Every Mac Screen Capture Shortcut You Need to Know

Mac has eight built-in screen capture shortcuts. Most people know two of them. Here's the full list, when to use each, and how to change them if the defaults don't work for you.

The complete shortcut list#

All screenshots save as PNG by default. Files land on the Desktop unless you change the save location in the Cmd+Shift+5 toolbar.

Cmd+Shift+3 — full screen#

The simplest shortcut. Press it and macOS captures everything on screen immediately — no prompts, no cursor to drag. You'll hear the camera shutter sound (if your volume is on) and see a thumbnail in the corner.

If you have multiple displays, each gets its own file.

When to use it: Bug reports, documenting your whole screen layout, or any time you don't need to crop.

Cmd+Shift+4 — drag a selection#

Press the shortcut and your cursor turns into crosshairs. Drag to select any area of the screen, then release. The screenshot captures only what you selected.

A few modifiers work while dragging:

• Hold Space while dragging: moves the entire selection box without resizing it
• Hold Shift while dragging: locks the selection to one axis
• Press Escape before releasing: cancels without capturing

When to use it: Grabbing a specific UI element, a section of a webpage, or a chart — anything that doesn't need the full screen.

Cmd+Shift+4, then Space — window or menu capture#

After pressing Cmd+Shift+4, tap Space before you drag. Your cursor turns into a camera icon. Hover over any window or menu and it highlights in blue. Click to capture it.

This shortcut produces a clean window screenshot with a subtle drop shadow included. The background outside the window is transparent (the file saves with an alpha channel).

It works on menus, the Dock, the menu bar, and open windows. Useful for app screenshots where you want the window isolated on a clean background.

Cmd+Shift+5 — the screenshot toolbar#

Introduced in macOS Mojave (10.14), this shortcut opens a floating toolbar at the bottom of the screen with five options:

1. Capture entire screen
2. Capture selected window
3. Capture selected portion
4. Record entire screen
5. Record selected portion

The toolbar also has an Options menu where you can:

• Change where screenshots and recordings are saved
• Set a timer (5 or 10 seconds) before capture
• Choose whether to show the floating thumbnail after capture
• Toggle microphone input for recordings

The screen recording options in this toolbar use QuickTime Player as the backend. Recordings save as .mov files. For more on QuickTime recordings, see our QuickTime screen recording guide.

Cmd+Shift+6 — Touch Bar#

If you have a MacBook Pro with a Touch Bar (2016–2021 models), this shortcut captures it as a wide, thin PNG. Mostly useful if you're documenting custom Touch Bar layouts or debugging Touch Bar apps.

MacBook Pros from 2021 onward dropped the Touch Bar, so this shortcut won't appear in Settings or do anything on those machines.

Adding Ctrl — save to clipboard instead of a file#

Any of the main screenshot shortcuts can be modified with Ctrl to copy the image to your clipboard instead of saving a file.

After capturing with Ctrl held, paste immediately with Cmd+V into Slack, Figma, a code editor, or any app that accepts images.

This is one of the most useful Mac screenshot tricks for everyday workflows — no file cleanup, no going to the Desktop to find the image.

How to customize screenshot shortcuts#

The default shortcuts work for most people, but if they conflict with another app (IntelliJ, for example, uses Cmd+Shift+4 for some operations), you can change them.

System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Screenshots

You'll see all five screenshot actions listed with their current bindings. Click any binding to edit it. Type your new shortcut. Changes take effect immediately.

If a shortcut appears grayed out, it's been claimed by another app with a higher priority. Check your other apps' shortcut settings for conflicts.

Screen recording shortcuts#

macOS doesn't have a dedicated single-key shortcut for starting and stopping screen recording the way it does for screenshots. The closest is Cmd+Shift+5, which opens the toolbar and lets you choose a recording mode.

Once a recording is running, you can stop it in two ways:

• Click the stop button in the menu bar (a square inside a circle, near the clock)
• Press Cmd+Ctrl+Esc

You can add a custom shortcut for starting recordings via System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Screenshots, but the binding still opens the Cmd+Shift+5 toolbar rather than starting a recording directly.

For a more detailed walkthrough of macOS built-in recording, see how to record your screen on MacBook.

What the built-in shortcuts can't do#

macOS screenshots and QuickTime recordings cover the basics, but they have real limits:

• No auto-zoom. When recording a product demo or tutorial, viewers often can't see what you're clicking on a full-screen capture. There's no way to add automatic zoom in QuickTime — you'd need to keyframe it in a video editor afterward.
• No system audio by default. QuickTime captures microphone audio but not what your Mac is playing (music, app sounds, browser audio). You need a third-party virtual audio device like BlackHole to route system audio into QuickTime recordings.
• No GIF export. QuickTime saves .mov files. Converting to GIF requires a separate tool.

For occasional recordings and screenshots, the built-in shortcuts are enough. If you're making product demos or tutorials regularly and need zoom on your clicks, a dedicated recorder like Rekort or Screen Studio handles it without the manual editing step. See our best screen recorder for Mac comparison for the full breakdown.

Screenshot file location#

By default, screenshots save to the Desktop. You can change the save location in the Cmd+Shift+5 toolbar under Options > Save to. Options include Desktop, Documents, Clipboard, Mail, Messages, Preview, or a custom folder.

The filename format is Screenshot YYYY-MM-DD at HH.MM.SS.png. You can rename in bulk with the Finder — select multiple files, right-click, and choose Rename.

Quick reference#

• Grab entire screen: Cmd+Shift+3
• Grab a selection: Cmd+Shift+4
• Grab a window: Cmd+Shift+4, Space, click window
• All options (including recording): Cmd+Shift+5
• Copy to clipboard instead of file: add Ctrl to any shortcut
• Stop a recording: Cmd+Ctrl+Esc or click the menu bar stop button
• Customize any shortcut: System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Screenshots

For more on Mac screen capture — including video recording and audio settings — see our complete screen capture guide and the screen recording with audio guide.