Screen, Region and Window Capturing on Mac OS X

Brad Eaton — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 21:49:51 +0000

In the process of completely switching over from using Windows to Mac OS X, one of the speed bumps I encountered was how to get screenshots. I was very accustomed to using Ctrl-Print Screen and Alt-Print Screen for taking screen and window shots respectively. Most of the time it’s a window I’m needing to capture. First I learned about the Grab application but it’s a pain having to run it and then save the file. Then, I learned about about Command-Shift-4 for capturing a region. But, I just learned some new ones.

To capture the whole screen: Cmd-Shift-3
To capture a region of the screen: Smd-Shift-4 and your cursor will change to cross hairs. Drag the selection rectangle to size the area you want to capture and let go.
To capture just a single window: Cmd-Shift-4 and press the space bar. The cursor will change to a camera icon. When you hover over a window, the entire window will become shaded slightly. Click the mouse to capture the window.

In all three cases, the capture will be copied to your desktop as a PNG file. If you would rather have it on the clipboard to paste rather than the desktop, add the Ctrl key to one of those sequences. If someone knows of a cool book or website that has tons of cool tips like this, please let us know.