You can capture the entire screen, a window, or just a portion of the screen.
How to take a screenshot on your Mac
1. To take a screenshot, press and hold these three keys together: Shift, Command, and 3.
2. If you see a thumbnail in the corner of your screen, click it to edit the screenshot. Or wait for the screenshot to save to your desktop.
How to capture a portion of the screen
1. Press and hold these three keys together: Shift, Command, and 4.
2. Drag the crosshair to select the area of the screen to capture. To move the selection, press and hold Space bar while dragging. To cancel taking the screenshot, press the Esc (Escape) key.
3. To take the screenshot, release your mouse or trackpad button.
4. If you see a thumbnail in the corner of your screen, click it to edit the screenshot. Or wait for the screenshot to save to your desktop.
How to capture a window or menu
1. Open the window or menu that you want to capture.
2. Press and hold these keys together: Shift, Command, 4, and Space bar. The pointer changes to a camera icon. To cancel taking the screenshot, press the Esc (Escape) key.
3. Click the window or menu to capture it. To exclude the window's shadow from the screenshot, press and hold the Option key while you click.
4. If you see a thumbnail in the corner of your screen, click it to edit the screenshot. Or wait for the screenshot to save to your desktop.
How to capture and record screens
1. Press and hold these keys together: Shift, Command, and 5. To cancel taking the screenshot or recording, press the Esc (Escape) key or press the x at the left of the Screenshot toolbar.
2. Choose the appropriate option from the Screenshot toolbar. From left to right: Capture Entire Screen, Capture Selected Window, Capture Selected Portion, Record Entire Screen or Record Selected Portion.
3. Click on options to modify the default settings. These include where to save the screenshot, the timer for the recording and additional options.
Where to find screenshots
By default, screenshots save to your desktop with the name ”Screen Shot [date] at [time].png.”