Learning how to screenshot on Mac should take ten seconds, and for most people it does: Shift-Command-3 grabs the whole screen and you're done. The trouble starts when the screenshot lands somewhere you didn't expect, comes out as a file a website won't accept, or a shortcut you've used for years suddenly opens Siri instead. That last one is new in macOS 27, and none of the guides I found at the top of Google mention it.
So this is every way to take a screenshot on a Mac, in the order I actually use them, plus the three things that trip people up in 2026: the Siri shortcut overlap, the HDR format that saves as HEIF, and the apps that hand you a black rectangle.
How to screenshot on Mac: the three shortcuts that matter
There is no Print Screen key on a Mac keyboard, and that includes UK layouts. Everything runs through Shift and Command plus a number, and the number tells macOS what to capture.
- Shift-Command-3 captures the entire screen. If you have two displays, you get one file per display.
- Shift-Command-4 turns the pointer into crosshairs. Drag over the area you want, let go, and it saves.
- Shift-Command-4, then Space switches the crosshairs to a camera icon. Hover over a window or the menu bar, click, and you get just that window with a neat drop shadow.
That third one is the one I wish someone had shown me earlier. It captures a clean window without you trying to line up a box by hand, and it works on menus too: open the menu first, then press Shift-Command-4 and Space.
Modifier keys while you're dragging
Once you've started dragging with Shift-Command-4, a few keys change how the selection behaves. Apple only documents some of these on its support page, so here's the full set I use.
- Hold Space while dragging to move the whole selection without changing its size.
- Hold Shift after you start dragging to lock one edge, so you only change the width or the height.
- Hold Option to resize from the centre rather than the corner.
- Hold Option when you click a window in the Space mode to drop the shadow.
- Press Esc at any point to cancel without saving anything.
Add Control to copy a screenshot instead of saving it
This is the shortcut I use most and the one most people never find. Add Control to any of the combinations above and the screenshot goes to the clipboard rather than to a file. Control-Shift-Command-4, drag a box, then Command-V straight into Slack, Messages or a document.
It saves you a desktop full of files called "Screenshot" followed by a date and time that you'll never open again. If you're new to the Mac clipboard in general, my guide on how to copy and paste on Mac covers the rest of it, including moving files without a Cut command.
If you've already taken the screenshot the normal way, you can still do this after the fact. Control-click the floating thumbnail in the bottom-right corner and choose Save to Clipboard. That Control-click is the same right-click I covered in how to right click on Mac, and it's worth learning for this alone.
Shift-Command-5 and the Screenshot app
Shift-Command-5 opens the Screenshot app, a small toolbar along the bottom of the screen. You can also find it in the Utilities folder inside Applications or by searching Spotlight. The toolbar gives you buttons for entire screen, window and selected portion, plus screen recording, but the real value is in the Options menu.
- Save to changes where screenshots go. Desktop is the default; Documents, Clipboard, Mail, Messages, Preview or any folder you pick are all there.
- Timer adds a 5 or 10 second delay, which is how you capture a hover state or a menu that closes the moment you press a key.
- Show Floating Thumbnail controls the little preview in the corner. Turn it off if you take screenshots in quick succession, because each one waits for the thumbnail to clear before it saves.
- Remember Last Selection keeps your last box, handy when you're capturing the same area repeatedly.
- Show Mouse Pointer includes the cursor, which is off by default.
- Capture Format lets you choose HDR or SDR on supported Macs running macOS Tahoe 26 or later.
Any change you make to Save to sticks for the keyboard shortcuts as well. If your screenshots have stopped appearing on the desktop, the first thing to check is whether someone set this to a folder at some point.
The HDR screenshot catch: HEIF files that won't upload
This is the one I'd flag to anyone with a recent MacBook Pro or a Studio Display. Since macOS Tahoe 26, the Screenshot app has had a Capture Format option, and Apple's support page says the two choices save differently: the standard SDR setting, which Apple labels Most Compatible, saves a PNG, while HDR saves a HEIF file.
HDR screenshots look brilliant on an HDR display. The problem is that HEIF is still not accepted everywhere. Plenty of web forms, older Windows PCs and upload fields will reject it, and on an SDR screen the extra brightness information does nothing anyway, because Apple says an HDR capture viewed on an SDR display shows as SDR.
My advice is simple: leave Capture Format on SDR unless you're specifically capturing HDR content to show on HDR screens. If you've already got a folder full of HEIF screenshots, open one in Preview and use File, Export to save a PNG or JPEG copy.
macOS 27 and Siri: why Shift-Command-6 might not do what you expect
Here's the bit no top-ranking guide covers yet. With macOS 27 and Siri AI (Beta) switched on, Apple has added two shortcuts for asking Siri about what's on screen. According to Apple's Mac User Guide, Command-Shift-Space selects a window and Command-Shift-6 lets you drag over part of the screen, then you type a question.
Both look and feel exactly like taking a screenshot. You drag a box, the screen dims, and instead of a file you get a Siri prompt. If you've pressed what you thought was Shift-Command-4 and found yourself talking to Siri, that's almost certainly a slipped finger onto the 6 or the Space bar.
There's also a genuine overlap. Apple's own screenshot guide still lists Shift-Command-6 as the shortcut to capture the Touch Bar, and two Apple silicon Macs that can run Siri AI still have one: the 13-inch MacBook Pro with M1 and with M2. I haven't been able to confirm which action wins on those machines, so if you rely on Touch Bar screenshots, check it on yours and remap one of them if it clashes.
Siri AI needs an M1 or later Mac (or a MacBook Neo), macOS 27, and Siri set to English. The UK is in the first wave, so this applies here even though some regions are still waiting.
How to change screenshot shortcuts on a Mac
You can remap any of the screenshot shortcuts in System Settings, then Keyboard, then Keyboard Shortcuts, then Screenshots. Click a shortcut, press the new combination, and it takes effect immediately.
This is the fix for two common situations. If you're coming from Windows and want a single key, assign one you never use, such as F13 on an extended keyboard, to "Save picture of selected area as a file". And if you use an app that steals one of these combinations, which happens more than you'd think with screen capture and clipboard tools, you can move Apple's version out of the way rather than living with the conflict.
Keyboard muscle memory is the theme of a lot of Mac switcher problems. My post on typing a hashtag on Mac is the same story with the UK layout: the key exists, it just isn't where you'd expect.
Change the screenshot file type with Terminal
The Screenshot app lets you change the save location but not the file type beyond SDR or HDR. If you want JPEGs by default, which are much smaller than PNGs for photos and busy screens, you can set it in Terminal.
- To save as JPEG: defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg
- To go back to PNG: defaults write com.apple.screencapture type png
- To remove window shadows permanently: defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool true
After any of these, run killall SystemUIServer, or simply log out and back in, for the change to take effect. These preferences have worked across every macOS release I've used, but they are not something Apple documents on its support page, so treat them as a power-user tweak rather than an official setting.
Why some Mac screenshots come out black or blank
If a screenshot of a video shows a black box where the picture should be, nothing is broken. Apple's support page notes that some apps, such as the Apple TV app, may block screenshots of their windows, and protected video in streaming services generally behaves the same way. It's the same copy protection that causes the black screen in iPhone screen recordings.
The other common cause of a "missing" screenshot is that it went somewhere else. Check the Save to option in Shift-Command-5, check the clipboard if you might have held Control, and check that the floating thumbnail hasn't been dragged into a document by accident.
Screenshot on Mac versus iPad and iPhone
If you use more than one Apple device, the Mac is the most flexible of the three but the least discoverable. On iPad, iPadOS 26 changed which gestures work depending on how your apps are arranged, which I covered in how to screenshot on iPad. On the Mac there are no gestures at all, just shortcuts, so once you know these few combinations you're set.
FAQ
What is the shortcut to screenshot on a Mac?
Shift-Command-3 captures the whole screen, Shift-Command-4 captures a selected area, and Shift-Command-4 followed by Space captures a single window. Add Control to any of them to copy to the clipboard instead of saving a file.
Where do screenshots go on a Mac?
They save to the desktop by default, named Screenshot with the date and time. You can change the location in the Options menu after pressing Shift-Command-5, and that change also applies to the keyboard shortcuts.
Why is my Mac screenshot a HEIF file?
Your Screenshot app is set to HDR capture. Press Shift-Command-5, open Options, and set Capture Format to SDR to go back to PNG files that upload anywhere.
My take
If you only learn one thing from this, make it Control-Shift-Command-4. Copying a selected area straight to the clipboard is as quick as anything on Windows and it keeps your desktop clean. Then spend thirty seconds in the Shift-Command-5 Options menu, set Capture Format to SDR and pick a sensible save folder, and you'll never fight a Mac screenshot again. And if Siri pops up when you expected a screenshot, now you know which finger slipped.
Source: Take a screenshot on Mac, Apple Support
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