How to take screenshots on MacBook?

Last Updated : 14 Feb, 2023

If you are using a MacBook and the tasks you perform require you to take screenshots frequently, here are four methods to take a screenshot on MacBook. There are three essential keyboard shortcuts that you have to know to capture a MacBook’s screen. In addition, there exists a shortcut command for those MacBooks which have a touch bar so that the touch bar screenshot can be captured.

Method 1: Screenshot of the entire screen

Shift – Command – 3 , Press these three keys simultaneously and hold these 3 keys together to capture the entire screen at once, after holding these three keys together, a thumbnail will appear at the corner of the MacBook’s screen: this thumbnail is the captured screenshot, you can click the thumbnail to edit the screenshot or wait for it to get saved.

Method 2: Screenshot of a portion of the screen

Shift – Command – 4 , Press these keys and hold them together until a crosshair cursor appears on the screen: this allows to select the specific area you want to capture, after selecting the area to move the selection, press the space bar and move it. Press the Escape (Esc) key to cancel the screenshot. To capture the screenshot, release your mouse or trackpad button. Similarly, a thumbnail will appear at the corner of the MacBook’s screen: this thumbnail is the captured screenshot, you can click the thumbnail to edit the screenshot or wait for it to get saved.

Method 3: Screenshot of a window or menu

Shift – Command – 4 – Space Bar, After opening the window that you want to capture, press these 4 keys together until the pointer turns into a camera cursor shown below. Press the Escape (Esc) key to cancel the screenshot.Click on the window or menu to capture it. Press and hold the Option key while you click so you can exclude the shadow of the window in the screenshot.