How to Take a Screenshot on a Mac (All the Shortcuts)

Three shortcuts cover every screenshot a Mac can take: Cmd + Shift + 3 for everything, Cmd + Shift + 4 for a selection or window, and Cmd + Shift + 5 for the control panel with options. Identical on macOS 13, 14, and 15. Here's each one, the modifier tricks that make 4 genuinely powerful, and where the files end up.

The three shortcuts

• Cmd + Shift + 3 — captures the entire screen immediately. With multiple displays, each screen saves as its own file.
• Cmd + Shift + 4 — turns the pointer into a crosshair; drag over any area and release to capture it. Press Esc to cancel.
• Cmd + Shift + 5 — opens the screenshot toolbar: buttons for full screen, window, and selection capture, two screen-recording modes, and an Options menu (save destination, timer, floating thumbnail, mouse pointer).

The shortcuts and the toolbar produce identical files — the toolbar just adds the options and shows your selection before committing. If you only memorize one thing, make it Cmd + Shift + 5: everything else is discoverable from there. All three work anywhere: over full-screen apps, during video playback, mid-game — the capture system sits above whatever you're running and never needs the app's cooperation.

The selection modifiers worth knowing

Cmd + Shift + 4 hides a small toolkit behind modifier keys:

• Space (before dragging) — the crosshair becomes a camera; click any window to capture it cleanly, drop shadow included. Hold Option while clicking to omit the shadow. This works on menus, the Dock, and the menu bar too.
• Hold Space (while dragging) — freezes the selection's size and lets you move the whole box. Perfect when the size is right but the position is off.
• Hold Shift (while dragging) — locks one axis, so the box grows in only one direction.
• Hold Option (while dragging) — resizes from the center outward.
• Hold Ctrl (with any capture) — sends the screenshot to the clipboard instead of a file, ready to paste with Cmd + V.

Where the files land

By default, screenshots save to the Desktop, named Screenshot [date] at [time].png. Change the destination from Cmd + Shift + 5 → Options → Save to — Desktop, Documents, Clipboard, Mail, Messages, Preview, or a custom folder via Other Location. Screenshots pile up fast; a dedicated ~/Screenshots folder keeps the Desktop honest and is two clicks to set.

The floating thumbnail

Every capture first appears as a small floating thumbnail in the bottom-right corner for a few seconds. It's more useful than it looks:

• Click it — opens Markup, where you can crop, annotate, and add arrows before the file is saved.
• Drag it — drops the screenshot straight into a message, email, or document, skipping the Desktop entirely.
• Swipe it right (or just wait) — files it immediately to your save destination.

Worth knowing: while the thumbnail is on screen, the file hasn't been written yet — wait for it to disappear before hunting the Desktop. If you find the delay annoying, turn the thumbnail off in Options → Show Floating Thumbnail, and captures save instantly.

All these shortcuts can be re-bound in System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Screenshots, and a timer (5 or 10 seconds) lives in the toolbar's Options menu for capturing menus and hover states that close when you press keys. The shutter sound follows your alert volume — mute the Mac and screenshots go silent.

Going further

Once the basics are muscle memory, the same system handles timed captures, clipboard-only workflows, and format changes — start with clean single-window captures, the trick you'll use most.