Screenshot shortcuts on Mac

The Mac OS has always made it easy to capture a screen shot. (A screen shot is an image of your computer desktop or an active window.)

This post  provides a summary of all the keyboard shortcuts you can use to capture your screen on Mac. (Check HERE for screenshot shortcuts on Linux.)

  • Entire screen

 Command + Shift + 3

The screen shot will be automatically saved as a PNG file on your Desktop with the filename starting with “Picture” followed by a number (e.g., Picture 1, Picture 2, …)

 

Command + Control + Shift + 3

The screen shot will be copied to your clipboard, so you can paste it into another program suchas PowerPoint, Word, GIMP.

 

  • Customized area of screen

Command + Shift + 4

A cross-hair cursor will appear and you can click and drag to select the area you wish to capture. When you release the mouse button, the screen shot will be automatically saved as a PNG file on your Desktop following the same naming convention as explained on the first tip above.

 

 Command + CTRL + Shift + 4

A cross-hair cursor will appear and you can click and drag to select the area you wish to capture. When you release the mouse button, you can paste the screen shot to another application.

 

  • Active window

Press and hold

Command + Shift + 4 

then tap on the Spacebar.

The cursor will change to a camera, and you can move it around the screen. As you move the cursor over an application window, the window will be highlighted. The entire window does not need to be visible for you to capture it. When you have the cursor over a window you want to capture, just click the mouse button and the screen shot will be saved as a PNG file on your Desktop.

 

Press and hold

Command + CTRL + Shift + 4

then tap on the Spacebar.

The cursor will change to a camera, which you can move around the screen. As you move the cursor over an application window, the window will be highlighted. The entire window does not need to be visible for you to capture it. When you have the cursor over a window you want to capture, just click the mouse button and you can paste the screen shot into another application.

 

  • Screenshot with tooltip

 Command + SHIFT + 4

The trick is simple, you have to keep press (+SHIFT) first. Then hover mouse to make tool tip appear and press (4).

         Simple way to do this : a small trick

 1. open you screen , for which you want to take screen shot 
 2. point to tool-tip , it will show that tooltip .
 3  then capture whole screen by Command + Shift + 3 
 4. preview above captured image , and expand to full screen 
 5. now use Command + Shift + 4 to capture tool-tip

 

 

 

  • References and Further reading list

 

 

 

 

 

Screenshot shortcuts on Linux (Ubuntu, CentOS, RedHat)

This post  provides shortcuts for taking screenshots on Linux (including Ubuntu, CentOS, and RegHat).

The command is the same for Ubuntu, CentOS, RedHat. (Check HERE for screenshot shortcuts on Mac.)

  •  Using Gnome Screenshot

    • Press PrtScn to take a fullscreen screenshot to a PNG file (normally the screenshot file is saved in the Pictures folder.)
    • Press Alt+PrtScn to take a screenshot of an active window. This shortcut will create a screenshot of your active window as a PNG file. The file will be saved in your Pictures folder.
    • Press Shift+PrtScn to capture a customized screen area. You’ll be able to click and drag a selection box to determine what is captured in the screenshot. A PNG file with the image you captured will be saved in your Pictures folder.
    • Press Shift+CTRL +PrtScn to copy what you customized area capture  to clipboard.
    • More advanced functions:

The Gnome Screenshot utility allows you to perform some additional screenshot functions, such as adding a delay, and add tooltip.

Open the Screenshot utility. You can find the Screenshot utility in the Accessories folder of your Applications menu.

      • Select your screenshot type. You can choose from any of the options outlined above.
        • (Ubuntu)

        • (RedHat)

      • Add a delay. If your screenshot is time-dependent, you can use the Screenshot utility to add a delay before the screenshot is captured. This will allow you to make sure the right content is on the screen.
        • (Ubuntu)

        • (RedHat)

      • Select your effects. You can choose to include your mouse pointer in the screenshot, as well as whether or not you want to add a border to the screenshot.

(Ubuntu)

(RedHat)

 

 

 

  •  Using GIMP

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a freely distributed software for manipulating images. We can easily optimize the image, convert their type using GIMP. It provides the power and flexibility to designers to transform images into truly unique creations. GIMP is the cross platforms application and available for Linux, Windows, MAC OS, and FreeBSD etc.

Install GIMP

You can get it for free using your Software Center. Open the Software Center, search for “gimp”, and then install the “GIMP Image Editor”.

For installing GIMP from command line on Ubuntu, check my post HERE.

Click the “File” menu and select “Create” → “Screenshot”.

The screenshot creation tool will open. This tool is very similar to the Gnome Screenshot utility.

 

Select the type of screenshot you want to take.

You can choose to take three different types of screenshots: single window, full-screen, or custom selection. If you choose the single window option, you’ll be able to click the window that you want to take a screenshot of.

(Ubuntu)

(RedHat)

Add a delay.

You can add a delay before the screenshot is taken so that you can arrange everything exactly how you want it. If you have single window or custom screenshots selected, you’ll choose your screenshot target after the delay timer runs out.

Click “Snap” to take the screenshot.

Depending on your settings, the screenshot may be taken immediately. When you’re finished, the screenshot will open in the GIMP editing window.

 

Save the screenshot. If you don’t want to make any edits to the screenshot, you can save it to your hard drive. Click the “File” menu and select “Export”. Give the screenshot a name and choose where you would like to save it. Click the “Export” button once you are satisfied.

 

 

References

4 Ways to Take a Screenshot in Linux (with Pictures) – wikiHow (PDF)