Mac OS X Screen Capture

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Many PCs have a nice little button built in to the keyboard that serves as short cut to screen capture. Alas, Macs do not have this key. We do, however, have many more options than the simple antiquated screen capture, and here they are:

• Cmd-Shift-3
  This is the classic screen capture. Whatever you see on your screen at the time will appear in a picture on your desktop.
• Ctrl-Cmd-Shift-3
  Just like the first option, this will take a shot of your entire screen as it is, but instead of automatically saving it as a picture to your desktop, it will instead copy to your clipboard so you can paste it in to an email, document, or your preferred photo editing software.
• Cmd-Shift-4
  This offers a nice little twist on the original screen capture. Instead of just saving whatever is on your screen, this command will change your pointer to a cross-hairs icon and allow you to drag and select the area of the screen which you would like to save as a picture.
• Ctrl-Cmd-Shift-4
  Just like adding Control to the the standard screen shot, this allows you to target your desired area and then copies that selection to your clipboard.
• Cmd-Shift-4 + Spacebar
  This is easily my favorite screen capture key combination. First do Cmd-Shift-4 to bring up the cross-hairs, then let go of those and press the space bar. A large camera icon will appear instead of your cursor allowing you to capture any one object on your screen, be it an open window, your menubar, the dock, or pretty much anything else.
• Cmd-Shift-4 + Shift OR Option
  Honestly, this one is a bit tricky to explain precisely what holding either Shift or Option does once you’ve brought up the cross-hairs, so just try it out and you’ll see what I mean. It’s sort of like locking in an aspect ratio. I’ve never actually had an instance where I had to use these, but you never know when it might come in handy.

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