The base shortcuts
| Shortcut | What it does | Result |
|---|---|---|
| ⇧⌘3 | Captures the entire screen (every display) | File on the Desktop |
| ⇧⌘4 | Crosshair: drag over an area | File on the Desktop |
| ⇧⌘4, then Space | Camera: click a window, menu, or the Dock | File, with drop shadow |
| ⇧⌘5 | Opens the capture panel: stills, recording, options | Configurable |
| ⇧⌘6 | Captures the Touch Bar (models that have one) | File on the Desktop |
The clipboard variants: add Ctrl
Adding Ctrl to any capture shortcut sends the result to the clipboard instead of a file. These four cover most daily use:
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
| ⌃⇧⌘3 | Whole screen, straight to the clipboard |
| ⌃⇧⌘4 | Area selection, straight to the clipboard |
| ⌃⇧⌘4 + Space | A window, straight to the clipboard |
| ⌘V | …and paste it into any chat, doc or email |
If your screenshots exist to be pasted somewhere, make the Ctrl variant your habit and your Desktop stays empty forever.
The mid-drag modifiers, where the real power is
While dragging a ⇧⌘4 selection, before releasing:
| Hold | Effect |
|---|---|
| Space | Moves the whole selection without resizing it |
| Shift | Locks the selection; only one edge keeps moving |
| Option | Resizes from the center outward |
| Esc | Cancels: no capture, no file |
And in window mode, holding Option while you click captures the window without its drop shadow, the difference between a clean crop and manual cleanup later.
Recording shortcuts
Recording has no dedicated key combo: it lives inside ⇧⌘5, which offers record-full-screen and record-selection buttons. Recording starts on click and stops from the stop icon in the menu bar (or ⌃⌘Esc). Files land as .mov at the same destination as screenshots.
Situational recipes
| You want… | Press |
|---|---|
| A quick share into Slack | ⌃⇧⌘4, drag, ⌘V in the chat |
| One app window, clean, for documentation | ⇧⌘4, Space, Option-click the window |
| An open menu that closes when you press keys | ⇧⌘5 > Options > 5-second timer |
| The same exact region every day | Terminal: screencapture -R x,y,w,h out.png in an alias |
| Everything on both monitors | ⇧⌘3 (one file per display) |
Changing the shortcuts
Every combination on this page is remappable in System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Screenshots: click the current combo and type a new one. The same list is where you re-enable a shortcut that mysteriously stopped working (usually another app claimed it: clipboard managers and window tools are the usual suspects). Third-party capture apps add their own hotkeys on top. If two tools want the same combo, only one gets it, so keep one set of capture hotkeys and turn off the rest.
Where the results go
Files land on the Desktop as "Screenshot [date] at [time].png" unless you changed ⇧⌘5 > Options > Save to. Clipboard captures go nowhere until pasted. The complete destination logic, including iCloud and the search trick that finds every capture ever, is in where screenshots go on a Mac. For the narrative version of all this with setup detail, see how to screenshot on a Mac, which also covers the MacBook specifics (trackpad, Touch Bar, closed lid). For an Air, the model table is in screenshots on a MacBook Air.
Window captures without the shadow
The window-mode capture (Shift + Command + 4, then Space) adds a wide soft shadow around the window. Elegant in some contexts, wasted pixels in most. The modifier: hold Option while clicking the window and the shadow is omitted, producing a tight rectangle that needs no cropping. Combined rows for the muscle memory:
| Combination | Result |
|---|---|
| ⇧⌘4, Space, click | Window with shadow |
| ⇧⌘4, Space, Option + click | Window, no shadow |
| ⌃⇧⌘4, Space, click | Window with shadow, to the clipboard |
The panel options that change every later capture
The Shift + Command + 5 panel has an Options menu whose choices persist. Worth setting once:
| Option | What it changes |
|---|---|
| Save to | The destination for every future capture, panel or shortcut |
| Timer: 5 or 10 seconds | Delay to open menus or hover states before the capture fires |
| Show floating thumbnail | The corner preview; off means instant saves |
| Show mouse pointer | Whether the cursor appears in full-screen captures |
| Remember last selection | Repeated captures reuse the exact same region |
"Remember last selection" is the underrated one: set a region once and every following Shift + Command + 5 capture is pre-cropped identically, which replaces batch editing for anyone documenting one app. If you still end up trimming, see how to crop a screenshot on a Mac.
The Terminal column: screencapture flags
Every shortcut above has a scriptable twin in the screencapture command, for Automator flows and scheduled jobs:
| Flag | Does |
|---|---|
-i | Interactive: crosshair, like ⇧⌘4 |
-c | To the clipboard instead of a file |
-T 5 | Five-second delay |
-t jpg | Output format (png, jpg, pdf, tiff) |
-R 0,0,800,600 | Exact rectangle, no interaction |
-C | Include the cursor |
Example: screencapture -i -t jpg ~/Desktop/shot.jpg gives you the crosshair and saves a JPG, one line, no app.
When a shortcut stops responding
Three causes cover nearly every dead shortcut. Another app claimed the combination: System Settings, Keyboard, Keyboard Shortcuts, Screenshots shows the current bindings and a Restore Defaults button. The capture works but saves nowhere visible: the destination changed in the panel Options, and Spotlight for "Screenshot" finds the strays. And on external or Windows keyboards, remember the Command key is the Windows key and Option is Alt; the shortcut works, the fingers were just on the wrong keys.
Capturo's shortcuts: ⇧⌘2 captures an area, ⇧⌘9 starts and stops a recording
- Capture a region or window and annotate in place: arrows, text, and pixelated blur for anything private
- Record the screen or an area (⇧⌘9) with system audio, composed live over a gradient background, then turn short clips into a GIF (up to 45 s)
- Gradient backgrounds, padding and your own branding on every export
- Native Swift, about 2 MB, no subscription: $29 once
Print it into your muscle memory
If a shortcut does nothing at all, work through Mac screenshots not working; if you want more than the built-in keys can do, we compared the options in the best screenshot apps for Mac.
Realistically you need three: ⇧⌘4 for the area, ⌃⇧⌘4 for the clipboard, ⇧⌘5 for everything else. A week of using those three deliberately and the rest of this page becomes reference material. And when a capture is going somewhere public, our free screenshot beautifier gives it padding, a background and a frame in the browser, nothing uploaded.