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

Here's how to take a screenshot on a PC, macOS, Ubuntu, Linux, iOS and Android by using built-in tools and free software. You can easily take a entire screen or a selected portion of it only. Thank you for over 1000 likes!

How To Take a Screenshot on a Mac

How to Take a Screenshot on your macOS Mojave, Catalina and macOS Big Sur

WELL, Apple has added the new tool in this version to help simplify this process. Taking pictures and recording videos is no longer that hard. Let’s jump right in to find out!

There are several ways to take screenshots on your Macbook, especially with the new macOS Catalina and Mojave version. Previous keyboard shortcuts like Shift + Command + 4 or Shift + Command + 3 still remain working.

Capture the whole Screen

Step 1: Press Shift + Command + 5 to see the toolbar.

Step 2: Choose the Capture Entire Screen icon.

Step 3: Click anywhere on the screen you want to capture to take a screenshot, or you can click on Capture to take screenshots of every display.

Step 4: At this point, you will see a small thumbnail appear at the corner of your laptop screen. Click on this thumbnail to edit the screenshot(s) you have just taken.

This process is only available on macOS Mojave or later. You also can follow the traditional way of taking a screenshot, which is available for all macOS.

All you need to do is press Shift + Command + 3 to capture the whole screen, and you can find the screenshot on your desktop.

Capture a Window

Step 1: Press Shift + Command + 5 to see the toolbar.

Step 2: Choose the Capture Selected Windows icon.

Step 3: Click on the window you want to take a screenshot of.

Step 4: At this point, you will see a small thumbnail appear at the corner of your laptop screen. Click on this thumbnail to edit the screenshot(s) you have just taken.

This process is only available on macOS Mojave or later. You also can follow the traditional way of taking a screenshot, which is available for all macOS.

All you need to do is press Shift + Command + 4. Then, press Space and you will see the pointer change to a camera. Click on the window you want to capture, and you will find your screenshot(s) on your desktop.

Capture a Selected Portion of the Screen

Step 1: Press Shift + Command + 5 to see the toolbar.

Step 2: Choose the Capture Selected Portion icon.

Step 3: Drag your mouse the select the area you want to capture.

Step 4: Click on Capture.

Step 5: At this point, you will see a small thumbnail appear at the corner of your laptop screen. Click on this thumbnail to edit the screenshot(s) you have just taken.

This process is only available on macOS Mojave or later. You also can follow the traditional way of taking a screenshot, which is available for all macOS.

All you need to do is press Shift + Command + 4, then drag your mouse to the area you want to capture. After you release the mouse, the screenshot has now taken, and you can find it on your desktop.

Capture the Touch Bar

You can press Shift + Command + 6 to take a screenshot of what currently being displayed on the Touch Bar. Your macOS has to be Sierra 10.12.2 or later.

Capture a Menu

Step 1: Click on the menu to see its content.

Step 2: After pressing Shift + Command + 5, choose one of the two options to take a screenshot: Capture Selected Window or Capture Selected Portion.

Step 3: At this point, you will see a small thumbnail appear at the corner of your laptop screen. Click on this thumbnail to edit the screenshot(s) you have just taken.

This process is only available on macOS Mojave or later. You also can follow the traditional way of taking a screenshot, which is available for all macOS.

First, you need to click on the menu to see its content. Then, press Shift + Command + 4 and drag your mouse to the area (the menu) where you want to take a screenshot. After releasing your mouse or the trackpad button, press Space to change the pointer into the camera icon and click on the menu to capture.

Above are the different ways to take a screenshot on macOS Mojave with a special tool, and other macOS as well.

I hope you find this article helpful. If you have any question on whether the steps are not clear, or you don’t understand, just comment down below, and I’ll answer them one by one.

How to Take a Screenshot on your macOS Sierra, El Capitan,...

Taking a screenshot on a 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 great for showing a tutorial, a great moment of videos, high scores from Games, some problems you need help or even the conversations on Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, etc.

Taking screenshots on a Mac is super simpler than Windows 10 because you can use the built-in keyboard shortcuts or the third-party software 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.

Shift + Command + 3

You'll hear a short camera shutter sound if your MacBook's sound is turned on. Your screenshot will be saved as in .png file 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 your friends or another applications.

2. To capture a part of your screen

Step 1: Open an app or the window 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.

Shift + Command + 4

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

Note

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 app or right-click on it and select Open With to share it with another applications.

3. To capture a specific App's window

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

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

Command+ Shift + 4 + Spacebar

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

How take a screenshot of App's windows

Step 4: Just click your mouse or trackpad on that window to take a screenshot. To Cancel, press Escape (ESC) before clicking. 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] as well.

Tips: 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 to a Mac Clipboard directly

There are two options:

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

Command + Shift + Control + 3

Press Command + Shift + Control + 4 (+ Spacebar) at the same time to copy an area of the screen to your Mac Clipboard.

Command + Shift + Control + 4

Step 3: Open the application on your Mac and paste by pressing Command (⌘) + V or select Paste from the menu of an 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.

Select File >> New Folder or right-click on Desktop >> Select New Folder.

Step 2: To change the name of the created folder, just click on that folder and press the Enter button. Then, type the new name you want, 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, let copy and paste the command line below.

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location

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

Then, let drag and drop the folder into the Terminal.

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

killall SystemUIServer

Now, you can take a screenshot by using the above guide to check the result.

How to change the default save location of screenshots

Changed the default save location of screenshots sucessfully.

Using the built-in app on a Mac

1. Grab Utility

Step 1: Open the Grab app on your Mac by going to Applications >> Utilities >> Grab. You can only use the Grab's menu at the top left of your Mac's screen because there are no app's window which show up on the screen.

Step 2: Go to the Capture menu and select one of 4 options, including:

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. With Preview, you can completely take a screenshot and 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 menu of the screen.

Step 2: Select the option you want.

Taking a screenshot using Preview app

Using the 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-friend ly 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 10, Windows 8.1 and Windows 7

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 or sharing a funny comment of Facebook, to your family, etc.

Fortunately, the feature has been available across various Windows for more than ten years. Here's the detailed guide on how to take screenshots in Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 as well.

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

Taking a Screenshot Using The (PrtScn) Print Screen button

1. Press PrtScn key

Once you have pressed the PrtScn button, this will take a screenshot of your whole screen and copy it to the clipboard.

Taking a screenshot on Windows by using PrtScn button

Note: This PrtScn key is often located between Scroll Lock and F12 button on your keyboard. For some Laptops, you need to press both button: Fn (Function) and PrtScn button.

2. Taking a particular of Program's window

You need to open the program and click on the Program's window you want to take a screenshot. Then, let press the Alt + PrtScn key at the same time. This will be copied to the clipboard.

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

Editing and saving the screenshot

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 article, I will use Paint to paste the screenshot. I opened the Paint program by using Search Box from Start menu, then pressed Ctrl + V to paste the screenshot. Finally, just selected File >> Save the image as .jpg, .png,... once I have edited the screenshot completely.

Saving the screenshot with Paint program

Taking a Screenshot Without (PrtScn) Print Screen Button

1. Using The Snipping Tool

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

Step 1: Open Snipping Tool from your PC.

On 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: There are 4 options to take a screenshot with The Snipping Tool.

Click on Mode button (the arrow next to the New button in older versions), click the type of option which you need.

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

Taking a screenshot on Windows Using Snipping Tool

Step 3: Once you've picked your Snip area and released your mouse. Now, you can easily draw and edit by clicking the Pen or Highlighter button. Select Eraser to remove something that you've drawn.

Step 4: Finnally, select the Save button and type a file name, location, and type of formats you want and select Save.

2. Using Third-party Software: Lightshot ScreenShot

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

How to Take a Screenshot on an iPhone and iPad

Taking a screenshot on an iPhone or iPad is an great way to share the text of Facebook, the high-scores of playing Game, etc. with your friend and family. Here's the detailed guide on how to take a screenshot on iOS devices.

Taking a screenshot on an iPhone 7

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

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

Note: This works on iPhone SE, iPhone 4, iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 7, 7 Plus, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 Pro.

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

If you have pressed and holed these button for a few seconds, but it doesn't work correctly, then you need to use the AssistiveTouch feature, which is a built-in app on iOS. It's a great way to take a screenshot on iPhone, iPad without using any buttons as well.

Step 1: Go to your Home Screen >> Tap on Settings app >> Tap on General >> Accessibility and then scroll down until you see the AssistiveTouch, then let turn it on.

Step 2: Taking a screenshot by using AssistiveTouch is quite easy. Just going to the screen you want, then tap on the AssistiveTouch icon >> tap on Device >> Tap on More, and select the Screenshot option. This will save a screenshot as an image file on Photos app.

How to Take a Screenshot on Android Devices

There are many reasons for sharing your Android's screen with friends and colleagues including a funny comment on social media (Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, etc.), a proof of your new high score of playing Game, or writing guides for your blog.

For the most of Android phones and tablets, you can take a screenshot by holding down the Power and Volume Down buttons at the same time.

After a few seconds, the screen will flash white, and a message will show up in the drop-down bar on top of the display screen of your phone.

Then you need to tap on it to view a screenshot. In there, there are some options which you can edit or share the screenshot on Facebook, Email, etc.

This guide will work great on most of Android versions (Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean 4.1 and later, KitKat, or Android 5.0 Lollipop, Android 6.0 Marshmallow, Android 7.0 Nougat, Android 8.0 Oreo and newest.

Taking a screenshot on a Samsung Galaxy

1. Using Hardware Buttons

Hold down the Power and Home keys at the same time until the screen will flash and a shutter sound is heard. You can use the guide for these devices below:

Samsung Galaxy S4, S5, S6, S8
Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom, Active
Samsung Galaxy Note 2, Note 3, Note 4, Note 5, Note 6, Note 8
Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3
Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 Pro
Samsung Galaxy J7

Once you have pressed these buttons, the screen of your phone has been taken and saved automatically to the Photos app.

Taking a screenshot on Samsung Galaxy

2. Using a Hand Swipe

Go to Settings and open the Motions and Genstures option.

If your Samsung device is older than a Samsung Galaxy S4 (2013), you can try to going to Settings >> Tap on Motion. Then, turn the Palm swipes to capture on to take a screenshot using a hand swipe.

How to take a screenshot on Samsung using Palm Swipe

Now, just going to the screen you need and lay the bottom of your palm on the screen of the device and swipe left or right across the screen. Then, you will hear the camera shutter sound, this mean your screenshot has been taked and saved to the Gallery app of the your phone automatically.

How to take a screenshot on Samsung using Palm Swipe

Taking a screenshot on an HTC

Here's the popular method of taking a screenshot which has been used on a lot Android's users. Just pressing and holding these keys at the same time:

Power + Home button
Power + Volume Down button.

Taking a screenshot on an HTC

You will see a flash white on the screen of your phone. The screenshot will be saved in your Photos or Gallery.

Taking a screenshot on a Sony Xperia Z

Just press and hold the Power and the Volume Down buttons until a new pop-up window appears. Then you'll see some options including taking a screenshot and recording the screen, etc.

Taking a screenshot on a Sony Xperia Z

Taking a screenshot on an LG

Go to the screen you want to take a screenshot. Hold down the Volume Down and Power buttons at the same time, then the screenshot has been saved into your "Screenshots" folder in your Gallery application of your device.

Taking a screenshot on an LG G4

Taking a screenshot on a Nexus

Hold down the Power button and the Volume Down button at the same time , both buttons is on the right-hand side of the mobile devices.

Then, you can view a screenshot that have just been taken on Photos app.

How to take a screenshot on Ubuntu, Linux

There are a few ways to take a screenshot in Ubuntu, Linux. For this guide, we will share some methods which you can do easily.

1. Use Print Screen button

This is one of the most popular ways to take a screenshot on Ubuntu and Linux as well. Just press the "Print Screen" button on your keyboard. This will take a screenshot of the "Whole Visible Screen" and save to the clipboard

If you want to take a particular Program's window, let press these buttons - Alt + Print Screen, this will copy the screen to the clipboard as well.

Now, you have to open some editor apps on your Laptop, PC and paste it into the app. I usally use these apps, include GIMP, Shutter, etc.

2. Using GIMP to Take Screenshot

GIMP is a great tool which most of Ubuntu's users have installed on their Laptop, PC. See more how to install GIMP on Ubuntu in here.

Taking a screenshot using GIMP app.

Taking a screenhost by using GIMP is quite easily. Open GIMP app, then click on File >> Create >> Screen Shot… (Shift + F12). A new window will appear which allows you take a screenshot from some options.

3. Using Shutter App

You can quickly install and use the Shutter app by following a few step below.

Step 1: Open Terminal (Combination keys is Ctrl + Alt + T) and type or copy the command to install this app on Ubuntu.

sudo apt-get install shutter

Note: You can also install this app from Ubuntu Software Centre. See more detail about Shutter from Homepage: http://shutter-project.org

Step 2: Open Shutter app and click on Selection to take a particular area of your screen.

Taking a screenshot using Shutter app.

Then, drag a specific area of the screen you want.

Taking a screenshot using Shutter app.

Once you have released your mouse, then you can use the tools of the panel of Shutter app to edit, add an arrow, text, etc.

Taking a screenshot using Shutter app.