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Screen Grab On Mac
Use Shift-Command-5

If you're using macOS Mojave or later, press Shift-Command (⌘)-5 on your keyboard to see onscreen controls for recording the entire screen, recording a selected portion of the screen, or capturing a still image of your screen. You can also record the screen with QuickTime Player instead.
Record the entire screen
- Click in the onscreen controls. Your pointer changes to a camera .
- Click any screen to start recording that screen, or click Record in the onscreen controls.
- To stop recording, click in the menu bar. Or press Command-Control-Esc (Escape).
- Use the thumbnail to trim, share, save, or take other actions.
Record a selected portion of the screen
- Click in the onscreen controls.
- Drag to select an area of the screen to record. To move the entire selection, drag from within the selection.
- To start recording, click Record in the onscreen controls.
- To stop recording, click in the menu bar. Or press Command-Control-Esc (Escape).
- Use the thumbnail to trim, share, save, or take other actions.
Trim, share, and save
After you stop recording, a thumbnail of the video appears briefly in the lower-right corner of your screen.
- Take no action or swipe the thumbnail to the right and the recording is automatically saved.
- Click the thumbnail to open the recording. You can then click to trim the recording, or click to share it.
- Drag the thumbnail to move the recording to another location, such as to a document, an email, a Finder window, or the Trash.
- Control-click the thumbnail for more options. For example, you can change the save location, open the recording in an app, or delete the recording without saving it.
Change the settings

Click Options in the onscreen controls to change these settings:
- Save to: Choose where your recordings are automatically saved, such as Desktop, Documents, or Clipboard.
- Timer: Choose when to begin recording: immediately, 5 seconds, or 10 seconds after you click to record.
- Microphone: To record your voice or other audio along with your recording, choose a microphone.
- Show Floating Thumbnail: Choose whether to show the thumbnail.
- Remember Last Selection: Choose whether to default to the selections you made the last time you used this tool.
- Show Mouse Clicks: Choose whether to show a black circle around your pointer when you click in the recording.
Use QuickTime Player
- Open QuickTime Player from your Applications folder, then choose File > New Screen Recording from the menu bar. You will then see either the onscreen controls described above or the Screen Recording window described in the following steps.
- Before starting your recording, you can click the arrow next to to change the recording settings:
- To record your voice or other audio with the screen recording, choose a microphone. To monitor that audio during recording, adjust the volume slider (if you get audio feedback, lower the volume or use headphones with a microphone).
- To show a black circle around your pointer when you click, choose Show Mouse Clicks in Recording.
- To record your voice or other audio with the screen recording, choose a microphone. To monitor that audio during recording, adjust the volume slider (if you get audio feedback, lower the volume or use headphones with a microphone).
- To start recording, click and then take one of these actions:
- Click anywhere on the screen to begin recording the entire screen.
- Or drag to select an area to record, then click Start Recording within that area.
- To stop recording, click in the menu bar, or press Command-Control-Esc (Escape).
- After you stop recording, QuickTime Player automatically opens the recording. You can now play, edit, or share the recording.
Learn more
- When saving your recording automatically, your Mac uses the name ”Screen Recording date at time.mov”.
- To cancel making a recording, press the Esc key before clicking to record.
- You can open screen recordings with QuickTime Player, iMovie, and other apps that can edit or view videos.
- Some apps, such as DVD Player, might not let you record their windows.
- Learn how to record the screen on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
| Developer(s) | Apple Computer |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 1.10 (141) / July 9, 2018; 2 years ago[1] |
| Operating system | OS X |
| Type | screen capture |
| Website | www.apple.com/it |
Grab is a utility program in macOS for taking screenshots. It supports capturing a marquee selection, a whole window, and the whole screen, as well as timed screenshots.
The program originated in OPENSTEP and NeXTSTEP, and continued to be preinstalled by Apple on macOS until version 10.13 (High Sierra). It was replaced by the utility Screenshot in macOS 10.14 (Mojave).[2]
macOS[edit]
On macOS versions 10.13 and earlier, Grab is found in the folder Utilities, which is a subdirectory of Applications. It may be quickly opened by using the Spotlight function when entering grab, or by pressing ⌘ Cmd+⇧ Shift+G and typing /Applications/Utilities/Grab.app in application Finder. It was previously also found in the Finder menu under Services > Grab. As of Mac OS X v10.4Preview had a submenu item (Take Screenshot) in the File menu, with selection, window, and timed screen.[citation needed] in more recent versions of macOS.[2]
Grab saves screenshots in the Tagged Image File Format (TIFF). In macOS, it is also possible to save screenshots directly to the Desktop in PDF format (earlier versions of macOS) or PNG format (later versions), using keystrokes shown below. For DRM reasons, it is not possible to use this software while DVD Player is open.
Grab helps determine the size of an element on the screen. After using the selection feature and capturing the screen, one can select Inspector from the menu or press ⌘ Cmd+1 (or ⌘ Cmd+I); a dialog box will appear with the dimensions of the selected area.
Capture options[edit]

- Selection - takes a picture of a part of the screen that you select.[3]
- Window - takes a picture of a window you select.[3]
- Screen - takes a picture of the entire screen.[3]
- Timed - screen lets user start a timer and activate part of the screen (such as a menu), and then takes a picture of the screen.[3]
Shortcuts[edit]
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Take a picture of the whole screen | ⌘ Cmd+⇧ Shift+3 (Holding Ctrl saves the image to the clipboard instead of to a file on the disk.) |
| Take a picture of part of the screen | ⌘ Cmd+⇧ Shift+4, then drag to select the area desired in the picture. (Holding Ctrl saves the image to the clipboard.) Escape cancels the procedure. |
| Take a picture of a window, a menu, the menu bar, or the Dock | Press ⌘ Cmd+⇧ Shift+4, then press the Space bar. Move the pointer over the area desired so that it is highlighted, then click. To drag to select the area instead, press the Space bar again. Escape cancels the procedure. |
References[edit]
- ^'macOS 10.13.6 release date'. Retrieved October 7, 2018.
- ^ ab'How to take a screenshot on your Mac'. Retrieved October 7, 2018.
- ^ abcd'Use Grab to take screenshots of all or part of your screen'. Apple Support.