In Mac OS X, how can I take a picture of the screen?

In Mac OS X 10.1 and later, you can take a picture of the entire screen (including any menus you may have selected) by pressing Cmd-Shift-3 . You will hear a camera shutter click, then an image of your current screen will be saved to your desktop. In Mac OS X 10.2 and later, the image will be a PDF file, while in 10.1.x, it will be a TIFF. It will be named Picture N, where N is a number (e.g., Picture 1, Picture 2, etc.).

If you'd rather take a picture of only a portion of the screen, follow these steps:

1. Press Cmd-Shift-4 . Your mouse pointer will change into a cross-hair. If you want to cancel at any point in this process, press Esc.
   
   
2. Move your mouse to the upper left corner of the area you want to capture. Hold down the mouse button and drag the mouse to the lower right corner of the area you want to capture.
   
   
3. Release the mouse button. This will save the area as an image.

In 10.2 and later, you may take pictures of individual windows, menus, and icons. Follow these instructions:

1. If you want to take a picture of a menu, select it. If you want to take a picture of a window, click it to the foreground.
   
   
2. Press Cmd-Shift-4 , then press the Spacebar. Your mouse pointer will change into a camera. If you want to cancel at any point in this process, press Esc.
   
   
3. Move your mouse over the window, menu, or icon you want to take a picture of, then press the mouse button.

Note: Whether taking a picture of the screen, a portion of the screen, a menu, an icon, or a window, if you also hold the Ctrl key down along with other keys, it will save the image to the Clipboard rather than a file.

Grab

Though versions of Mac OS X prior to 10.1 don't have screenshot abilities built in, you may still use Grab, which is normally installed in the Utilities folder, which in turn is inside the Applications folder. You can use Grab to take pictures of your entire screen or portions of it. It has a timed function that lets you include a pull-down menu or change which application will be active in the picture. You may also change the appearance of the mouse pointer or remove it from the picture altogether. Grab saves your screen pictures as TIFF files, which you can display in the Preview program or modify in a graphic editor, such as GraphicConverter.

Snapz Pro

A more powerful screen capture program, the shareware program Snapz Pro X, is also available for Mac OS X. For more information, visit Ambrosia Software's Snapz Pro X product page at: http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/utilities/snapzprox/

Also see:

• For Mac OS and Mac OS X, what programs can I use to view and manipulate graphic and animation files?