How to take a screenshot on a Mac: Easy screen captures/screengrabs for Mac users

Capturing a screenshot to share with others is much easier on the Mac than on the PC; no surprises there. Still, you have a few options, so here are the best ways to take a screengrab in Mac OS X. We also explain how to print screen on a Mac, replicating the Print Screen button on a PC

How to take a screenshot on a Mac: Mac OS X screengrab shortcuts

Hold Cmd (or the 'Apple key') and Shift, then press 3. This will instantly grab a screen capture of the whole Mac desktop, which will appear on the desktop as a .png image whose filename will begin with 'Screen shot' and the date and time. (Would you prefer a JPG or other file format? You can drag the .png file into Photoshop, Preview or similar image viewing program, and then Save As with a different file type extension.)

We've screengrabbed the whole screen - it's tough to make out any details because most of the screenshot is wasted. We could crop this in an image-editing program, but it would be simpler to capture a smaller area in the first place

You probably don't want to screengrab the whole screen, however - most likely you just want to show someone a single interesting thing that one of your applications is up to. So this time we'll hold the same two keys - Cmd and Shift - but press 4. Crosshairs appear; click the left mouse button and drag the cursor across the screen to select a rectangle to screen grab. As before this will appear on your desktop as a .png.