Everything You Didn’t Know Can Be Done With an IPhone Screenshot
We all take screenshots on our iPhones. Maybe you want to share an Instagram post outside of the app; maybe you want to keep receipts in a dispute you have; you may have accidentally taken a screenshot for the millionth time. Whatever the reason, screenshots are second nature to most iPhone users. But screenshots are more than you think. Let’s dive into how screenshots work on your iPhone, including some hidden tips and tricks that I find especially helpful.
How to take a screenshot on iPhone
You probably know how to take a screenshot on your iPhone, but just in case, let’s start with the basics: all you need to do to take a screenshot is press the volume up and side buttons at the same time. (If your iPhone still has a Home button, press the Power button and the Home button at the same time and release to take a screenshot.) You can also set your device to take a screenshot in a variety of ways using the options in the menu “Special abilities”; for example, go to Settings > Accessibility > Tap > Back tap , and you can turn on screen capture by quickly tapping the back of your phone two or three times . (Warning: this can exponentially increase the number of random screenshots until you get used to it.)
Anything You Can Do With Screenshot Thumbnails
In the past, when you took a screenshot on iOS, you only saw a flash (and, if you had your sound on, you heard that iconic camera shutter). If you want to see your screenshot, you’ll have to dive into the Photos app. However, starting with iOS 11 , a screenshot preview appears in the bottom left corner of the screen with each image you capture. Far from being a simple look at what you’ve grabbed, this pop-up adds a lot of functionality to the screenshot process.
The thumbnail preview lingers for about five seconds before automatically disappearing. If you can’t wait that long, you can brush them off immediately. However, if you tap the preview, you will expand it into the screenshot editor (more on that later).
These are the basics of thumbnail previews, but there’s more to it than meets the eye. If you take another screenshot while the thumbnail is still present, the new screenshot will be placed on top of the previous one. You can repeat this as many times as you like; previews will continue to stack until you stop taking screenshots within that five second interval (or you swipe them).
Whether you have one screenshot in a stack or 20, here’s another tip: if you hold the preview thumbnails, you can drag them across the screen. You can place them anywhere you would normally add an image, such as in a text field, in a note, or in an image uploader. If you need to open another app, just hold one finger (thumb works great) on the preview image and use your second finger to swipe, scroll, and tap to find the app you want. (I often do this to drag and drop them into iMessage conversations.) Note that when you use Preview this way, the screenshot won’t be saved to your Photos app, which can help you control the size of your photo library.
But wait, that’s not all: if you long press on a thumbnail and then release, you’ll skip the editor screen and go straight to the sharing sheet, which lets you send the screenshot anywhere. However, if you’ve never used the screenshot sharing feature, you may not know this: you can rename the screenshot however you like, instead of dealing with the long, boring default name that Apple always assigns. Click Rename, enter whatever name you want, then click Submit.
Screenshot editor is good, actually
So, you have clicked on the screenshot preview and you are now in the editor. Here you can transform the screenshot as you wish. Crop it by dragging any of the corners or sides of the screenshot; if you regret cropping, you can either drag the corners in the opposite direction to restore the image, or use the undo button at the top of the screen to fix it. If you long press the undo button, you can undo all the changes you have made so far.
Don’t forget: you can zoom in on a screenshot by pinching your fingers in the same way you zoom in on a photo.
At the bottom of the screen, you will see the various tools you use to mark up the screenshot. From left to right, you have a pen, highlighter, highlighter, eraser (to erase your marks), lasso (to deal with any marks and move them freely), ruler (which acts like a digital ruler), and color selector (showing almost all color options). in the visible light spectrum).
But we’re not done yet. Tap the (+) to the right of these tools to see even more tools, including Description, which lets you edit the description of the image; “Text”, which adds a text field to the screenshot; “Signature”, which allows you to add your signature to the screenshot; “Opacity”, which allows you to add a white filter to the image; and “Loupe”, which adds a magnifying circle to part of the image. At the bottom of this submenu, you’ll find four different shapes that you can add to your screenshot, including a square, a circle, a dialog, and an arrow.
Markup is enabled by default when you open the screenshot editor, but you can disable it by tapping the marker icon at the top of the screen. When you do that, you will see a Live Text button in the bottom right corner that allows you to copy text from a screenshot, translate text, or perform instant conversions . To the right of the Markup icon is the trash can, which allows you to delete the screenshot that is currently on the screen, and the Share icon, which opens the same sharing sheet we discussed earlier.
If you tap Done in the top left corner, you’ll see five options (in iOS 16 at least): Save to Photo, Save to Files, Save to Note, Copy and Delete, ยป and Remove Screenshot. This penultimate option is a game-changer as it allows you to copy a screenshot for use elsewhere without saving it to your Photo Library. If you prefer not to drag and drop the screenshot, this option is for you.
Clicking Done isn’t the only way to exit the editor. If you swipe up from the bottom of the screen (or press the home button), the screenshot or screenshots will revert to the preview thumbnails.