How to Take Prettier Screenshots on Mac
If you’re a Mac user, cropping a small text image to tweet, or saving information from the car rental confirmation page, the standard Command-Shift-4 shortcut lets you draw a box around what you want the capture is more than adequate. But your computer is much smarter than that: there are many other ways to take a screenshot that are just as simple but result in a much prettier end product, and they can be crucial if, say, you want to include a professional-looking web page image of your companies in the presentation.
Capture window with frame and drop shadow
To capture a window with a white border and a gray drop shadow, offering a 3D effect, press Command-Shift-4 , then press Spacebar. When your cursor turns into a small camera, select the window you want to capture. Once it is highlighted in blue, click to take a photo.
Capture a window with no border or shadow
If you feel weak after following the steps above, then you don’t need to live with this fancy border. To grab the contents of the window without a border or shadow, press Command-Shift-4 followed by Spacebar as above. When your selected window acquires that bluish tint, hold down the Option key before clicking to get a clean 2D shot.
Disable drop shadows permanently via terminal
If you never want to take a screenshot of the drop shadow, you can disable this feature permanently. Open Terminal and enter the following (thanks to Andrew Orr for the code):
defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool true
Hit Enter, then type the command below and hit Enter again:
killall SystemUIServer
To return, simply enter the first command again, change the final “true” to “false”, press Enter, and then execute the “killall” command again.
As with all macOS screenshots, if you want to copy your selection rather than save it as an image, add the Control key to the mix. For example, Command-Control-Shift-4 allows you to draw a border around an area on the screen and copy your selection to the clipboard instead of dumping it to the desktop. While holding those same keys, release and press the spacebar to select a specific window – and use our aforementioned steps to add (or remove) a border as you see fit.
If all of these keyboard maneuvers give you a carpal tunnel, you can always use Command-Shift-5 in macOS Mojave or later to bring up a simple interface that lets you choose what you want to take a screenshot of. You won’t be able to choose whether your screenshot will have a nice shadow or not – at least if you don’t hold down the Option key to remove it when you take a screenshot of the window – but you will be able to choose from a number of other options, from specifying where to saving your image, before setting a timer for your screenshot, before enabling or excluding the mouse cursor, etc.
This article was originally published in 2018 by Melissa Kirsch and updated on April 8, 2020 by David Murphy. Our updates include: adding more links to related information, changing a featured image, changing portions of an article to clarify original author information, and adding up-to-date tips for taking screenshots and adjusting macOS settings.