If you have recently switched from a PC to a Mac, you might be wondering where the Print Screen button is. I hate to break the bad news, but there isn’t one. Luckily though, Apple also believes there is significance to capturing your screen.
Below are the different keyboard commands you can use to capture what is displayed on your screen. Each of these commands will save a PNG file to your desktop.
- Command+Shift+3 — Take a picture of the entire screen
- Command+Shift+4 — Take a picture of the selected area
Typically, I use the second command because I have a lot on my screen at once. I use these screen shots mainly to show others either the projects I am working on, or as visual aids for tutorials.
A nice extra feature to the second screen shot command is the ability to take a picture of the selected window. For example, if I have Safari open and I like the way website ‘xyz’ looks, then I can take an isolated picture of just Safari without having to drag the cursor around the Safari window.
To accomplish this, use the following command and click on the window you want a picture of:
- Command+Shift+4+Spacebar — Take a picture of the isolated window
The reason I do this is because I am a real stickler for aesthetics. If I just used the regular command, I would either have to be extremely precise when drawing, deal with the extra background imagery or if I’m feeling extra OCD, open Photoshop and crop out all the extra stuff.
In any case, this is a pretty simple Mac Treat that everyone should know as it is extremely useful for most. I am running OS X Lion (10.7) and I am fairly certain that these three commands work back at least to 10.4. If you are running a different OS, I would love to know if all of these commands work for you. Email me at michaelb@smalldog.com.