You're new to the Mac, and searching in vain for the 'print screen' key, but your iMac keyboard is frustratingly devoid of an 'iGrab' button.
You decide Macs aren't all they're cracked up to be, and are about to hurl yours out of the window. But wait - it doesn't have to be that way.
Follow our OS X screengrab tips guide and you'll find out how to take perfect grabs - and if you're an old-hand at the Mac, read on anyway, and discover there's more to grabbing screens on the Mac than Command, Shift and 3.
Shortcuts to success
On the Mac, the magical shortcut for taking a screengrab is Command+Shift+3 (although this can be changed in the 'Screen Shots' sub-section of 'Keyboard Shortcuts' within the Keyboard & Mouse System Preferences pane).
By default, this takes a grab of the entire screen and places the resulting PNG file on your Desktop.
Although Apple doesn't provide a GUI for amending the grab file-format and save location, it's possible to change these settings. In our article Unlock Mac OS X apps' hidden features, we showed how you can use Terminal commands to change the format of grabs, toggle drop-shadow inclusion, and amend the save location.
However, you can instead use TinkerTool to do this - set your options in its General pane and logout.
EASY TWEAKING: TinkerTool makes it simple to amend Mac OS X screengrab defaults
If you only want to grab a portion of the screen, press Command+Shift+4. The cursor will become a crosshair. Click-drag and then release and the selected selection will be sent to the Desktop.
Alternatively, if you require a grab of a component (window, menu, the Dock, etc.), press Space after Command+Shift+4. The crosshair will become a camera, which you move over an item to highlight it. Escape cancels the grab, and clicking an item confirms it.
Note that components are grabbed along with their drop-shadows, and you can hold Control when beginning a grab process (Command+Shift+3 or Command+Shift+4) to send the resulting image to the clipboard rather than the Desktop.
CROPPING: By pressing Space after Command+Shift+4, you can grab an individual screen component
Further shortcuts were introduced in Leopard: on dragging a selection, keep the mouse button held and then also hold Space to lock and move the selection; hold Option to resize with the centre of the selection as the anchor point; hold Shift to lock an axis based on the next cursor movement you make; and Shift+Option enables you to lock an axis and resize the selection with its centre as the anchor point.
Your comments (3) Click to add a new comment
veggiedude
August 10th 2009
3. Yes, you can set up a hotkey to take a screen shot, and you don't have to buy anything, it is all there in your Mac. In applications open AUTOMATOR. You are going to create this yourself. On the left side chose UTILITIES, the choose 'Take Screenshot'. The rest is self explanatory. Once you have your applescript app made, assign it to a hotkey or just leave an alias of it on your desktop to launch.
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yodamac
July 29th 2009
2. I've been trying for months to come up with a way to set up a single global hotkey that will take a screenshot of ONE screen (pre-designated) in a multi-monitor setup and save the file into a specific folder. From what I can tell, none of these apps will do that. Does anyone know how to do this?
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zigmoo
July 29th 2009
1. Hello Craig,
Thanks for the informative article. I've been using Macs for 15 years and I've never heard of half of your recommendations before! There are so many useful apps out there for every purpose, it's impossible to know them all.
Speaking of which, be sure to try out Skitch(http://skitch.com/).
It's hard to say enough great things about this under-appreciated app! Coupled with a free web service, it provides the best workflow I've ever seen for people who need to discuss the contents of their screens with others in email, etc. I'm not affiliated with Skitch in any way, just a huge fan!
Best regards,
Jason
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