Screen Capture Tips In OSX

December 6, 2010 by Steven Swafford

Today begins my first post concerning the Apple MacBook Pro and OSX. For those that know me personally, it is no secret that I am a Windows fan and a .NET developer, but recently I was looking to purchase a new laptop and I decided upon the MacBook Pro with the i7 Intel processor and I am extremely happy with this laptop so far. In preparation on getting Windows 7 installed in a virtual instance on my Mac I needed the to perform screen captures for a future post and while these tips most likely are not new to many readers they are to me and I just wanted to document these tips for others as well.

To capture the entire desktop, press Command-Shift-3. The screen shot will be automatically saved as a PNG file on your desktop.
To copy the entire desktop, press Command-Control-Shift-3. The screen shot will be placed on your clipboard for you to paste into another program.
To capture a portion of the desktop, press Command-Shift-4. A cross-hair cursor will appear and you can click and drag to select the area you wish to capture. When you release the mouse button, the screen shot will be automatically saved as a PNG file on your desktop.
To capture a specific application window, press Command-Shift-4, then press the Spacebar. The cursor will change to a camera, and you can move it around the screen. As you move the cursor over an application window, the window will be highlighted. When you have the cursor over a window you want to capture, just click the mouse button and the screen shot will be saved as a PNG file on your desktop.
Another method for capturing screen shots in Mac OS X is by using the Apple utility, Grab, located in the Applications > Utilities folder, I was not even aware it existed until someone told me of it. Grab allows you the ability to capture in four different mechanisms and these are selection, window, screen, and timed screen.

There you have it, not only do I know how to perform screen captures, but maybe you have learned a new tip in this area. Do you have any favorite software or tips in the area of screen captures? Feel free to leave a comment and share your knowledge with others.

Author: Steven Swafford

Highly motivated information technology professional with 16+ years of experience. Working as a software engineer Steven develops and maintains web based software solutions. As a skilled professional he is focused on the design and creation of software. Because communication skills are extremely important Steven continues to expand his knowledge in order to communicate clearly with all facets of business. Recently Steven has been leading efforts to standardize software development tools and technology, plans and coordinates web accessibility as applied to IT Solutions, and he is tackling application security in terms of best practices and implementation of the Security Development Life-cycle.