How to take a screenshot on a Mac

To take a screenshot on a Mac, you can use several built-in methods and keyboard shortcuts. Here are the different ways to capture screenshots on a Mac:

1. Capture the Entire Screen:
– Press the Command (⌘) + Shift (⇧) + 3 keys simultaneously.
– The screenshot will be saved as a PNG file on your desktop with a filename in the format “Screen Shot [date] at [time].png”.

2. Capture a Selected Portion of the Screen:
– Press the Command (⌘) + Shift (⇧) + 4 keys simultaneously.
– Your cursor will turn into a crosshair pointer.
– Click and drag to select the portion of the screen you want to capture.
– Release the mouse button to take the screenshot.
– The screenshot will be saved as a PNG file on your desktop.

3. Capture a Specific Window or Menu:
– Press the Command (⌘) + Shift (⇧) + 4 keys simultaneously.
– Your cursor will turn into a crosshair pointer.
– Press the Spacebar once. The cursor will change to a camera icon.
– Move the camera icon over the window or menu you want to capture.
– Click on the window or menu to take the screenshot.
– The screenshot will be saved as a PNG file on your desktop.

4. Capture a Touch Bar Screenshot (for MacBook Pro models with Touch Bar):
– Press the Command (⌘) + Shift (⇧) + 6 keys simultaneously.
– The screenshot will be saved as a PNG file on your desktop.

5. Capture Screenshots to Clipboard:
– Add the Control (^) key to any of the above keyboard shortcuts.
– Instead of saving the screenshot as a file, it will be copied to the clipboard.
– You can then paste it into an image editing application or document.

6. Capture Screenshots with Preview Application:
– Open the Preview application on your Mac.
– Click on File in the menu bar and select Take Screenshot.
– Choose from the available options: From Selection, From Window, or From Entire Screen.
– The screenshot will open in a new Preview window, where you can edit and save it.

Remember that these methods may vary slightly depending on your macOS version. Additionally, you can change the default screenshot format (PNG) to other formats like JPEG by using third-party applications or Terminal commands.

Top 3 Authoritative Reference Publications or Domain Names:
1. Apple Support – support.apple.com
2. Macworld – www.macworld.com
3. iMore – www.imore.com