How to screenshot on a Mac

Mac screenshot shortcuts at a glance

Mac keyboards have no Print Screen key. These shortcuts are the Mac equivalent, and they work the same on a MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini and Mac Studio, on macOS Sequoia, Sonoma and every version back to Mojave.

• Cmd + Shift + 3: capture the whole screen and save it to the desktop.
• Cmd + Shift + 4: drag to capture a selected area.
• Cmd + Shift + 4, then Space: capture a single window or menu.
• Cmd + Shift + 5: open the Screenshot toolbar for captures, screen recording, a timer and save options.
• Add Control to any of the above (for example Cmd + Control + Shift + 4): copy to the clipboard instead of saving a file.
• Cmd + Shift + 6: capture the Touch Bar, on MacBook Pro models that have one.

How to screenshot the whole screen on a Mac

If you use more than one display, Cmd + Shift + 3 saves one file per display.

1. Set up the screen the way you want it to look.
2. Press Cmd + Shift + 3 together.
3. A thumbnail appears in the bottom-right corner for a few seconds. Click it to edit, drag it into a document or email, or ignore it and it saves.
4. Find the file on your desktop, named Screenshot followed by the date and time, for example Screenshot 2026-09-24 at 10.15.32.png.

How to take a partial or window screenshot on a Mac

A partial or selected screenshot is the one most people want day to day, because you capture only the part that matters.

1. Press Cmd + Shift + 4. The pointer turns into a crosshair.
2. Drag across the area you want. The size in pixels shows next to the pointer.
3. Release the mouse or trackpad button to take the screenshot. Press Esc before releasing to cancel.

• Hold Space while dragging to move the whole selection without changing its size.
• Hold Shift while dragging to lock the width or height, so you only change one edge.
• Hold Option while dragging to resize the selection from its centre.
• To capture one window instead, press Cmd + Shift + 4, then Space. The pointer becomes a camera and the window under it turns blue. Click to capture it, holding Option if you want to leave out the shadow. This also works for an open menu, the Dock and the menu bar.

The Screenshot toolbar: Cmd + Shift + 5

Cmd + Shift + 5 opens the Screenshot app's toolbar at the bottom of the screen. From left to right the buttons are Capture Entire Screen, Capture Selected Window, Capture Selected Portion, Record Entire Screen and Record Selected Portion. Choose one, then click Capture or Record. You can also open it from Applications, then Utilities, then Screenshot, or by searching for Screenshot in Spotlight.

The Options menu holds the settings most people look for: Save to, a Timer of 5 or 10 seconds for delayed screenshots, Show Floating Thumbnail, Remember Last Selection and Show Mouse Pointer.

Screen recordings save as .mov files. To stop one, click the stop button in the menu bar or press Cmd + Control + Esc.

Where Mac screenshots save, and copying to the clipboard

By default every screenshot goes to your desktop. To change that, press Cmd + Shift + 5, click Options and pick Desktop, Documents, Clipboard, Mail, Messages, Preview or Other Location. Your choice applies to the keyboard shortcuts as well, so Cmd + Shift + 3 and 4 follow it.

A dedicated Screenshots folder keeps the desktop clear: create the folder, then choose it with Other Location. If Desktop and Documents sync to iCloud Drive, screenshots saved there appear on your other devices too. If your desktop uses Stacks, they are grouped under a Screenshots stack.

To copy a screenshot to the clipboard instead of saving a file, add Control to the shortcut. Cmd + Control + Shift + 3 copies the whole screen and Cmd + Control + Shift + 4 copies a selected area or window. Paste with Cmd + V into Messages, Mail, Slack, Pages or a web form.

Edit, crop and convert Mac screenshots

• Click the floating thumbnail to open Markup, where you can crop, rotate, draw, add shapes and text, and sign. Click Done to save.
• Open the file in Preview to resize it, or use File, then Export to save it as JPEG, HEIC or PDF. Screenshots are PNG by default.
• To make JPG the default, run defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg in Terminal. Replace jpg with png to switch back.
• To combine several screenshots into one document, our free Screenshot to PDF tool builds a PDF in your browser, and the images stay on your device.
• To pull the words out of a screenshot, the free Screenshot to Text tool recognises typed text on your device and lets you copy it.

How to screenshot an entire web page on a Mac

None of the Mac shortcuts scroll, so a long page is cut off at the bottom of the window. For a scrolling or full page screenshot, use the browser. Firefox has Save full page after Cmd + Shift + S, Chrome has Capture full size screenshot in its developer tools, and Safari's Web Inspector can capture the whole page. Our guide to full page screenshots on a Mac covers each one step by step.

The NeoReader Full Page Screenshot extension does it in one click in Chrome, Edge and Firefox. It captures the whole scrolling page, the visible part or a dragged area, keeps fixed headers from repeating, and opens an editor to crop, annotate and blur private details before you save PNG, JPG or PDF. It is free, with no account.

When a Mac screenshot does not work

• Shortcut does nothing: open System Settings, then Keyboard, then Keyboard Shortcuts, then Screenshots. Make sure the shortcuts are ticked, or click Restore Defaults.
• Screenshots are missing from the desktop: check where Save to is set in Cmd + Shift + 5, Options. It may be set to Clipboard or another folder.
• Black or blank areas: some apps block capture of protected content, such as streaming video.
• Using a Windows keyboard: the Windows key acts as Cmd and Alt acts as Option, so press Windows + Shift + 3.