How to take screenshots on your Mac

Apple’s screenshot app makes it simple.

by Barbara Krasnoff

Updated May 2, 2023, 8:13 PM UTC

A MacBook with Apple Music open on a background dotted with other Apple icons.

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

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Screenshots can be really handy. You can use them to show your grandparent how to use a new app. You can use them to send a shot of that strange error message to your company’s IT department. You can use them to capture tweets before they disappear down the deletion black hole. So in case you need to capture a screenshot or two, here’s a quick and simple guide to taking screenshots on your Mac.

Since the Mojave version of macOS, Macs come with an app that saves your screenshots as PNG files. Press Shift-Command (⌘)-5 to get a command bar at the bottom of the screen.

The first three buttons from the left let you take a screenshot of the entire screen, a specific window, or an outlined selection of the screen.
The next two buttons let you start a video capture of all or part of your screen.
The Options button lets you choose where you want to save your screenshot, set a 5- or 10-second delay, show a thumbnail or a mouse pointer, or remember the last selection. (In other words, if you took a full-screen screenshot last time, that’s the option that will come up this time.)
When you’re ready, click on the Capture button on the right end of the command bar.

Press Shift-Command (⌘)-5 to get a command bar at the bottom of the screen.

If you’re in a hurry and don’t want to deal with the command bar, you can still save screenshots to your desktop.

To take a screenshot of the entire screen, press Shift-Command-3.
To take a screenshot of part of the screen, press Shift-Command-4 and then drag the cursor to outline the area you want to capture.
If you want to capture a specific window, press Shift-Command-4. Hit the spacebar. The cursor will turn into a camera. Hover the cursor over the window you want to capture until it highlights, and then click on it.

Update May 2nd, 2023, 4:10PM ET: This article was originally published on July 23rd, 2020, and has been updated to account for changes in the OS.

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