How to Take a Screenshot of Your PC Screen

Do you need to take a picture of your computer desktop, but being a beginner in the tech world, you don’t know how to do it? Don’t worry, you can count on my help this time too. In today’s guide, I will explain to you how to take a screenshot of your PC screen in a very easy and fast way.

Nowadays all computer operating systems (and not only) include good tools for taking screenshots. Alternatively, there are various third-party software options that allow you to do this offering interesting additional features. So, whether you have a PC or a Mac, believe me, you have plenty of options!

Follow the tips I’m about to give you, and you will finally discover how to “take a screenshot” of the desktop or even a portion of it, such as the window of a single program, simply and quickly. I wish you happy reading and fun!

Table of Contents

• How to Take a Screenshot of PC Windows 10 and Later
• How to Take a Screenshot on Mac

How to Take a Screenshot of PC Windows 10 and Later

If what you want to do is to take a screenshot of PC Windows 10 and later, the guidelines you need to follow are those listed below. As mentioned, you can do this using both built-in tools and third-party options.

Snipping Tool

If you are using a PC with Windows 11, the first tool I recommend you use is the Snipping Tool. This is a free built-in application that allows you to take screenshots of the entire screen, a portion of it, or a single window, and create video recordings of your desktop. It also has an integrated OCR function, to select recognizable text in captured images.

To use the Snipping Tool to take a screenshot of your screen, first, open the application by selecting the respective shortcut found in the Start menu of Windows.

When the Snipping Tool window is visible on the desktop, define the type of screenshot you wish to take by clicking on the button depicting a camera located at the top center, then press the button with the rectangle adjacent and choose one of the following options: Rectangle, Window, Full Screen, and Freeform Snip.

If you want to set a delay for the capture, you can do this by clicking on the icon with the clock on the right and selecting one of the proposed options.

After completing the above steps, press the New button and determine the portion of the desktop to capture or select the window to capture.

Once captured, an editor will open with the screenshot and a toolbar at the top to make any modifications to the image obtained: you can draw on it, apply highlights, crop it, etc.

When you finish editing or want to save the screenshot, click on the floppy disk icon at the top right, specify the output folder, the format among JPG, PNG, or GIF, and the name to assign to the file, then click the Save button.

If you are using Windows 10, you will need to refer to an older edition of the Snipping Tool. To use it, after starting the application and once the window is visible on the desktop, click on the angled arrow next to the New button or on the Delay button to define the type of screenshot to take via the proposed menu. Pressing the New button, however, generates an immediate snapshot of the screen.

After doing everything, to take a screenshot in Windows 10, select the area of the desktop or the window to capture and make any customizations to the obtained screenshot using the editing tools in the window that you will see afterward.

When you finish with the modifications, click on the floppy disk icon at the top left, specify the output folder, the format, and the name to assign to the image, then click the Save button.

Keyboard Shortcuts

If you are wondering how to take a screenshot of the PC? using keyboard shortcuts? No problem, I can help you with that too. You can indeed use various key combinations to complete the operation of your interest very quickly. Here they are.

• Win+Shift+S — starts the Snipping Tool I mentioned in the previous chapter.
• Print Screen — captures a screenshot of everything displayed on the screen, allowing you to copy and paste where needed, for example, in graphic applications. Keep in mind that on some keyboards this key is labeled as Prnt, Prt Scr, Prnt, or Print. Additionally, on some laptops, it might be located on a multifunction key, and you may need to simultaneously press the Fn key. To use it on the newest versions of Windows 11, you first need to go to Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard and turn the switch next to the option Use the Print Screen button to open screen capture to ON.
• Alt+Print Screen — copies only the active window to the clipboard, which can then be pasted where needed.
• Win+Print Screen — captures a screenshot of the entire desktop and saves it as a PNG file in the Pictures > Screenshots folder.
• Win+Alt+Print Screen — captures a screenshot of the active window and saves it as a PNG file in the Pictures > Screenshots folder.

Other Solutions

If you prefer to use other solutions to capture your computer screen, preferably third-party options, I strongly recommend you turn to the software listed below. They are all equally valid and highly efficient, you have my word.

• ShareX — a free and open-source software designed specifically for taking screenshots on PC. Once captured, images can also be edited, which can then be automatically uploaded to the cloud.
• Lightshot — screenshot software that is completely free, very user-friendly, and extremely lightweight. It also has a feature for finding similar images.
• Greenshot — another program for taking screenshots of PC with various types of screenshots. Its great advantage is to have a rich editing function to modify what you obtained. It is completely free.

How to Take a Screenshot on Mac

Now, let’s move to the Apple world and find out how to take a screenshot on Mac. Below are explained the built-in tools you can use to do this and third-party options you might consider.

Screenshot

If you are using a Mac and want to take a screenshot, I invite you to use the Screenshot application, which is the default for macOS to take various types of screenshots and screen recordings. It is completely free and incredibly easy to use. Note that on older versions of Apple’s operating system, it is called Screen Snapshot.

To use Screenshot, first launch the application by clicking the respective icon found in the Other folder in the macOS Launchpad.

Once the Screenshot toolbar is visible on the desktop, click on the corresponding button for the capture mode you want to use, choosing one of the following options: Capture Entire Screen, Capture Selected Window, and Capture Selected Portion.

If you deem it appropriate, you can also customize the functionality of Screenshot by clicking the Options button and deciding through the menu that opens whether to include the pointer in captures, to show the floating thumbnail of screenshots after their creation, if to set a timer to delay the capture of the screens, etc.

To proceed with the screenshot, press the Capture button and define the portion of the screen to acquire or click on the border of the window to capture.

Once captured, you will see a thumbnail of the screenshot in the lower right of the screen, and by clicking on it, you can view the image obtained at full size and access the editor from which, by clicking on the button with a pencil in a circle at the top right, you can make various modifications to the screenshot, such as adding texts, shapes, highlights, etc.

When finished, to save any changes made, click the Done button at the top right of the editor and the screenshot will be automatically saved to the desktop of macOS in PNG format, with a default name like Screenshot [date] at [time]. If you need to share the screenshot, click on the button with a square and an arrow pointing up.

Keep in mind that if you do not click on the thumbnail of the screenshot, the obtained image will be saved directly to the desktop of the Mac.

You will find it useful to know that on Mac, it is also possible to customize the saving format of each file and decide whether to keep or remove the shadow of captured windows. However, these settings are a bit “hidden” and can only be changed from the command line, using Terminal, which you can access by clicking the Launchpad icon (the one with the colored squares) on the Dock bar of macOS, opening the Other folder in the displayed screen, and clicking its icon (the one with the black window and the code line).

To change the saving format for screenshots, type the command defaults write com.apple.screencapture type [format], ensuring you replace [format] with the extension you wish to use, either png, jpg, jp2, bmp, tiff, tga, pict, or pdf (for example defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg to use the JPG format), and hit the Enter key on your Mac keyboard.

If you want to disable the window shadows of individual screenshots that are enabled by default, type the command defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool true and hit the Enter key on your Mac keyboard. If you change your mind, to enable shadowing again, type the command defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool false and hit Enter on your Mac keyboard.

To implement the changes, restart the SystemUIServer process by typing the command killall SystemUIServer, followed by hitting the Enter key on your Mac keyboard. Alternatively, log out of your user account, or restart the Mac.

Keyboard Shortcuts

If you prefer, I inform you that on macOS, you can use some keyboard shortcuts to speed up the screen capture process. Here they are:

• cmd+shift+5 — starts the Screenshot utility I mentioned in the previous chapter.
• cmd+shift+3: captures the whole content of the screen and saves the screenshot on the desktop in the default format. By also pressing the ctrl key, you can save the snapshot to the clipboard, allowing you to paste it where needed.
• cmd+shift+4: allows you to draw a portion of screen to capture or capture a single window, but in the second case, the pointer should also be placed over the window’s border, and you should press the spacebar on the keyboard. The saving takes place on the desktop in the default format. Pressing the ctrl key also saves the snapshot in the clipboard.

Other Solutions

If you are looking for other third-party solutions useful for taking screenshots on your “bitten apple” computer, I highly recommend using those listed below; in my opinion, they are among the best in the category.

• CleanShot X — a renowned application for taking screenshots on Mac to “capture” the entire desktop, part of it, or the content of a window. It also supports video screen recording with system audio. It is paid (starting from 29 dollars one-time), but you can also use it by subscribing to the Setapp service, which allows you to access a myriad of applications for macOS and iOS/iPadOS in exchange for a monthly or annual fee (starting from 9.99 dollars/month), offering a free 7-day trial.
• Shottr — an excellent application for macOS to create and edit screenshots, it also has the ability to take scrolling screenshots. It’s completely free.
• Monosnap — another solution for taking screenshots of the Mac with a great editor. It is free to start but has some limitations that can be circumvented by subscribing to the paid version (starting at 2.50 dollars/month for personal and non-commercial use).