How to Take a Screenshot on a Mac

Here is how to screenshot on Mac with the tools already built into macOS — nothing to install. Press Shift-Command-3 to capture the whole screen, Shift-Command-4 to capture a selected area, or Shift-Command-5 to open the Screenshot app, where you can choose the capture type, set a timer and record video. By default a screenshot is saved as a file on your desktop, and a small thumbnail appears in the corner of the screen first: click it to edit the screenshot, or wait for it to save. Apple sets out the same methods on its Take a screenshot on Mac support page.

You want to capture	Press	Result
The entire screen	Shift-Command-3	Saved to the desktop by default
A selected area	Shift-Command-4, then drag	Saved to the desktop by default
One window or menu	Shift-Command-4, then Space, then click	Saved to the desktop by default
Any type, with options	Shift-Command-5	Opens the Screenshot app toolbar
The Touch Bar (models that have one)	Shift-Command-6	Saved to the desktop by default
No file — copy it instead	Add Control to the shortcut	Copied to the clipboard

Three habits make these shortcuts much more useful: Control sends the capture to the clipboard instead of saving a file, Esc cancels a capture you have started, and a seemingly missing screenshot has usually gone to the clipboard or to a save location changed earlier — both cases are covered below.

Capture the Entire Screen

Arrange the screen the way you want it captured.
Press and release Shift-Command-3.
If a thumbnail appears in the corner of the screen, click it to edit the screenshot, or wait for the screenshot to save to your desktop.

That is the whole method — the right choice when you need everything visible at once, menus, panels and all. When you need only part of the screen, the next shortcut is faster and saves you cropping afterwards.

How to Take a Partial Screenshot on Mac

A partial screenshot is the one most people end up using daily, because it captures only the part that matters.

Press and release Shift-Command-4. The pointer turns into a crosshair.
Move the crosshair to a corner of the area you want, then click and hold the mouse or trackpad button while you drag over the area.
Release the button to take the screenshot.

Two refinements are worth knowing while you drag. If the area you selected is the right size but in the wrong place, press and hold the Space bar while dragging to move the whole selection without changing its size. If you change your mind, press Esc before releasing the button and nothing is captured. As with a full-screen capture, a thumbnail appears in the corner afterwards — click it to edit, or wait for the file to save to your desktop.

Dragging a neat rectangle around a single window is fiddly; macOS can capture the window itself instead.

Open the window you want to capture.
Press and release Shift-Command-4, then press and release the Space bar. The pointer changes to a camera icon.
Move the camera over the window and click it.

The screenshot holds just that window. If you do not want the window’s shadow in the image, press and hold the Option key while you click. Press Esc at any point to cancel.

Menus work two ways. To capture a menu together with the items it shows, open the menu, press Shift-Command-4 and drag the pointer over the menu items. To capture the menu on its own, use the window method above: Shift-Command-4, then Space, then click the menu. The Mac User Guide’s screenshot shortcuts table lists both menu routes alongside the standard shortcuts.

Screenshot on MacBook Air and MacBook Pro

There is no separate MacBook shortcut: MacBook Air and MacBook Pro use exactly the table at the top of this page, with the same desktop save location, Control clipboard trick and Screenshot app. The only model-specific extra is the Touch Bar shortcut near the end of this article, on MacBook Pro models that have one. On a Windows keyboard the keys differ — see how to screenshot on Windows.

Copy a Screenshot Instead of Saving a File

Often the screenshot is not something you want to keep — you just want to paste it into an email, a message or a document. For that, hold Control while you press the other keys, and the capture goes to the clipboard instead of becoming a file:

Control-Shift-Command-3 copies the entire screen.
Control-Shift-Command-4 copies the area you drag over.
Control-Shift-Command-4, then Space, copies the window you click.

Paste with Command-V wherever the image needs to go. There is also a way to change your mind after a normal capture: Control-click the thumbnail that appears in the corner of the screen and choose Save to Clipboard from the menu that appears. Nothing is saved to the desktop in either case, which is why a “missing” screenshot is so often sitting on the clipboard.

The keyboard shortcuts are quick, but the Screenshot app is where the settings live. In macOS Mojave 10.14 or later, press Shift-Command-5 to open it; you can also find the Screenshot app in the Utilities folder inside your Applications folder.

The toolbar’s still-image controls let you capture the entire screen, a selected window or a selected portion, and the controls beside them record video of the screen instead. Choose a mode, adjust the selection if there is one, and click Capture. The Options menu in the toolbar is the part most people never open, and it holds the settings the plain shortcuts cannot change:

Timer — set a delay before the capture, so you can open a menu or arrange the screen first.
Save to — choose where screenshots are saved (see the next section).
Show Floating Thumbnail — choose whether the corner thumbnail appears after a capture.
Show Mouse Pointer — choose whether the pointer is included in the screenshot.
Capture format — on supported Mac models running macOS Tahoe 26 or later, choose SDR (Most Compatible), which uses the PNG image format, or HDR, which uses the HEIF image format.

Use the toolbar when a plain shortcut is not enough: a timed capture of a menu that disappears when you press keys, a screenshot that must include the pointer, or a recording rather than a still image.

Where Screenshots Are Saved on Mac

By default, screenshots save to your desktop with the name “Screen Shot [date] at [time]” — so the first place to look for a screenshot is the desktop, and the name to look for starts with the words Screen Shot followed by the date and time. If a thumbnail is still showing in the corner, the file has not landed yet: click the thumbnail to edit the screenshot, wait for it to save, or drag the thumbnail to another location instead of waiting — dropping it in a folder or a document puts the image there directly. Holding your pointer over the thumbnail keeps it on screen until you act on it or move the pointer away.

To change the default save location, open the Screenshot app with Shift-Command-5, click Options, and choose a different destination under Save to. The choice you make there is the default the Mac keeps using, so future screenshots from the keyboard shortcuts go to the same place. This is also the setting to check when screenshots stop appearing on the desktop: if the location was changed at some point, the files are going to the newer place, not the desktop.

On format, Apple’s own screenshot page draws a narrower line than many guides do. The format choice Apple documents inside the Screenshot app is the Tahoe one described above: SDR saves a PNG, and HDR saves a HEIF file, on the supported models that offer it. If a website or a form insists on a different format, work from the saved screenshot in Preview rather than changing how the Mac captures.

Record the Screen Instead of a Still Image

The same toolbar records video. Apple’s screen recording instructions describe the flow:

Press Shift-Command-5 to open the Screenshot app.
Choose Record Entire Screen, Record Selected Portion, or — on macOS Tahoe 26 or later — Record Selected Window. For a selected portion, drag the borders to adjust the area.
Click Options first if you need to change anything: choose a microphone to record your voice or other audio, set a timer, change the Save to location, or turn on Show Mouse Clicks so a black circle appears around the pointer when you click. In macOS 27 Golden Gate or later you can also choose Include System Audio to record the Mac’s own sound.
Click Record. To cancel before recording starts, press Esc.
To stop, click the Stop button in the menu bar, or press Command-Control-Esc.

A thumbnail of the recording appears in the corner of the screen: click it to edit the recording, or wait for it to save. Recordings are saved with the name “Screen Recording [date] at [time].mov”, to your desktop by default. Some apps, such as the Apple TV app, might not let you record their windows.

Edit a Screenshot in Markup or Preview

Clicking the thumbnail that appears after a capture opens the screenshot for editing before it settles into its save location. Apple’s Markup tools let you write, sign and draw on an image, or crop or rotate it, and Markup is also available inside Preview. For a quick arrow, a line of text or a tighter crop before you send a screenshot, that is all you need, and no extra app is involved.

Preview can also take the screenshot itself. As Apple’s Preview guide explains, open Preview and choose File > Take Screenshot, then From Entire Screen, From Selection or From Window. The picture opens in Preview, named “Untitled”, where you can annotate it with the Markup toolbar before saving it under a name of your own.

Capture the Touch Bar

On MacBook Pro models with a Touch Bar, press Shift-Command-6 to capture the Touch Bar itself. It is a niche shortcut — relevant when you are documenting Touch Bar controls — and it does nothing useful on a Mac without a Touch Bar. One caution from Apple’s current screenshot page: in macOS 27 Golden Gate or later, with Siri AI (Beta) turned on, Command-Shift-6 is also used to ask Siri about a portion of the screen. That is a question-asking feature, not the Touch Bar capture listed in the shortcut table.

If a Shortcut Does Nothing, or the File Is Missing

Work through these checks in order:

The shortcut may be off or changed. You can customise the screenshot shortcuts in Keyboard settings: choose Apple menu > System Settings, click Keyboard, click Keyboard Shortcuts, then click Screenshots. If a shortcut was turned off or reassigned there, the keys in the table will not respond as expected until it is set back.
The screenshot went to the clipboard. If you held Control during the capture, no file was created. Paste with Command-V to recover the image.
The save location was changed. Open Shift-Command-5 > Options and read the destination under Save to — the screenshot is going there, not to the desktop.
The thumbnail is still holding it. While the thumbnail is on screen the file has not finished saving; wait for it to disappear, or drag it where you want it.
The app may not allow it. Some apps, such as the Apple TV app, might not let you take screenshots of their windows. If one window refuses while everything else captures normally, that is the app’s restriction, not a broken shortcut.
The page itself is stale, not the screenshot. If a web page keeps showing an old version, the screenshot is faithfully capturing a stale page — the fix there is how to clear cache, not different screenshot keys.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Mac screenshot shortcut for part of the screen? Shift-Command-4. The pointer becomes a crosshair; drag over the area and release the button to capture it. Hold Space while dragging to move the selection, or press Esc to cancel.

Where are screenshots saved on Mac? On the desktop by default, under a name that begins “Screen Shot” followed by the date and time — unless the Save to destination in the Screenshot app’s Options was changed, or you held Control, in which case the image is on the clipboard and no file exists.

How do I take a screenshot without saving a file? Add Control to any screenshot shortcut — for example Control-Shift-Command-3 for the whole screen — and the image is copied to the clipboard, ready to paste with Command-V.

How do I take a timed screenshot? Press Shift-Command-5, open Options, set the timer, choose your capture mode and click Capture. The delay gives you time to open the menu or set up the screen you want to capture.

How do I screenshot the Touch Bar on a MacBook Pro? Press Shift-Command-6. It works only on MacBook Pro models that have a Touch Bar.

Can I take a scrolling, full-page screenshot on a Mac? Not with the built-in screenshot tools. Every shortcut and toolbar mode in this guide captures what is visible on screen, and Apple’s screenshot pages document no scrolling capture — a page taller than the screen comes out one visible slice at a time. If what you actually need is the whole page as one document, that is a save-as-PDF job in your browser, not a screenshot.