Capture pixel-perfect full screen images, cropped areas, active windows, and screen recordings on macOS.
Taking screenshots on Mac is built directly into macOS, requiring no external software. Apple provides three main shortcut combinations: ⌘ + Shift + 3 (Full Screen), ⌘ + Shift + 4 (Selected Region or Window), and ⌘ + Shift + 5 (Interactive Screenshot & Recording HUD Toolbar).
Additionally, holding the Control key while taking any screenshot immediately copies the captured image to your clipboard so you can paste it directly into Slack, Email, WhatsApp, or Photoshop without saving a file on your desktop.
1. Move Selection Rectangle: While dragging your crosshairs with ⌘ + Shift + 4, hold down the Spacebar to move the selection box around your screen before releasing.
2. Lock Aspect Ratio: Hold Shift while dragging crosshairs to lock either horizontal or vertical dimensions.
3. Remove Window Shadows: When using window capture (⌘ + Shift + 4 then Space), hold down Option (⌥) while clicking the window to save a clean PNG without the drop-shadow margin.
Press ⌘ + Shift + 5 to open the built-in macOS Screen Recording toolbar. Select Record Entire Screen or Record Selected Portion and click Record.
Press ⌘ + Shift + 5, click Options on the HUD bar, and uncheck Show Floating Thumbnail.
Yes. Open Terminal and type: defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg; killall SystemUIServer to automatically save future screenshots as JPGs.