100 Tips #30: Where’s The PrntScrn Button On A Mac?

Windows users are accustomed to a “Print Screen” or “PrntScrn” button on their keyboard. When hit, the computer takes a picture of the current screen and saves it to the clipboard, ready for pasting into a graphics program.

So where’s the PrntScrn button on a Mac? How do you take a screenshot?

Vance L from Australia contacted us at (sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address)saying that when he switched from PC to Mac, he spent 10 minutes looking for that button before realising it wasn’t there. But as he found out, there’s another way.

In fact, there are two easy ways to get a screenshot on OS X.

The easiest is to press COMMAND+SHIFT+3 all at the same time. Go ahead, try it now. Your Mac should make a little camera-shutter clicking sound, and a new image file will appear on your Desktop. That’s the screenshot. If you’re using an up-to-date copy of Mac OS X 10.6, the file will be named with the current date and time; on older systems, it will be called “Picture 1’ (unless you already have a file there called Picture 1, in which case the new one will be “Picture 2’…)

That’s the simple option. There are more, though.

Want to grab just a section of the screen? Press COMMAND+SHIFT+4 instead. You’ll see a tiny crosshair symbol appear – drag it over what you want a picture of, and when you let go of the mouse button it will save an image.

For more options, there’s the Grab application. You’ll find it inside the /Applications/Utilities folder, but the quickest way to open it is to type “grab” into the Spotlight menu in the top-right of your screen.

(Thanks to Vance L for suggesting this tip. If you’ve switched from Windows to Mac, and there’s a question you’d like to ask us as part of this series, get in touch: (sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address).)

(You’re reading the 30th post in our series, 100 Essential Mac Tips And Tricks For Windows Switchers. These posts explain to OS X beginners some of the most basic and fundamental concepts of using a Mac. Find out more.)

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