How to Take a Screenshot on a Mac, Windows, iOS and Android

Take a screenshot on Mac is nothing new, in fact, there are so many people are wondering how to get this job done because there is no “Print Screen” key on your Mac keyboard. Screenshots on your Mac are awesome for showing a tutorial, a great moment of videos, high scores from Games, a problem you need help or even conversations on Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, etc.

How To Take a Screenshot on a Mac

Take a screenshot on Mac is super simpler than Windows OS. You can use the built-in keyboard shortcuts, app or the third-party applications for taking a screenshot on Mac.

Using The Built-in Keyboard Shortcuts

1. To capture your entire screen

Step 1: Open the screen of the app you need to take a screenshot.

Step 2: Press the Command (⌘) + Shift + 3 at the same time.

You’ll hear a short camera shutter sound if your MacBook’s sound is turned on. Your screenshot will be saved as in .png format and labeled with the date and time: ScreenShot [Date + Time] on your Desktop.

Step 3: Once you have taken your screenshot, they are now ready to be opened and shared with another application.

2. To capture a part of your screen

Step 1: Open all apps and windows you want to take a screenshot

Step 2: Press the Command (⌘) + Shift + 4 at the same time. The cursor will be switched to a crosshair pointer.

Just select an area that you need on the screen, then release your mouse or trackpad. To Cancel this, press Escape button (ESC) before you select area. You should certainly hear a short camera shutter sound if your Mac’s sound is turned on.

More Tricks:

• You can hold down the Option button to adjust the lock point to the center of the area.
• Press and hold the Shift button to lock all of the sides but the one in the direction you’re presently moving.

Step 3: Then, you can see the screenshot as a .png file on your desktop with the name Screen Shot [Date + Time].

Step 4: Double-click on the screenshot to view and share it with Preview or right-click on it and select Open With to share it with another application you want.

3. To capture a specific Mac App window

Step 1: Open the app window you want to take a screenshot.

Step 2: Press Command (⌘) + Shift + 4 and Spacebar. The cursor will turn into a camera icon.

Step 3: Place this camera icon to anywhere of the window which you want to take a screenshot. The selected window will turn into the tinted blue.

Step 4: Just click your mouse or trackpad to take a screenshot. To Cancel, press Escape (ESC) before you click. You’ll hear a short camera shutter, and the screenshot will save on your desktop in .png format, with the name: Screen Shot [Date + Time].

More: This method can be used for taking a screenshot of a specific dropdown menu and even your Dock on Mac.

4. To save a Screenshot directly to the Mac Clipboard

Step 1: Set up the exactly screenshot which you wanted the results saved to your desktop.

Step 2: There are two options as well.

Press and hold the Command + Shift + Control + 3 at the same time to copy the entire screen of your Mac to your Clipboard.

Press Command + Shift + Control + 4 (+ Spacebar) at the same time to copy the screenshot to your Mac Clipboard.

Step 3: Open your document or image applications on your Mac and paste ( Command (⌘) + V or select Paste from the menu) to the window of the app.

I’ve used the Skitch app to paste the screenshot for editing and saving an image.

How to Change The Default Save Location of Screenshots on a Mac

Step 1: Create a new folder on Desktop or wherever you want by going to File >> New Folder or right-click on Desktop >> Select New Folder.

Step 2: To change the name of new Folder, just click on that folder >> Hit Enter button >> Type the new name, such as “TakeaScreen.”

Step 3: Open a Terminal app by typing “terminal” on Spotlight Search or click on Launchpad >> Other >> Terminal

Step 4: At Terminal window, just copy and paste the command line:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location

Note: Make sure to have a “space” after “defaults write com.apple.screencapture location”.

Step 5: Drag and drop the folder you need into the terminal window.

Step 6: Once you’ve pressed Return button, continue to enter the command below.

killall SystemUIServer

Step 7: Now, you can take a screenshot on a Mac and check the result.

Using The Built-in App

1. Grab Utility of Mac

Step 1: Find Grab app by going to Applications >> Utilities >> Grab. This will launch the Grab app. You can only use the Grab’s menu which is appeared at the top left of your screen as there no app’s window show up on your Mac.

Step 2: Go to the Capture menu and select one of four options you want.

1. To take a screenshot of your entire screen, select Screen and click on the screen which you want.
2. To take a screenshot a part of your screen, click Selection. A window will appear and you need to drag your mouse over the part of your screen you want to capture.
3. To take a screenshot of a particular app window, click Window. Then, select the window you want to take a screenshot of.
4. Click Timed Screen option, you’ll have 10 seconds to stage the screen before this app capture the entire screen.

2. Preview App

Preview is also the built-in tool which lets you open anything from photos to PDF files on Mac. However, it has some hidden features. You can completely take a screenshot by using Preview app. Here is the step-by-step to do that.

Step 1: Go to LauchPad >> open Preview app. Then, click File >> Take a screenshot at the menubar.

Step 2: Select the option you want.

Using a Third-Party App

1. Skitch

Skitch is a great screen capture and editing app from Evernote. Skitch can assist as your primary screen capture app, surely replacing the built-in Grab utility in your Mac. It provides some features which allow you to annotate a screenshot with adding arrows, text, shapes, and lines.

Pros

• It costs free.
• User-friendly interface,
• Supports for JPG, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, GIF, BMP, and PDF formats.

Cons

• It only allows editing one image at a time.
• Must use export option to save the image.

2. LightShot

LightShot is also an amazing screenshot tool available for Mac. You can capture screenshots in many ways and easily edit, upload or even share them on the Internet.

Here’s the guide on how to use the LightShot app:

How To Take a Screenshot on Windows

Sometimes you will need to take screenshots of your Windows in a variety reason including sending a screenshot to tech support, a high-score of the test to friends, sharing a funny comment of Facebook, etc. The feature has been available across various Windows operation systems for more than ten years. Here’s the guide on how to take screenshots in Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.

If you want to take a screenshot on Microsoft Surface Pro, you can check this article out.

Take a Screenshot With (PrtScn) Print Screen key

1. Press PrtScn key

This will take a screenshot of your whole screen and copy it to the clipboard.

Note: This PrtScn key is often located between Scroll Lock and F12 key on your Keyboard. For some Laptops, you need to press the Fn (Function) key to copy the screenshot to Clipboard.

2. Press Alt + PrtScn to take a particular of Window screen.

Step 1: You need to open the program you want and click on the Program’s window you want to take a screenshot.

Then, just press the Alt + PrtScn key at the same time. This will be copied to the clipboard of Windows. For some Laptops, you need to include the Fn key (Fn + Alt + PrtScn) as well.

More: Using Windows + PrtScn key

If you are using Windows 8.1 or Windows 10, just hold down the Windows + PrtScn (Print Screen) key to automatically save a whole screenshot within the Screenshots folder of your Pictures folder.

Step 2: Once you’ve used one of two ways above, then open the program to edit and save the screenshot as the image file. You can use the built-in program (Paint) or the third-party software (Lightshot).

In this tutorial, we will use Paint to edit and save the screenshot.

You can open the Paint using Search box from Start Menu. Then, just press Ctrl + V to paste the screenshot or you can also click the Paste button at the left corner of the program and select File >> Save the image as .jpg, .png,…

Take a Screenshot Without (PrtScn) Print Screen Key

Using the Snipping tool to take a screenshot

The Snipping Tool is a great built-in tool on Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. Here’s the guide on how to use the Snipping Tool for taking a screenshot.

Step 1: Open Snipping Tool

• For Windows 10 and Windows 7: Click the Start button, type “snipping” in the search box on the taskbar, and then open the Snipping Tool from the results.
• For Windows 8.1: Open the Search box by swiping in from the right corner of the screen, just type Snipping in the Search box.

Step 2: Select a snip

In Snipping Tool, click Mode button (the arrow next to the New button in older versions), click the kind of option which you need. There are four options:

1. Free-form snip allows you draw any type of shape with your mouse.
2. Rectangular snip allows you select a rectangle-shaped area which is selected by default.
3. Window snip lets you select a program’s window to capture.
4. Full-screen snip lets you capture the whole screen.

Step 3: Annotate a snip

Once you’ve picked your Snip area, then release your mouse. Now you can easily draw and edit by clicking the Pen or Highlighter buttons. Select Eraser button to delete the option you’ve drawn.

Step 4: Save a snip

Just select the Save button and type a file name, location, and type of formats you want and select Save.

Using Third-party Software: Lightshot ScreenShot

LightShot is a great software which lets you take the screenshots. See more the detailed guide here.

Taking a screenshot on an iPhone or iPad devices is an excellent way to show the text messages, the high-scores from playing Game, etc. Here’s the detailed guide on how to take a screenshot on iPhone or iPad by simply using the built-in shortcut.

How to Take a Screenshot on an iPhone and iPad

Hold and press the Sleep (or Wake) on the right side and Home keys at the same time and then release all of them after 3 or 4 seconds. You will hear a camera shutter sound, and the screen will flash white. The screenshot will be saved to your Photos app.

This works on iPhone SE, iPhone 4, iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 7 and 7 Plus

Now you can open, edit and share the screenshot on the Internet or anywhere you want.

What will you do when the buttons don’t work?

If the Sleep (or Wake) or Home key on your iPhone or iPad doesn’t work correctly, it’s still possible to take a screenshot by using the AssistiveTouch, which is a built-in app on iOS. It’s also a great way to take a screenshot on iPhone, iPad without using any buttons.

Step 1: Open Home Screen >> Tap on Settings app >> Tap on General >> Accessibility and then scroll down to AssistiveTouch and turn it on.

Step 2: To take a screenshot using AssistiveTouch

Go to the screen you want, then tap on the AssistiveTouch icon >> tap Device >> Tap More, and select the Screenshot option. This will save a screenshot as an image file on Photos app.

See more video tutorial: