Ted Patrick > { Events & Community } > Adobe Systems

12 Responses to “ OSX Screen Capture: COMMAND + SHIFT + 4 & COMMAND + SHIFT + 3 ”

1. #  Anonymous November 14, 2007 8:10 AM

   Ha - actually, this has been in OS X for many, many years. But yes, very useful, just not anything new.  

2. #  Scott November 14, 2007 8:10 AM

   One more little feature is if you hit Command Shift 4 and you see the cross hair press the space bar and the cursor turns into a camera. You can then move the camera over any window on the desktop, the window you are over will highlight (even if it is not the window in focus) and you simply click to take a snapshot of it. Very handy.  

3. #  Peter Baird November 14, 2007 8:22 AM

   One more little feature: Do Command-Ctrl-Shift-4 (or 3) and it will copy the screenshot to your system clipboard to be pasted in your graphics editor or document of choice.  

4. #  Ted Patrick November 14, 2007 8:41 AM

   Well I am proud to admit I am a noob on osx and keep finding new goodness. New to me I guess but I bet it is new to several others as well. Great tips in the comments above! :)  

5. #  Keith Peters November 14, 2007 8:47 AM

   I've known about these, but can never remember the damn shortcuts. I know the 3 and 4, but usually have to poke around until something happens. Or go into prefs and look for them.  

6. #  John November 14, 2007 10:25 AM

   Ted & others -
   
   Apple has a list on their site of all the keyboard shortcuts. Many of these have been in the OS since well before OS9.
   
   http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75459
   
   Command-Shift-3 Take a picture of the screen
   Command-Shift-4 Take a picture of the selection
   Command-Shift-4, then press Control while selecting Take a picture of the screen, place in Clipboard
   Command-Shift-4, then Spacebar Take a picture of the selected window  

7. #  bash November 14, 2007 2:53 PM

   There's also this nice little widget:
   "Screenshot Plus"
   http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/business/screenshotplus.html  

8. #  Jim November 14, 2007 7:15 PM

   You have to try Skitch (http://plasq.com/skitch) - it is an amazing little app that is great for screenshots. Even lets you publish to your blog with one click. Ping me if you'd like a beta invite.  

9. #  Max November 14, 2007 10:31 PM

   Well, if we're talking about cool screen capture tools, then I must add Jing (http://www.jingproject.com/) to the list.
   It doesn't only let you make screenshots, it lets you record anything you do or see on your screen.  

10. #  Mike Breen November 15, 2007 6:39 AM

    If you're running QuickSilver you can make this even easier (from
    Lifehacker):
    
    You can also forget the Cmd+Shift+3/4 +(Space) key combination to take screenshots. Install the Screen Capture Module plug-in to make the following commands available in the first QS panel: "Capture Screen," "Capture Window," and "Capture Region." The advantage to using Quicksilver over OS X's built-in command is that QS will automatically reopen with the image file already selected, ready for a new action—like renaming or scaling.
    
    Prerequisites: In Catalog, under Quicksilver, make sure Internal Commands is selected. Also in Catalog, under Application, make sure "Enabled advanced features" is selected. Both are required for Screen Capture Actions to appear in your menu.  

11. #  Kyle Hayes November 16, 2007 6:01 AM

    Another really great tool that is currently in beta is Skitch: https://myskitch.com/. Often times, when I take a screenshot, it is actually because I want to show somebody something on my screen. Before, I would take the screenshot, open up Transmit FTP, upload it to my shared directory on my site, and have to type out the url for them to view the image. With Skitch, simply type Command + Shift + 5 for selection, 6 for full screen, drag what you want and you can instantly upload it to the MySkitch servers for viewing.
    
    Like so: http://myskitch.com/kylehayes/picture_1-20071116-060040.jpg.
    
    I have but one invite left to this service. Btw, Mac only.  

12. #  Joachim November 17, 2007 4:24 AM

    I use instantshot. Easy and free.
    And you have more possibilities then the shortcuts