How to Take an Image of the Computer Screen on a Mac

Use a keyboard shortcut to capture the image of your Mac's screen.

While using your Apple desktop or laptop computer, you may encounter situations where you want to take an image of exactly what you see on your screen. This process is commonly referred to as taking screenshots, and can be performed with a basic keyboard shortcut command in the Mac OS X operating system. Screenshot images are automatically saved to your desktop in the PNG format; you can then upload them to the Internet or share them through email.

Things You'll Need

• Mac running OS X 10.4 or later

Instructions

1. Arrange the windows and icons on your screen in the desired way. Pay attention to where your mouse pointer is located on the screen, because it will also be included in the screenshot.

2. Hold down the "command" and "shift" keys at the same time.

3. Press the "3" key once while still holding down the other keys.

4. Wait until you hear the camera shutter sound, then release the "command" and "shift" keys.

5. Navigate to your desktop to find the PNG image file of your screen.

References

• Apple Support: Shortcuts for taking pictures of the screen