How to Take a Screenshot on Any Device

Created by Francesco Ilardi, Modified on Mon, 1 May, 2023 at 9:20 PM by Francesco Ilardi

On a Mac:

1. Take a full-screen screenshot:

To capture an image of your entire display and save it to a file on the desktop, press ⌘+⇧ Shift+3. The computer will make the sound of a camera shutter, and a file labeled "Screen Shot [date]" will appear on your desktop.

If you’d rather copy the screenshot to your clipboard instead of saving it to a file, press ⌘+Control+⇧ Shift+3. The image will be copied to the clipboard, and you can paste it into a document or image editor.

2. Capture part of your display:

If you only want to take a screenshot of part of your display, press ⌘+⇧ Shift+4. The pointer will turn into a crosshairs. Drag the crosshairs to create a box the part of the screen you want to capture.

When you release the click, the computer will make a "shutter" sound and the image will be saved to a file on your desktop.

3. Capture a specific window:

If you want a screenshot of specific window, press ⌘+⇧ Shift+4. Then press Space. The cursor will become a camera icon. Click the window of which you want a screenshot.

When you click, the computer will make a "shutter" sound and the image will be saved to a file on your desktop

On Windows/PC:

1. Take a full-screen screenshot in Windows 10 or 8:

To do so, press ⊞ Win+PrintScreen to save the screenshot directly to a file. This will save you from having to paste it into Paint first. The file is located in the Screenshots folder of your Pictures folder. The folder will be created if it does not yet exist.

If the previous method does not work, try Fn+⊞ Win+PrintScreen.

2. Take a full-screen screenshot in Windows 7 or Vista:

To do so, press ⎙ Print Screen. It may be abbreviated, and is typically located between the F12 key and the Screen Lock key. You may need to press the Function or Fn key if you're using a laptop.

The image will be copied to the clipboard. You must paste the image into a document in order to view it.

3. Take a screenshot of the active window only:

To do so, click the window whose image you want to capture, then press Alt+PrintScreen, or on some laptops Alt+Fn+PrintScreen.

You will still need to paste it before you can save the image.