Mac Screenshot Commands Cheat Sheet

I’m always forgetting exactly how to take screenshots on my Mac. The Shift, Command, Control, 3s and 4s all get garbled up in my head. So for my own benefit, and perhaps your own I’ve consolidated them here into a convenient list.

Command-Shift-3 :: Take a screenshot of the whole screen.
Command-Shift-4 :: Take a screenshot of an area you select.
Command-Shift-4-Space :: Take a screenshot of a window.

All these commands save a file to your Desktop. Adding the ‘Control’ key to any of them puts the image in your clipboard instead.\

Additionally, you can take, or initiate screenshots from the command line using the very rich built-in screencapture command.

usage: screencapture [-icMPmwsWxSCUto] [files]
-c force screen capture to go to the clipboard
-C capture the cursor as well as the screen. only in non-interactive modes
-d display errors to the user graphically
-i capture screen interactively, by selection or window
 control key - causes screen shot to go to clipboard
 space key - toggle between mouse selection and
 window selection modes
 escape key- cancels interactive screen shot
-m only capture the main monitor, undefined if -i is set
-M screen capture output will go to a new Mail message
-o in window capture mode, do not capture the shadow of the window
-P screen capture output will open in Preview
-s only allow mouse selection mode
-S in window capture mode, capture the screen not the window
-t image format to create, default is png (other options include pdf, jpg, tiff and other formats)
-T Take the picture after a delay of , default is 5
-w only allow window selection mode
-W start interaction in window selection mode
-x do not play sounds
files where to save the screen capture, 1 file per screen