Macs come with built-in screenshot mechanisms which can make your life a whole heap easier. Whether screenshotting for purposes of work or play, it can be so frustrating to have to take a full-screen screenshot and then manually crop it in a photo editor afterward. Thankfully, Macs allow you to crop a screenshot whilst taking it, or in the immediate aftermath.
To learn how to crop a screenshot on a Mac, follow our step-by-step tutorial below. For all other information, or if you have further questions on the topic, then please refer to our FAQ section at the end of this article.
Table of Contents
How to crop a screenshot on a Mac (Method #1)
For the widest array of screenshotting options, use this method.
- On your Mac, ensure that you have the element(s) you wish to screenshot on-screen
- Using your keyboard, press SHIFT + CMD + 5 at the same time
- A small toolbar will appear toward the bottom of your screen, carrying various screenshot tools and settings. Locate the three rectangular screenshot icons.
- To take a screenshot of the entire screen, left-click the icon on the left
- To take a screenshot of a single window you have open, left-click the icon in the middle of the three screenshot icons
- To take a screenshot of a specific cropped area, left-click the icon on the right of the three screenshot icons.
- Once you’ve clicked this latter icon, you can manipulate the area of your screen you wish to capture by left-clicking and dragging the four corners of the cropped area to highlight your selection.
- Once you’ve chosen which type of screenshot you wish to take, simply left-click the ‘Capture’ button to the right of this toolbar. Your screenshot will automatically be saved to the default/set Destination Folder.
Note: You can alter various screenshot settings via this toolbar, too. Simply left-click ‘Options’, and from the pop-up menu you can select a new Destination Folder for the screenshots, set a timer for the capture button, or enable/disable the pop-up thumbnail of the screengrab. We recommend keeping the thumbnail pop-up enabled, for quick post-screenshot cropping in future.
How to crop a screenshot on a Mac (Method #2)
If you’ve taken a screenshot and wish to crop it afterwards, use this method.
- Ensure you have the pop-up thumbnail setting for screenshotting on your Mac ‘enabled’, then take your screenshot (using one of the methods described elsewhere in this article)
- Once the screenshot has been taken, a small thumbnail of it will pop-up in the bottom-right of your screen. Left-click this thumbnail before it disappears.
- Your screenshot will be opened in a new window with a range of tools and options along the top of the window.
- To crop your screenshot on your Mac, left-click the ‘Crop’ icon (to the far-right)
- Next, left-click and drag the four corners of the crop area until you’ve highlighted the area of the original screenshot you wish to preserve.
- Left-click ‘Done’ to save your cropped screenshot. The screenshot will be saved to your Default Folder in its cropped form. The original form will not be saved.
How to crop a screenshot on a Mac (Method #3)
To screenshot only a highlighted selection of the screen, use this method.
- On your Mac, ensure that you have the element(s) you wish to screenshot on-screen
- Using your keyboard, press SHIFT + CMD + 4 at the same time
- Your mouse’s cursor will instantly change into a crosshairs with which you can highlight the area on-screen for cropping. To take a cropped screenshot of the screen, left-click wherever you wish to start your selection, and then drag the cursor to create a box.
- Highlight the area of the screen you wish to screenshot with the box, and then let go of the click. As soon as you let go, the screenshot will be taken of your designated cropped area.
- To move the crop box before taking the screenshot, press and hold the SPACEBAR and keep your mouse left-clicked. Use the mouse to reposition the box, and then release SPACEBAR and mouse to take the screenshot.
- To adjust the parameters of the screenshot box before taking the screenshot, press and hold SHIFT on your keyboard and keep your mouse left-clicked. Move the mouse cursor up and down to alter the vertical dimensions of the crop-box. Move the mouse cursor left and right to alter the horizontal dimensions of the crop-box. Release SHIFT and mouse to take the screenshot.
How to crop a screenshot on a Mac (Method #4)
To instantly take a full-screen screenshot, use this method.
- On your Mac, ensure that you have the element(s) you wish to screenshot on-screen
- Using your keyboard, press SHIFT + CMD + 3 at the same time
- This shortcut instantly takes a screenshot of the full-screen, capturing everything currently displayed by your Mac
- This screenshot can be cropped in the immediate aftermath using Method #2. Elsewise, it will be saved to your Default Folder
And that’s all there is to cropping a screenshot on a Mac. Four different methods for four different situations and/or types of user. Have fun with them! For any other information, or if you have further unanswered questions, check out our FAQs below.
FAQs
Is it better to crop a screenshot before or after taking it on a Mac?
Apple computers tend to come packed with a whole heap of useful features which are exclusive specifically to their brand. One such feature is the wide range of screenshotting (or screen-grabbing) options built into the OS. With a simple combination of keyboard keys, you can take screenshots of your entire screen, or of a cropped portion of it determined by you.
Since you can take screenshots of the full screen and crop them later, or crop screenshots in the active screenshotting process, the question may arise: which version of cropping is better? The answer is, of course, subjective and situational.
If you’ve taken a full-screen screenshot and then suddenly realised that you forgot to crop it, then you don’t have much of a choice but to crop it in the aftermath. However, if possible, we would generally recommend that you crop screenshots as you’re taking them – to save you both time and energy.
Read our easy-to-follow tutorials above for information on how to crop before and after a screenshot.
Where are cropped screenshots saved on a Mac?
This is up to you. The default setting is to save screenshots to the ‘Desktop’, however you can change the setting so that your cropped screenshots are saved wherever you like. To do so, simply use the SHIFT + CMD + 5 keyboard shortcut described above. By using this technique, you are presented with a range of settings options which you can manipulate, one of which is to set the Destination Folder for your screenshots.
Can I edit my screenshots more than just cropping them?
Absolutely you can. Once you’ve taken your screenshot on your Mac, no matter which method you choose to use, simply click on the pop-up thumbnail of the screenshot which appears in the bottom-right of your screen for a few seconds, before it disappears. (If you’ve disabled the pop-up thumbnail setting, it’s time to re-enable it!)
Once you’ve clicked on the thumbnail, the screenshot will be displayed in a new window. Along the top of this window you’ll see a whole range of tools and options for editing your screenshot further. You can crop it, of course, as we discuss in the tutorials above. However, you can also edit it in other ways; such as drawing on it, inserting text on it, highlighting various parts of it, and so on.
These editing tools can be particularly useful for those who, like I, are constantly annotating their screenshots for editorial or other professional purposes.
