How to capture a full scrolling page on Mac

macOS doesn't have a built-in scrolling screenshot — ⌘⇧3 and ⌘⇧4 only capture what's visible on screen. But several good options fill the gap, depending on whether you want a PDF, a PNG, or something scriptable.

In Safari: export as PDF

If you're trying to archive a webpage, Safari's Export as PDF is the cleanest option on macOS — no extension needed.

1. Open the page in Safari.
2. Go to File → Export as PDF…
3. Choose a save location and click Save.

The PDF renders the full page — not a screenshot, but a vector document with selectable text. For documentation, client deliverables, or archiving, this is often exactly what you need. The file opens in Preview, where you can annotate or crop pages.

Note: this doesn't work for pages that require scrolling to load content dynamically (infinite scroll, lazy-loaded images). For those, a browser extension handles it better.

In Chrome or Firefox: browser extensions

These free extensions add a one-click full-page capture button to your browser toolbar:

• GoFullPage (Chrome) — scrolls the page automatically and stitches a single PNG. Fast and reliable for most sites.
• FireShot (Chrome and Firefox) — captures to PNG or PDF; has annotation tools built in.
• Full Page Screen Capture (Chrome) — lightweight, saves as PNG or opens in an editor tab.

All three are free for basic use. Install one from the Chrome Web Store or Firefox Add-ons, then navigate to any page and click the extension icon. The capture happens in seconds for most pages.

Use screencapture from Terminal (static windows, not scrolling)

macOS's built-in screencapture command doesn't scroll pages, but it's useful for scripting and for capturing specific windows:

# capture the window you click on to a file
screencapture -w ~/Desktop/window.png

# capture the entire display without interaction
screencapture ~/Desktop/display.png

Pass -x to suppress the screenshot sound, or -t jpg to save as JPEG. You can chain this into shell scripts — useful for automated testing or documentation pipelines — but it can't scroll a webpage on its own.

Third-party apps

If you need scrolling capture as a native Mac feature rather than a browser-only trick, two apps do it well:

• CleanShot X ($29 one-time or $8/month) — has a dedicated "Capture Scrolling" mode that works in browsers, PDFs, and many native apps. It scrolls the content automatically and stitches everything into a single image. Probably the best native option on the Mac.
• Snagit ($63 one-time) — the long-standing pro option. Scrolling capture, annotation tools, a library of captures. Worth it for teams that use it heavily.

On iPhone or iPad

iOS and iPadOS handle this natively for Safari pages. Take a screenshot as usual, then tap the Full Page tab in the Markup editor — it switches the capture to a PDF of the entire page. You can crop, annotate, and share from there. Handy if you need a full page capture and your Mac options feel like overkill.