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

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Note: For information on how to take a picture of the screen in Mac OS X, see ARCHIVED: In Mac OS X, how can I capture the contents of a window or the screen?

You can take a picture of the entire screen under Mac OS by pressing Cmd-Shift-3. (Hold down the Cmd and Shift keys and press 3.) This function is built into all versions of Mac OS. An image of your current screen will be saved as a PICT file (the basic Mac OS graphics file format) on the top level of your system disk. Depending on which version of Mac OS you have, this file will be named Picture N or Screen N, where N is a number. You can then view, edit, and print this file with any of the many programs designed to work with PICT files.

The basic screen capturing function has some limitations. You cannot take a picture of only a portion of the screen, the mouse pointer is always included in the image, and you can't capture the screen while a menu is pulled down. In System 6, it only works with black-and-white, 9-inch monitors.

Mac OS 7.6 and later incorporate a more advanced screen capture function. Cmd-Shift-3 works the same as in earlier versions, but in addition, Cmd-Shift-4 allows you to capture rectangular sections of your screen. To do this:

Press Cmd-Shift-4.
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.
Release the mouse button. This will save the area as a PICT image. If you want to cancel, press the Spacebar.

If you press Cmd-Shift-4 with the Caps Lock key down and then click a window, a PICT image of that window will be saved. For any of the key combinations described, you may also hold the Ctrl key down. This will save the capture to the Clipboard instead of to a PICT file.

If the built-in screen capture utility does not suit your needs, other programs are available with additional features. Available shareware and freeware screen capture utilities for Mac OS computers include:

Captura: Captura is a freeware application that can take pictures of part or all of the screen. Unlike many other screen capture utilities, it isn't a control panel or extension, so it is less likely to cause system instabilities. It is available from the HernanSoft web site.
Flash-It: A shareware control panel by Nobu Toge, Flash-It will capture the screen, menus, or windows, scale them, and save them to the Clipboard, the Scrapbook, or a PICT file, or send them to the printer.
PICTify: A freeware control panel by Scott Johnson, PICTify allows you to capture windows, menus, or user-defined areas, saving them either to a PICT file or the Clipboard.
Snapz Pro: Shareware by Ambrosia Software, Snapz is a flexible screen capture control panel that can dither and scale captured windows and pull-down menus, and then save them as PICT, GIF, or JPEG files. It also will put the dimensions of the image in the capture file's Get Info comments.

You can obtain shareware and freeware programs from a number of online archives. For more, see ARCHIVED: For Mac OS X, where can I download freeware, shareware, commercial software, and software updates?