How to Take a Screenshot or Image of What’s on Your Computer Screen

Posted on October 19, 2020 by resourcefulman

I can’t go through a day without taking a screenshot on my computer. Whether it’s a job, some dumb piece of video I want to share with friends, or the incredible results of a rare successful Overwatch session, there’s always something.

Windows and macOS provide many ways to quickly take screenshots of anything you want, from keyboard shortcuts to built-in tools for capturing, annotating, and saving screenshots and screen recordings. There are also many third-party apps you can use to level up your game with screenshots if you need more firepower than your operating system can provide.

We will cover three topics in this guide:

How to take screenshots on a Windows PC or Mac

If you want to capture an image of the entire screen, including all windows, toolbars, docks, and any part of the desktop that is being viewed, the easiest option is to use keyboard shortcuts.

Screenshots in Windows

Look for the Print Screen key on your keyboard, which might be labeled PrtScn or something similar.

To take a screenshot of the entire screen (everything you see on the screen, including all open windows), press the PrtScn button. This screenshot will be placed on the clipboard so you can paste it anywhere. You can also press the Windows key + Print Screen to save the screenshot to the [User] \ Pictures \ Screenshots folder.

Screenshots on macOS

To take a screenshot of the entire screen, press Cmd + Shift + 3 at the same time. When you do, you will hear a click and a screenshot thumbnail will appear in the lower right corner of the screen.

Screenshots are automatically saved as PNG files on your desktop. If you want to save to the clipboard instead, press and hold Control + Cmd + Shift + 3

How to take a screenshot of a portion of the screen

If you want to capture a single window, a quick paragraph of text, or a photo, you can take a screenshot of the highlighted area of the screen using various keyboard shortcuts or easy-to-use tools that are already built into your operating system.

Screen Capture on Windows

To capture only the active or the frontmost window, press Alt + PrtScn . (If you are using a laptop, you may have to press Fn at the same time.) The image will be copied to the clipboard so you can paste it wherever you want.

To record something that would normally disappear when you press the Alt key – like a dropdown menu – press Ctrl + PrtScn instead .

If you want to select a portion of the screen to capture, press Windows Key + Shift + S. Windows 10 will open a “crop bar” which we will explain below.

Using the Snip & Sketch app

Windows 10 has a screen capture app called Snip & Sketch . With Snip & Sketch, you can define areas of the screen to capture (irregular shape, rectangle you draw, selected window, or entire screen), annotate the screenshot, and email your screenshot.

If you are not using the Windows keyboard command Key + Shift + S to launch the miniature version of Snip & Sketch, you can launch the full app by clicking Start and searching for Snip & Sketch. Select New to start a new slice and choose a capture type (rectangular, freeform, windowed, or full screen). The image is sent to the clipboard, but you will also see a popup asking you to annotate or share directly from the Snip & Sketch tool.

Using a scissor tool

Windows 10 still has the old Snipping Tool; run it by typing its name after clicking the start button. From there:

Click Mode to select the type of screen capture: Freehand Drawing, Rectangle Drawing, or Full Window. Then use your mouse to select the area of the screen or window that you want to capture.
To draw or select part of a screenshot, click the pen or highlighter button on the menu. You can also set a timer in the utility, which is useful if you need to give yourself a few seconds to prepare the snapshot – for example, if you need a screenshot of the context menu.

Once you receive the screenshot, you can save it, email it, or copy and paste it into another application.

Screen capture on macOS

To take a screenshot of a specific area of the screen, press Cmd + Shift + 4 . The cursor turns into a crosshair and you can move the cursor over the area you want to capture.

To grab a specific window, or something like the Dock or menu bar, press Cmd + Shift + 4 and then press Space . The crosshair will turn into a small camera and highlight the window or objects that you can capture.

To record what’s on your Mac’s touchpad, if your Mac has one, press Cmd + Shift + 6 .

Using a screenshot

MacOS Mojave (and later) also has a screenshot tool, obviously called a screenshot. You can access it using Cmd + Shift + 5 or under Applications> Utilities.

When you open a screenshot, a floating toolbar appears at the bottom of the screen. You can choose whether you want to take a photo: a selection, a specific window, or the entire screen. You can also set a 5 or 10 second timer delay (found in the Options section).

By default, the screenshot is saved to your desktop, but you can choose a different destination from the Options menu.

Using preview

MacOS’s built-in PDF viewer has a screen capture tool. which allows you to immediately annotate and edit the screenshot, and then select a folder to export or save. Open Preview and choose File> Take Screenshot. You can select a selection (drag the crosshair), a window (press Enter), or the entire screen (the countdown gives you a few seconds to move windows).

How to annotate, save, and post screenshots

What’s the point of taking a screenshot if you can’t mark it up? Both Windows and Mac have free built-in tools for cropping, drawing, and editing screenshots.

Annotate and share screenshots on Windows

As mentioned, Snip & Sketch and Snipping Tool come with annotation tools as well as various options for saving and sharing screenshots. You can also use Snip & Sketch to annotate other images – useful if you are taking a screenshot with a keyboard shortcut or pasting a screenshot from the keyboard.

Annotate and share screenshots on macOS

If you are using keyboard shortcuts or screen capture to capture your screen, a thumbnail of your image will appear in the lower right corner of your screen for a few seconds. Click the image to open the macOS annotation and editing tools. Click Done to save the picture to your desktop, or click the Share button in the upper right corner to send your screenshot via Mail, Messages, AirDrop, and more.

If you are unable to catch the thumbnail, double-click the image on the desktop to open it in preview mode. You will see the same annotation tools and sharing options, plus you can save your image elsewhere or in a different format.

Third party screenshot tools

This is a rundown of the built-in screen capture tools for Windows and macOS, but there are third-party apps that can take even better screenshots and recordings and give you more editing options. Lightshot and TinyTake (for Mac and Windows) have detailed annotation features, while ShareX (Windows) has a long list of capture options, like scrolling and GIF creation, on top of its editing tools.

How to Record Your Screen on Windows PC or Mac

An image speaks a thousand words, but a quick video that captures exactly what you’re trying to do on your PC might be an even better solution. Fortunately, taking a screenshot on Windows or macOS is hardly more difficult than taking a screenshot.

Recording your screen on Windows

Windows has a built-in recording tool called Xbox Game Bar. Click Start> Settings to get started . Select “Games” and click “Game bar”. Turn on the option “Record game clips, screenshots and broadcast using game bar”.

When you’re ready to record, open Game Bar by pressing Windows Key + G. A capture window should appear automatically, and all you need to do is click Record to start and stop recording your screen.

If the Capture window does not appear, locate and click the webcam icon in the main game bar overlay to display it. Don’t be discouraged if you receive a strange message that looks something like this:

To get around this, I just opened my web browser, restarted the Xbox Game Bar (using Windows Key + G) and started recording anyway, annoying message and all. (You can always cut out this little workaround in your final video.)

Recording your screen on macOS

In the screenshot (Cmd + Shift + 5) you have the option to record the entire talus or a selected part (using the two rightmost icons). Once you select a recording option, the Capture button on the right will switch to Record. Click it to start, and then click the tiny Stop icon in the Mac menu bar to stop. Like the screenshot, the image / link to your post will appear in the lower right corner of the screen.

This article was originally published in 2011 by Melanie Pinola and updated in April 2020 by Emily Long and David Murphy. We’ve reworked the article significantly, adding additional links to third-party apps, rewriting parts of the article for clarity, and offering new tools and tips for taking screenshots and screen recordings. Accuracy retest on October 19, 2020

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