How to Screenshot on Mac and Crop

 

 

 Table of Contents

 

- Introduction

- Why Take Screenshots on Mac?

  - Documenting Processes and Issues

  - Sharing Information Quickly

  - Showcasing Work

  - Saving Online Content

  - Picture-in-Picture Screenshots

  - Annotating Details

  - Meme Creation

- How to Take Screenshots on Mac

  - Full Screen Screenshots

    - Keyboard Shortcut for Full Screenshots

  - Keyboard Shortcuts for Partial Screenshots

    - Selecting a Portion of the Screen

    - Window Screenshots

    - Showing Cursor in Screenshots

  - QuickTime Screen Recording

    - Recording Screen Videos

    - Recording Voiceovers

    - Saving QuickTime Screen Recordings

  - Accessibility Screenshot Features

    - Magnification

    - Timer Delay

  - Touch Bar Screenshot Shortcut

- Editing and Annotating Screenshots

  - Cropping Screenshots

  - Resizing Screenshots

  - Marking Up Screenshots

    - Shapes, Lines and Text

    - Highlighting Areas

    - Signing Screenshots

    - Stickers and Emojis 😃

  - Advanced Annotation Apps

- Cropping Screenshots on Mac

  - Cropping with Keyboard Shortcuts

    - Adjusting the Selection Box

    - Constraining to a Square Crop

  - Cropping in Preview App

    - The Preview Toolbar

    - Adjusting the Crop Borders 

    - Applying Instant Edits

  - Third Party Cropping Tools

    - Precise Dimensions

    - Perspective Cropping

    - Batch Processing 

- Sharing and Exporting Screenshots

  - Built-In Sharing Options

    - Airdrop

    - Messages

    - Mail

    - Notes

  - Share Menu in Preview

  - Markup Editor Sharing

  - Cloud Storage Services

- Screenshot File Formats

  - PNG Format

    - High Quality

    - Large File Sizes

    - Transparent Backgrounds

  - JPG Format

    - Smaller Files

    - Lower Quality at High Compression 

  - TIFF Format

  - BMP Format

  - PDF Format

    - Editable Text

    - Vector Graphics

    - File Size Considerations

- Tips for Better Screenshots

  - Preparing Your Screen

  - Hiding Pop-Ups

  - Using Keyboard Shortcuts

  - Scrolling Webpage Screenshots

  - Leveraging Accessibility Features

  - Instant Markup

  - Touch Bar Options

  - Animated GIFs

  - Cleaning Up with Editor Apps

- Conclusion

- FAQs

 

 Introduction

 

Taking screenshots is one of the most helpful skills any Mac user can learn. With the ability to capture images of your screen, you can document information, collaborate visually, create engaging tutorials, and more. One of the most useful things you can do with screenshots on a Mac is cropping images down to focus on the most relevant areas. Cropping removes unnecessary portions of a screenshot, allowing you to spotlight the key details you want to communicate or share. This guide will provide an in-depth walkthrough of how to take screenshots on a Mac computer, edit them using built-in tools like cropping, and share the finished images. Whether you want to capture application windows, entire webpages, or custom areas of your screen, your Mac offers a variety of built-in keyboard shortcuts, apps, and editing tools to take and crop screenshots like a pro!

 

 Why Take Screenshots on Mac?

 

Understanding why screenshots are useful can help you take advantage of them more in your own work and projects. Here are some of the most common reasons people take screenshots using their Mac:

 

 Documenting Processes and Issues

 

Screenshots are extremely helpful for documenting processes, apps, errors, bugs, or anything else you may need to visually show for tutorials or tech support. Annotated screenshots allow you to call out details, provide instructions, or direct people's attention to aspects of the image. Much more useful than trying to describe the issue in words!

 

 Sharing Information Quickly

 

Rather than trying to format text, images, charts, designs, etc separately, you can use screenshots to share information from your Mac quickly and easily. Screenshots maintain all the contextual formatting. And you can annotate them to point out key parts instead of trying to describe everything in a long message.

 

 Showcasing Work

 

Designers, artists, developers, and other creatives rely on screenshots to share and showcase their work in progress. Screenshots make it easy to show your work without requiring the viewer to be running the application. They also enable you to share quick previews or teasers of larger projects.

 

 Saving Online Content

 

Many times, online content gets updated or removed entirely. Taking screenshots allows you to save items like social media posts, article excerpts, images from websites, or anything else you want to preserve from the internet. Screenshots are easy to organize and refer back to.

 

 Picture-in-Picture Screenshots

 

Did you need to capture an error message that only pops up at certain times? Or maybe you want a screenshot of a hover-over tooltip? Screenshots enable you to capture elusive elements that only appear under specific conditions, along with the surrounding context.

 

 Annotating Details

 

Annoying trying to explain where exactly to click or what field to update in an app? Screenshot annotations make it a breeze to point out tiny interface elements, text passages, buttons, and any other fine details that are hard to describe accurately.

 

 Meme Creation

 

Let's not forget about the vital importance of meme culture! Using screenshots for meme creation allows you to add captions, graphics, and edits to transform images on your Mac into viral meme gold.

 

 How to Take Screenshots on Mac

 

Now that you're motivated to start taking more screenshots, let's explore the various methods and tools available right on your Mac for capturing screenshots.

 

 Full Screen Screenshots

 

Often you'll want to take a screenshot of your entire display. This is easy with the built-in keyboard shortcut.

 

 Keyboard Shortcut for Full Screenshots

 

To take a full screenshot on any Mac, use the keyboard shortcut:

 

Shift + Command + 3

 

This will automatically save a screenshot of your entire screen to your desktop as an image file. Easy as that!

 

 Keyboard Shortcuts for Partial Screenshots

 

In addition to full screen grabs, you can use keyboard shortcuts to take cropped screenshots focusing in on specific areas of your display.

 

 Selecting a Portion of the Screen

 

To take a cropped screenshot on a Mac, use:

 

Shift + Command + 4

 

This will turn your mouse cursor into a crosshair. Click and drag the crosshair to select the portion of the screen you want to capture. When you release, the screenshot will be saved to your desktop.

 

 Window Screenshots

 

To capture just a single window instead of your full display, use:

 

Shift + Command + 4 + Spacebar

 

Your cursor will convert to a camera icon. Hover over the window you want to screenshot and click to capture just that window. This is great for capturing modal popups, menus, application windows, etc.

 

 Showing Cursor in Screenshots

 

By default screenshots will not show your mouse cursor. But you can make sure your cursor is included in partial screenshots by holding down Control while taking the screenshot. This helps demonstrate what you were clicking or interacting with.

 

 QuickTime Screen Recording

 

In addition to static screenshots, your Mac also provides the ability to record videos of your screen using the QuickTime app.

 

 Recording Screen Videos

 

Here is how to record your screen with QuickTime Player:

 

1. Open QuickTime Player from your Applications folder

2. Select File > New Screen Recording

3. Click the Record button and begin recording the video

4. To end recording, click the Stop button

 

This will save the video recording to your desktop.

 

 Recording Voiceovers

 

QuickTime even allows you to narrate your screen recordings by including microphone audio as you record your screen. Enable this under the dropdown arrow next to the record button. Very helpful for creating video tutorials!

 

 Saving QuickTime Screen Recordings

 

By default, QuickTime saves your screen recording videos to your desktop. But you can customize the save location. Under QuickTime Preferences, you can set the default location for screen recordings as your Documents folder, Desktop, or any custom folder.

 

 Accessibility Screenshot Features

 

Your Mac also includes some accessibility features that allow you to fine tune and adjust how screenshots work.

 

 Magnification

 

You can enable full screen magnification under System Preferences > Accessibility. This makes it easy to zoom in on small details and take a screenshot at higher magnification.

 

 Timer Delay

 

Also under Accessibility, you can enable timing features for screenshots. This lets you set a 5 second delay after clicking the screenshot keyboard shortcut. Handy for capturing pull-down menus and other elements that need precise timing.

 

 Touch Bar Screenshot Shortcut

 

If you have a recent MacBook Pro model with a Touch Bar, you also gain quick access to a screenshot button. Swipe from right to left on the Touch Bar, then tap the Screenshot button to take a picture of your display. You can also force press the button to change file format and save locations.

 

 Editing and Annotating Screenshots

 

After capturing screenshots, you'll often want to edit them and annotate key areas to call attention to important details. Here are the best built-in Mac tools for enhancing your screenshots:

 

 Cropping Screenshots

 

Cropping away unnecessary portions of a screenshot helps focus the image on the most relevant area. See the cropping section below for in-depth instructions.

 

 Resizing Screenshots

 

If you want to resize a screenshot to make it smaller or larger, open the image in Preview app, choose Tools > Adjust Size, and enter custom dimensions. This can be helpful for fitting screenshots into documents or presentations.

 

 Marking Up Screenshots

 

 Shapes, Lines and Text

 

Add shapes like rectangles, circles, arrows to point out portions of a screenshot. Include text captions anywhere on the image. Or draw lines to connect elements. Great for tutorials!

 

 Highlighting Areas

 

Make important areas stand out by highlighting them with the Markup tools. Pick from colors like yellow, green, blue, pink, orange, purple, or white.

 

 Signing Screenshots

 

You can also add a handwritten signature using your trackpad or mouse to authenticate screenshots.

 

 Stickers and Emojis 😃

 

Don't forget that you can spice up screenshot annotations using stickers from your library or emojis to point out reactions!

 

 Advanced Annotation Apps

 

For heavier annotation needs, apps like Skitch (available free on the Mac App Store) provide more advanced tools like blurring sensitive areas, adding overlays and watermarks, and more.

 

 Cropping Screenshots on Mac

 

Now let's deep dive into the various ways you can leverage built-in Mac tools to crop screenshots.

 

 Cropping with Keyboard Shortcuts

 

Using keyboard shortcuts to capture customized screenshot selections provides a quick way to crop down to focused areas.

 

 Adjusting the Selection Box

 

When taking a partial screenshot using Shift + Command + 4, you can click and drag the selection box to any size and position on the screen.

 

 Constraining to a Square Crop

 

To crop your screenshot to a perfect square, hold down Shift while adjusting the selection box. The box will lock into a square aspect ratio for clean results.

 

 Cropping in Preview App

 

You can also easily crop screenshots using the Preview application included for free on your Mac.

 

 The Preview Toolbar

 

Open the desired screenshot in Preview. Select the Markup toolbar (or use the keyboard shortcut Command + Shift + A). This reveals tools for cropping, resizing, and annotating.

 

 Adjusting the Crop Borders

 

Choose the Crop tool from the toolbar. Click and drag any edge or corner of the crop box to remove areas you don't need. Use the handles positioned directly on the image to crop away sections precisely.

 

 Applying Instant Edits

 

After cropping, the Markup toolbar conveniently lets you resize, mark up, or share instantly without having to re-open menus and tools!

 

 Third Party Cropping Tools

 

If you need advanced cropping options, third party Mac apps like Skitch provide additional capabilities.

 

 Precise Dimensions

 

Skitch enables you to crop screenshots to an exact size in pixels, inches, centimeters, etc. Simply enter numeric dimensions to crop perfectly sized images.

 

 Perspective Cropping

 

For skewed perspectives in screenshots, you can leverage perspective cropping. This corrects distortion by allowing you to crop along an angle.

 

 Batch Processing

 

Apps like Skitch also allow batch cropping to automate editing multiple screenshots at once according to preset rules.

 

 Sharing and Exporting Screenshots

 

Once your screenshots are captured and cropped, you'll want to save and share the files. Here are great options for exporting screenshots from your Mac:

 

 Built-In Sharing Options

 

Your Mac includes several built-in options for seamlessly sharing screenshots.

 

 Airdrop

 

Airdrop enables you to instantly share screenshots wirelessly to nearby Apple devices like iPhones or iPads. Just click the Share button in Preview and select a nearby recipient.

 

 Messages

 

To share a screenshot during a Messages conversations, simply drag and drop the image file right into the message thread.

 

 Mail

 

Email screenshots as attachments using the Share menu in Preview or Markup and selecting Mail. The image will instantly attach to a new email message ready to send.

 

 Notes

 

Annotate your screenshots, then copy and paste directly into Apple Notes documents to keep them handy in the Notes app and sync across your devices.

 

 Share Menu in Preview

 

The Share button in the Preview app provides additional quick export options like Messages, Mail, AirDrop. You can also use Share to post screenshots directly to social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and more.

 

 Markup Editor Sharing

 

Similarly, once you annotation a screenshot using the Markup editor you can instantly share to contacts or services right from the editor window.

 

 Cloud Storage Services

 

Use cloud services like iCloud, Google Drive or Dropbox to export your edited screenshots and sync them across devices. The files stay securely backed up in the cloud.

 

 Screenshot File Formats

 

When you take a screenshot on Mac, you have choices regarding image format. Here is an overview of the common options:

 

 PNG Format

 

PNG is the default format used when taking screenshots on Mac.

 

 High Quality

 

PNG preserves excellent image quality for sharp and crisp screenshots. It supports transparency and lossless compression.

 

 Large File Sizes

 

The tradeoff is that PNGs create very large file sizes compared to more compressed formats.

 

 Transparent Backgrounds

 

The PNG format is best for screenshots needing transparent or layered backgrounds. The transparency data is preserved.

 

 JPG Format

 

JPG files are smaller in size, making them good for uploading and sharing online.

 

 Smaller Files

 

Through compression algorithms, JPG shrinks file sizes significantly compared to PNG.

 

 Lower Quality at High Compression

 

However, JPG uses lossy compression that degrades image quality at higher compression levels.

 

 TIFF Format

 

TIFF is an older and less compressed lossless image format like PNG. File sizes are very large but image quality is fully retained.

 

 BMP Format

 

BMP is an uncompressed raster image format. Like TIFF it produces high quality with large file sizes due to zero compression.

 

 PDF Format

 

You can also save screenshots as PDF files. This offers benefits like:

 

 Editable Text

 

Text captured in a screenshot remains editable when exported as a PDF.

 

 Vector Graphics

 

PDF files preserve vector graphics allowing images to scale without pixelation.

 

 File Size Considerations

 

PDF files are often smaller than TIFF or BMP formats, but larger than JPG due to PDF containing additional document data.

 

 Tips for Better Screenshots

 

Follow these tips and best practices to level up your screenshot skills on a Mac:

 

 Preparing Your Screen

 

Before capturing screenshots, tidy up your desktop and hide any windows not relevant to the image. This creates a clean, focused screenshot.

 

 Hiding Pop-Ups

 

Disable notifications or close programs that generate pop-ups to keep distractions out of your screenshots.

 

 Using Keyboard Shortcuts

 

Master the Mac keyboard shortcuts for screenshots to capture shots in seconds without having to fumble with menus or tools.

 

 Scrolling Webpage Screenshots

 

Hold Spacebar while taking screenshot selections to scroll down and capture tall webpages or documents.

 

 Leveraging Accessibility Features

 

Make use of Accessibility options like magnification and timing to finesse tricky screenshots.

 

 Instant Markup

 

Open Markup before you take screenshots to start annotating instantly.

 

 Touch Bar Options

 

Customize the Touch Bar screenshot button to change file formats and save locations on the fly.

 

 Animated GIFs

 

Use third party tools to stitch together screenshots into animated GIFs. Helpful for tutorials!

 

 Cleaning Up with Editor Apps

 

Use advanced annotation apps like Skitch to blur or cover private information, combine images, add text captions, and more.

 

 Conclusion

 

Capturing professional-grade screenshots is critical for any Mac user who wants to document processes, share information visually, or showcase their work. Learning the intricacies of taking cropped screenshots on a Mac unlocks game-changing productivity and collaboration abilities. Use the handy built-in keyboard shortcuts to start capturing screenshots in seconds. Then leverage the robust editing tools in Preview, Markup and QuickTime to annotate, crop, and export your images. With this guide, you now have an in-depth understanding of the screenshot possibilities on your Mac. Go forth and capture amazing shots! 📸

 

 FAQs

 

FAQ1: What is the keyboard shortcut to take a screenshot on a Mac?

 

The default keyboard shortcut for taking a full screenshot on a Mac is Shift + Command + 3. This will capture your entire screen and save the image file to your desktop.

 

FAQ2: How do I crop a screenshot on Mac after taking it?

 

You can easily crop screenshots using the Preview app on Mac. Just open the screenshot in Preview, select the Crop tool from the Markup toolbar, adjust the cropping frame, and click Done to crop the image.

 

FAQ3: How can I edit a screenshot on my Mac?

 

Mac provides built-in Markup tools for editing screenshots. Right click the image file, choose Open With > Markup and you can add text, shapes, highlights, signatures and more. You can also use Apple's Preview app to annotate screenshots.

 

FAQ4: What is the best file format to save screenshots as on a Mac?

 

The default format for Mac screenshots is PNG. This preserves the best image quality. But you can change the format to JPG, TIFF or other options if you need a different file type. 

 

FAQ5: How do I record my Mac screen along with audio narration?

 

You can record your Mac screen with narration using the QuickTime app. Open QuickTime, click File > New Screen Recording, then click the record button and start narrating while capturing your screen.

 

FAQ6: Can I set a timer or delay for taking screenshots on a Mac?

 

Yes, enable the timing features under Accessibility in System Preferences. Then you can set a 5 second delay when taking screenshots using Shift + Command + 5.

 

FAQ7: Is there a way to capture scrolling screenshots on Mac?

 

Yes! When using Shift + Command + 4 Spacebar to take a screenshot of a window, just drag the cursor down to scroll and capture more content.

 

FAQ8: How do I screenshot part of a webpage on Mac?

 

Use Shift + Command + 4 Spacebar to take a screenshot. This will convert your cursor to a crosshair for selecting part of a webpage to screenshot. Hold spacebar while dragging to move the selection box.

 

FAQ9: Where do screenshots save by default on a Mac?

 

Screenshots taken with the keyboard shortcuts automatically save to your Mac's desktop as an image file. You can access them instantly for sharing or editing.

 

FAQ10: Can I change the save location for screenshots on my Mac?

 

Yes! Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Screenshots. Here you can choose a different save location like your Documents or Pictures folder instead of the desktop.