Take Desktop Screenshots With Your Keyboard

Do you find yourself needing to take a screenshot of your desktop? Did you know it was as easy as pressing .

The screenshot will be saved on your desktop as a PNG file.

You can also take a screenshot of the active window a selection by pressing .

Print Screen

Update 8/1/05:

I came across a few more tips for taking screenshots with your keyboard, here they are:

To take a screenshot of a window, press .

To take a screenshot and copy it directly to your clipboard (meaning no file will be saved), press then hold Control while you choose the screenshot area. Now you can paste the screenshot directly into a text document, mail, etc…

Technorati Tags: keyboard shortcuts, screenshot

 
 

Submitted on July 19, 2005 at 3:45 am - Take Desktop Screenshots With Your Keyboard was written by Brad Jasper - There have been 15 comments - Categorized in Easy Tips, Hardware Tips, Laptops, keyboard shortcuts

15 Responses to “Take Desktop Screenshots With Your Keyboard”

1. 
   Brad
   Cool tip, thanks! August 1st, 2005 at 6:02 am
   
   
2. 
   Brad
   Awesome! August 1st, 2005 at 6:03 am
   
   
3. 
   Jay
   My favorite screen capture is the window capture. Just add the space bar (shift+apple+space+3) pick your window to capture and click!! (I like the little camera icon too!!) August 1st, 2005 at 12:06 pm
   
   
4. 
   Jay
   Sorry...the space bar only works with shift apple 4 August 1st, 2005 at 12:08 pm
   
   
5. 
   Santiago Anglés
   If you hold Ctrl while perfoming these screenshot it will be copied on the clipboard so you can paste in you prefered program.
   Nice tip for capturing windows :D
   cheers August 2nd, 2005 at 10:59 pm
   
   
6. 
   Jerwin
   I use the screen cap feature a lot, very useful! When you key in shift+command+4, the space bar actually toggles between the the crosshair (selection) and the camera icon (window). You can take a screen shot of a window that is not active, by focusing the camera on the part on any visible part of the window. August 3rd, 2005 at 2:45 am
   
   
7. 
   www.EpicEmpire.com
   well the button is called PRINT SCREEN ...you cannot offer a shortcut for a button August 3rd, 2005 at 10:43 pm
   
   
8. 
   Brad
   EpicEmpire,
   
   While I do agree with you, some people may not know what print screen does. I know I didn't when I first started out on a PC. Secondly, the reason I put it there is so Windows users can relate to Mac commands more easily.
   
   I'm a recent Mac switcher. When I need to do something on my Mac, I think "How did I do that on Windows?" and I find a Mac substitute that accomplishes the same thing.
   
   I do appreciate your feedback though, if you have any other suggestions please feel free to send them my way via the Submit A Tip form.
   
   - Brad August 4th, 2005 at 3:12 am
   
   
9. 
   Jay
   You can also use the command screencapture from the terminal window (type man screencapture to get the details) I use this when fumbling around ssh from my laptop to home trying to figure out if what I am opening or closing is working. Have also used this with ssh to help a friend solve a problem hundreds of miles away!!!! August 4th, 2005 at 7:13 pm
   
   
10. 
    Brad
    Jay,
    
    That's amazing. I've been looking for something like this longer than you could imagine. Thanks for sharing the tip.
    
    - Brad August 5th, 2005 at 1:23 am
    
    
11. 
    Kathy Coates
    When I use the control + shift + 4 command it saves my document to a PDF. There must be a preferences file somewhere that controls this. I like it this way, though, when I'm working with online screens that I will use in a document for example. The "grab" application creates TIFF files. Nice for creating impromptu graphics files. August 7th, 2005 at 3:48 pm
    
    
12. 
    Jackson
    If you single click a MENU
    Hover over a menu item
    Press CMD + SHIFT + 4 -> Spacebar
    You can take a screenshot of just the menu with the item selected
    Use control to copy to the clipboard instead of creating a file (as with other types of screenshots)
    
    (This is essentially the same as taking a screenshot of a window.)
    
    This works great for showing newbs how to do something on their Mac. August 8th, 2005 at 5:05 pm
    
    
13. 
    Jackson
    Screenshots were PDFs until OS X 10.4 Tiger, now they're PNGs. August 8th, 2005 at 5:07 pm
    
    
14. 
    dz
    Does apple consider handicapped users when assigning keyboard shortcuts? Or is it a left-hand-right-hand communication problem with the software/design engineers? To put a screen capture into the clipboard I have to press -six- 6 buttons. If you want to get technical it'd be 5, but if you're arguing for 5 you're apparently lost in the fact that's 4 more than necessary. Maybe over-simplification is not a good thing.
    
    I've got a catchy name for OS11 - Redo. Less hunt and peck over pretty details and more superfluous high-speed interaction, pruning the highly UNintuitive features. In 1982 maybe pressing 5-6 buttons for a screen cap was acceptable.
    
    "...take a screenshot of your desktop? Did you know it was ***as easy*** as pressing..."
    
    You sir make me laugh. September 11th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
    
    
15. 
    Zee
    Heyy,
    
    I have Windows Vista but i have a MAC keyboard.
    Could you please assist me in how to take a screenshot ?
    
    Thanks.
    Zee. December 20th, 2008 at 3:53 am
    
    

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