why not map it to a print button… essentially you’re printing the screen to a file.
This is one area where Windows does it right. Whole screen you print screen. Want an alternative way and only want the front window, press alt. If I were MS, I’d add ctrl-Print SCreen, so you could control exactly what you want to screen shoot.
What does 3 do? What does 4 do? I can never remember which is which. If anything, it would be better on the same number… but use alt (Alternative).
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