Use the Print Screen Function on a Mac

Using the Print Screen function on a Mac will allow you to take a screenshot of your entire screen, part of your screen, or even of just one open window. If you want to know how to use the Print Screen function, just follow these steps.

Steps

  1. Take a picture of your entire screen. Find the screen that you want to capture and then press Command + Shift +3. This will take a picture of your entire screen. You will even hear the sound of the camera shutter going off to confirm that you've captured the screenshot.
  2. Take a picture of a rectangular portion of your screen. To do this, simply press Command + Shift + 4. This will turn your mouse into a tool that can select any rectangular portion of the screen. The tool will look a bit like a plus sign. Once the tool comes up, you can release the other keys.
    • Then, click and hold your mouse, drag the tool until you've created the desired rectangular shape, and release the mouse when you're ready to take the screenshot.
  3. Take a picture of one window. This is a great option if you have an opened window and want to take a picture of it without your desktop in the background or anything else that has popped up over the screen as a distraction. Press Command + Shift + 4 + space bar and wait for the tool that makes the rectangular screen to transform into a camera.
    • Then, move the camera around with your mouse until you've chosen the screen you want -- it will become faded.
  4. Open the screen capture on your desktop. Just double-click on the file to open it. If you'd like to save your screenshots to the clipboard instead of to a permanent file, just press Control along with the other functions the next time you take a screenshot.
  5. Print the screenshot (optional). If you'd actually like to print the screen shot, just click on "File" and then "Print" and "Print" again.


In this video, learn how to use the Mac print screen functions in order to create screenshots on your Mac.

Tips

  • When printing out, be sure to check your page setup. The screen capture at 100% view is bigger than standard paper sizes.
  • It will be a .png format picture, although the extension does not appear, if you get info on the file, then you will see.
  • To capture only a part of your screen, such as just one window, press Shift, Command (Apple) and 4, then drag a box around the area you want.
  • Instead of #, you can also use $ - this will make your cursor a crosshair. Drag to select the area you want to capture. Release to create the image. Alternatively, don't drag, but instead, press space to turn your cursor into a camera. Clicking on a window with the camera will capture the selected window as your capture, pressing space again will return to the crosshair view.
  • Some of the software designed for tweaking Mac OS X allows you to change the format, naming and location of the screen captures.

Related Articles

  • Use the Function Keys on the Mac
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