If you are a recent migrant from Windows to Mac you have probably spent some time staring at your keyboard in search of the ‘Print Screen’ button, I know I did. 
Screenshot Plus is a free dashboard widget which allows you to effortlessly take screenshots of:
- your entire desktop
- a highlighted window/finder
- it allows you to cut out a selection of the screen aswell
Screenshot plus can export in png, tiff, jpg, jp2, pdf, gif, bmp, or pict file types.Mac OS X does come with built in screenshot capabilities but the system isn’t as intuitive as you would expect. It’s quite ridiculous actually. You have the following keyboard button powered methods available to you when taking a screenshot in Mac OS X:
- Command-Shift-3: Take a screenshot of the screen, and save it as a file on the desktop
- Command-Shift-4, then select an area: Take a screenshot of an area and save it as a file on the desktop
- Command-Shift-4, then space, then click a window: Take a screenshot of a window and save it as a file on the desktop
- Command-Control-Shift-3: Take a screenshot of the screen, and save it to the clipboard
- Command-Control-Shift-4, then select an area: Take a screenshot of an area and save it to the clipboard
- Command-Control-Shift-4, then space, then click a window: Take a screenshot of a window and save it to the clipboard
I copied the above commands from the excellent Mac Rumors website. I’m sure you’ll agree that installing the screenshot plus widget is far easier than running the above commands.
June 20th, 2007 at 10:26 am
I have tried a number of screenshot tools for Mac OS X but, and here is where I start to disagree with you, keep coming back to the super simple and useful built-in keyboard shortcuts. Command-Control-Shift-4, then space is very useful and requires no extra running software.
One extra tool I do use for screenshots is Backdrop which blanks out your desktop icons and wallpaper for clean shots.
You can also go into your keyboard preferences to get a list of the shortcuts and change them to easier combos if needed.
June 20th, 2007 at 10:36 am
I’ll have to take a look at Backdrop. Thanks for the tip.
I suppose it depends on how often you take screenshots. If take screenshots infrequently then the widget is probably best for you as you may forget the 3-key-combo, but in saying that you can modify the keyboard preferences as you mentioned. But is Joe Soap going to go to the bother of changing his keys when it’s easier to use something like Screenshot Plus?
Taking screenshots on Mac OS X should be more user friendly. I’m surprised there is no utility for it. When I was on XP I used Snaggit to take screenshots as it offered a lot more functionality over ‘Print Screen’, Screenshot+ is the closest thing to Snaggit on Mac that I could find. It does the trick for me.
June 20th, 2007 at 10:38 am
As far as I know, the built in commands only allow you to export your screenshot as .png file. Which can be a bit of a ‘mare when sites only allow jpg/gif based images.
June 20th, 2007 at 11:00 am
That is true, Cormac. But, and this is only for techies and is not me forgiving Apple, you can change the output format. http://guides.macrumors.com/Taking_Screenshots_in_Mac_OS_X details how to change from png to jpg.
June 20th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
[...] Moylan of macBlogger.net has an interesting article on how to take screenshots in Mac OS X. As well as all the keyboard shortcuts, Cormac also reviews the Screenshot Plus widget to make the [...]