If you take a lot of screenshots on a Mac, you might end up with a cluttered desktop. This is because Macs automatically save your screenshots on the desktop. They are also saved as PNG files instead of the more widely used JPEG format. If you want to know how to change where screenshots are saved on a Mac, and the format they are saved in, just follow the steps below:
Where Do Screenshots Go on a Mac?
Screenshot Part of the Screen To capture a specific part of your screen, press Shift+Command+4 and your pointer will change to a cross-hair. Click and drag the cross-hair so that it covers the area. To take a picture of your entire screen, click on Screen (or just use the keyboard command Apple Key + Z). A window will pop up telling you where to click and letting you know that the window will not appear in the shot. To take a picture of a portion of your screen, click on Selection.
When you use keyboard shortcuts like Command + Shift + 3, your screenshots are automatically saved to the desktop. You can also right-click the floating thumbnail, which lets you save the screenshot to Documents or Clipboard.
How to Change Where Screenshots are Saved on a Mac
There are two ways to change the defaultscreenshot save directory on a Mac, depending on your operating system. Theeasier way is through the Screenshot app in macOS Mojave. For mac OS HighSierra or earlier, you have to use Terminal, an app for entering commandprompts to control your Mac. Below are the steps for each operating system.
How to Change Where Screenshots are Saved in macOS Mojave or Later
- Go to the Utilities folder and open the Screenshot app. You can also open the Screenshot app by pressing Command + Shift + 5.
- Click Options. The top tile of the menu will show your Save to options:
- Desktop – This is the default setting which saves the screenshot with the following time format: Screen Shot [date] at [time].
- Documents – This will save the screenshot to your Documents folder with the time and date as the file name.
- Clipboard – This will allow you to paste the screenshot to another app which can edit or view images.
- Mail – This lets you compose a new email in the Mail app with the screenshot attached.
- Messages – This will attach the screenshot to a message which you can send to a contact.
- Preview – This will launch Preview, a photo editing app. Your Mac will temporarily name the image file as Untitled until you change it to a different file name.
- Other Location – This will allow you to navigate outside of the locations previously listed to a folder of your choice. You can save to an existing folder or create a new one.
- Choose a Save To option. Your Mac will remember the last one you have selected and will apply this to subsequent screenshots.
How to Change the Default Screenshot Save Location in macOS High Sierra or Earlier
- Open Terminal. You can find the Terminal app in the Utilities folder.
- Type the following command, followed by a space:
Note: Make sure to put a space after the word location, otherwise the command won’t work.
- Drag the folder you want to save to into the Terminal command box. You will see that the file path will now be inserted as another command line in Terminal.
- Press Enter on your keyboard.
- Then type the following command:
- Press Enter or Return. The next time you take a screenshot, it will be saved to the new folder you have created instead of the desktop.
How to Change a Screenshot to JPG and Other File Formats
By default, Macs save screenshots as PNG files, which are usually larger than JPG files. Both can be used for social media, but JPGs are more universally accepted. To save a screenshot as a JPG, use the Terminal to override the default format setting.
- Open Terminal.
- Type the following command, followed by a space: You can also choose to save your screenshots as other formats by default. You can save them as PDF files if you want to edit or open the image in Adobe. You can save them as TIFF files if you want to retain their original image data even after manipulating the image. Or you can save them as GIF files if you want the image to load quickly on the web. Just choose any of the following commands, followed by a space:
Note: Make sure to put a space after the file type, otherwise the command won’t work.
- Hit Enter. The command will be saved to Terminal.
- Test to see if the default option has been changed. Take a screenshot then right-click on the image. Choose Get Info from the contextual menu, then check what is written under “Kind” in the General section.
Once you know how to change the default screenshot settings on your Mac, you’ll be able to customize and improve the way you work with screenshots. Taking a screenshot on a Mac also takes some getting used to, especially for Windows users who are used to hitting the Print Screen key. If you need to improve your screenshot skills, check out our article about how to take a screenshot on a Mac.
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Creating screenshots is much essential for sharing data relating to your computer. It could be a data of something or could be to illustrate an entire procedure. Also, if you see any Flash content in the internet that is useful, you would not be able to capture it and the only option you would be having is to capture a screenshot. Taking screenshots in iMac is super easy and you can do it by pressing a few keys together.
#1. Press the Keyboard Shortcuts
1st Step: Open the screen that you want to capture a screenshot of.
2nd Step: Press “Command-Shift-3” and this would capture the content that is visible on the screen at that moment.
3rd Step: Press the “Command-Shift-4” button followed by the Spacebar. The cursor gets changed into camera and you can move the window over the region you wish to capture. Once you have placed the window over the region you wish to capture, click the mouse. The image gets captured.
4th Step: Press and hold the “Control” button and then press “Command-Shift-3” or “Command-Shift-4” button. This will capture screenshot on iMac and it would be copied to the clipboard. You can now paste the screenshot to wherever you wish. If you do not press and hold the “Control” key, the screenshot automatically gets saved to your Desktop.
This is the default way to take screenshot on Apple computers.
#2. Apowersoft Mac Screenshot (Best Way)
However, the options and features provided by keyboard shortcuts are limited and if you need to increase the features, you might have to install a third party app. There is an app for Mac called the Apowersoft Mac Screenshot. It not only lets you make iMac screenshot, but also add annotations to these images. Also, they can be uploaded easily within the app, while you will receive a link the moment you upload an image.
Here’s the guide for you to go through using this app.
1) Grab an installation package of this program from the above button then run it according to the wizard.
2) When it’s done, run this app on your iMac. When the starter interface appears, you can press screenshot hotkey as instructed to activate the snapshot. Depending on your need, you may also click “Regional screenshot” from the drop-down menu.
3) You could see your cursor turns into a cross-hair, now you can use it to drag along a portion on your screen and release the mouse to confirm your snapshot on iMac.
4) You will see toolbars come along with your snapshot. You can then polish or annotate the image with options presented on the horizontal bar as illustrated:
5) When you’re done, just hit the disk icon on vertical bar to save your image file, or click the Cloud icon to upload it to the free web space provided by the developer.
#3. Mac Grab
You can also make use of an application called Grab in OS X to capture screenshots. This will allow you to have a shortcut and you click on the Capture button present in the shortcuts to capture a screenshot of the region you want to. Although the options are slightly more advanced, it would be convenient to use once you get used to it. There are multiple selection options available, such as Window, Screen, Selection and Timed Screen.
Follow the below mentioned steps to easily capture screenshot on iMac using Grab:
1) Access Grab in the “Utilities” folder under “Applications”.
2) Open the application and click on the scissor/pen icon located on the top.
3) You can choose from regional or full screenshot mode that is available in the drop-down list.
4) The screenshot gets captured and you can now edit the screenshot to add text, arrows or anything else.
5) The screenshot can easily be uploaded to the free cloud space or you also have an option to save the captured screenshot in a local destination in your Mac.