How to Take a Screenshot on a Mac

There can be times when you would require to take a screenshot of the current program and use it for some or the other purpose. If you are habitual of using a PC with Windows operating system, it may be a bit tough for you in getting acquainted with using screenshot commands on a personal computer with Mac OS.

There are many reasons why one may want to capture the screen on his monitor. A technical writing professional may require screenshots to guide computer users regarding the functions and operations of a particular application. If you are working on a computer in a corporate environment and you get some software-related errors on the screen, a screen capture is the best way to let the computer repair professional know what errors you are getting in the program.

Screen Capture on a Mac

Taking a screenshot on a laptop or PC with Windows is pretty easy. However, if you are using Mac OS, you may need to consider several commands according to the specifications of the screenshots. Those wondering how to take a screenshot on a Mac OS should remember that there are different features that are associated to the task of taking a screen capture.

The format of the screenshot files being saved depend on which type of Mac OS X are your using. If you are using Mac OS X Jaguar, the screenshot files will be saved in a .jpg format. If you are using Mac OS X Panther, the format of the saved screenshot files would be .pdf. And if the operating system version is Mac OS X Tiger, the file will get saved in .png format.

For taking the screenshot on a Mac, the 'Command' button on the keyboard is mostly used. This key is located right beside the space bar.

Following are the commands that are used for saving the screenshot files on the desktop.

Command+Shift+3: This basic command takes the screen capture and saves the file on the desktop.

Command+Shift+3: This command brings up a cross-hair cursor which enables you to select the portion that you want to capture.

Command+Shift+4+Spacebar: Using this command and then clicking a currently displayed window will take a screen capture of that particular window, with the file being saved on the desktop.

Following are the commands that are to be used for saving the screenshot files on the clipboard.

Command+Control+Shift+3: This command will take a screen capture, but save the screenshot file directly onto the clipboard.

Command+Control+Shift+4: Giving this command followed by selecting an area on the screen will take the screen capture of the selected area.

Command+Control+Shift+4+Spacebar: Pressing this command and selecting a window will take the screen capture of only that particular window and save the file on the clipboard.

These were the commands that are used for getting a screenshot on Mac OS. In this OS, there is another good feature of taking screen captures known as 'Grab' utility. This tool enables the user to take screen captures in four different ways such as selection capture, window capture, full screen capture and timed screenshot.