Taking screenshots on an OS X Macbook

I was looking for the various ways to make a screenshot on my macbook and wanted to log these for future reference.


Each capture sequence below saves a file to your desktop, unless you add a Control key to any sequence which will give you the capture as a copy to the clipboard.

Also see the Grab utility for more complex captures, including recording desktop activities.

• Entire desktop - Cmd + Shift + 3
• Specific area - Cmd + Shift + 4, gives crosshairs that can be positioned for click and drag
• Single window - Cmd + Shift + 4 + Spacebar, gives a camera that highlights windows to be captured