How to take a full page screenshot on a Mac

Why the Mac Screenshot app cannot do it

Cmd + Shift + 3 captures the whole screen, Cmd + Shift + 4 captures an area, and Cmd + Shift + 5 opens the Screenshot toolbar with window capture and screen recording. None of them scroll. They capture pixels that are visible on your display, so a long web page is cut off at the bottom of the window.

Browsers know the full height of the page, so they can render all of it in one image. That is why every method below works inside the browser, not the macOS tool.

The Screenshot toolbar is still useful for everything else: a single window with its shadow, a dragged area, or a timed capture. Press Cmd + Shift + 5 and look at Options to change where screenshots are saved, or to send them to the clipboard instead of the desktop.

Full page screenshot in Safari

Safari has no one-click option, but its Web Inspector can capture the full page. You need to switch on the developer features once.

1. In Safari, open Settings, then Advanced, and tick Show features for web developers. On older versions it is called Show Develop menu in menu bar.
2. Open the page and scroll to the bottom once so all images load.
3. Press Cmd + Option + I to open Web Inspector and go to the Elements tab.
4. Right-click the html line at the top of the page structure and choose Capture Screenshot.
5. Choose where to save the PNG.

• Alternative: File, then Export as PDF saves the page as one long PDF. Text stays selectable, though some layouts shift slightly.

Full page screenshot in Chrome on a Mac

1. Open the page and scroll to the bottom so lazy images load.
2. Press Cmd + Option + I to open DevTools.
3. Press Cmd + Shift + P to open the command menu.
4. Type screenshot and choose Capture full size screenshot.
5. Chrome saves a PNG to your Downloads folder.

Full page screenshot in Firefox on a Mac

Firefox has the simplest built-in option. Right-click an empty part of the page and choose Take Screenshot, or press Cmd + Shift + S. Click Save full page at the top right, then Download or Copy. You can also pick a single section of the page by clicking it, or drag to select an area.

Limits of the built-in methods

• Safari and Chrome hide the option inside developer tools, several steps deep.
• Sticky headers and cookie banners can repeat or cover content.
• Sections that load as you scroll may come out blank.
• Very long pages can be cut off.
• You get a plain image with no crop, arrows, text or blur. To hide an email address or a customer name you need a second app such as Preview, and Preview cannot blur.
• Retina screens capture at double resolution, so files can be very large.

Tips for a cleaner capture on a Mac

• Close cookie banners, pop-ups and chat bubbles first, or they appear in the middle of the image.
• Scroll to the bottom and back to the top so every lazy-loaded image is in place.
• Resize the window to the width you want. A narrower window gives the tablet or phone layout of the page.
• If the page has a dark mode, pick the look you want first. The capture uses whatever theme the page is showing, which follows your macOS appearance setting on many sites.
• Open the result in Preview at actual size before you send it. A very tall image looks tiny in Quick Look, but the detail is there.
• For sharing by email, a PDF or a JPG is usually smaller than a full resolution PNG.
• Sign out of accounts or blur names before you capture pages you plan to share publicly. Full page images often include sidebars and footers you forgot were there.

Using an extension on your Mac

If you capture pages often, a browser extension saves the setup. NeoReader Full Page Screenshot is a free extension for Chrome, Edge and Firefox on the Mac, with no account. It captures the entire scrolling page, only the visible part, or an area you drag, and handles fixed headers so they do not repeat down the image.

An editor opens straight after capture. Crop, draw arrows and shapes, add text and emoji, and blur private details before you share. Save as PNG, JPG or PDF, or copy to the clipboard to paste into Slack, Mail or a document. Screenshots are not stored, and keyboard shortcuts cover each capture mode. Safari is not supported, so Safari users can use the Web Inspector method above.

1. Add NeoReader Full Page Screenshot to Chrome, Edge or Firefox.
2. Open the page and click the extension icon, or press its shortcut.
3. Choose Full page and wait a moment while it scrolls and stitches.
4. Edit, then save or copy.