macOS has three screenshot shortcuts built in. Once you know what each does, you can grab the whole screen, a region or a single window in a second.
Cmd + Shift + 3 — the whole screen
Captures everything on your display and saves it to the desktop by default. With multiple monitors, you get one file per screen.
Cmd + Shift + 4 — a selected region
Turns the cursor into a crosshair. Drag to select any rectangle and release to capture it. Tips while dragging:
- Hold Space to move the selection without resizing.
- Hold Shift to lock one edge.
- Press Esc to cancel.
Cmd + Shift + 4, then Space — one window
After pressing Cmd+Shift+4, tap Space and the cursor becomes a camera. Click any window to capture just that window, with a clean drop shadow.
Cmd + Shift + 5 — the screenshot toolbar
Opens a control bar with all capture modes, plus screen recording, a timer, and an Options menu to change where screenshots are saved. This is the best starting point if you forget the other shortcuts.
Where do Mac screenshots go?
By default they land on your Desktop as PNG files named “Screen Shot …”. Use the Options menu in the Cmd+Shift+5 toolbar to send them to a folder, Clipboard, Mail or Messages instead.
Capturing a web page beyond the screen
The macOS shortcuts only capture what’s visible. To grab an entire scrolling web page, use a Chrome extension — see how to take a full-page screenshot. Screeniti also lets you annotate and share the result as a link.