How to Change the Default Graphic Screenshot Format on Mac OS X

A Mac Screenshot

By default, Mac OS X uses the graphic "png" format for screenshots. Using the Terminal Application you can change the format to jpg, gif, pdf or any number of graphic image formats, useful for online sharing, web pages or photo printing. In this lesson, you will learn how to change the default graphic screenshot format in Mac OS X.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Mac OS X
• Terminal Application

1. Mac OS X Terminal Application

   In an open Finder window, navigate to “Application/Utilities/Terminal” and double-click the Terminal application to launch it.

2. Change the Screenshot Graphic Format

   In a new Terminal window, type in the following command to change the graphic screenshot format from the default png format to jpg, then hit return/enter on your keyboard to finish entering the command: "defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg."

3. Terminal Command Line

   To change the format to gif, tiff, pdf or any other standard graphic format, change the file type in the terminal command from jpg to the new file format. The following examples will change the format to a tiff and gif file format:defaults write com.apple.screencapture type tiffdefaults write com.apple.screencapture type gif

4. Screenshot File

   Your new Screenshot file in the updated default graphic format chosen in steps 2 and 3, will be saved to your Desktop. Double-click the file to open it.