Capture, Save or Record Screenshots in Mac OS X

Looking for an easy way to take screenshots, screen captures, or even screen record with Mac OS X? There are some convenient built-in Mac OS X tools, as well as some free downloadable software, that make screenshots in Mac OS X Snow Leopard easier than ever.

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Screenshots

Screenshots are basically a picture of the entire screen, or the entire desktop. Screenshots work by taking a shot of everything exactly how it is arranged, with active windows open and everything. For example, if you have Safari and iTunes open, but iTunes is active and Safari is minimized, a screenshot will take a screenshot of your Mac OS X desktop just how it is.

Screenshots = COMMAND, SHIFT, 3 at the same time.

Alternatively, if you use = COMMAND, CONTROL, SHIFT, 3 at the same time, Mac OS X will snap a screenshot and copy it to the clipboard, rather than save it to the desktop.

Screen Captures and Snippets

Screen captures and snippets are similar to screenshots in the fact that they take a photo of the active windows/desktop. However, they are also different because they allow you to specify a certain region or portion of the screen. Screen captures and snippets is basically the Mac OS X equivalent of the Windows 7 Sniping Tool, for Windows users.

Screen Captures and Snippets = COMMAND,SHIFT,4 at the same time. From there, drag to select the section of the screen to capture.

Alternatively, if you use = COMMAND, CONTROL, SHIFT, 4 at the same time, Mac OS X will copy the snippet to the clipboard rather than save it as an image to the desktop.

Additional Mac OS X screenshot shortcuts:

COMMAND, SHIFT, 4, SPACE, CLICK A WINDOW = Take a screenshot of an individual window, and save it to the desktop.

COMMAND, CONTROL, SHIFT, 4, SPACE, CLICK A WINDOW = Take a screenshot of an individual window, and copy it to the clipboard.

Screen Recording

In some circumstances, you may want to do a screen recording rather than capture still frames with a snapshot. For example, screen recordings are highly popular for video tutorials. In Mac OS X, screen recording is actually quite easy. No software downloads required.

Navigate the path Finder > Applications > QuickTime Player.
Double click the QuickTime Player icon to launch QuickTime Player.
With QuickTime active, select File > New Screen Recording.
Click the red record button on the Screen Recording tool.

Read over the general guidelines and click the Start Recording button. To to stop recording, click the Stop Recording icon in the menu bar. OR Press COMMAND, CONTROL, ESC.

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