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A screenshot works as an ideal and unique way to show other people what is running on your computer screen. A screen shot could be used to show a funny conversation or an error message appearing on your screen. It could also be used to provide another user with instructions on how to perform a task. Mac OS X provides its users with a variety of simple and pro ways to capture the image. Check them out in the following.
- 1. Apowersoft Mac Screenshot (Best)
- 2. Print screen keys (Default)
- 3. Apple’s bundled software (Simple)
The FireShot software allows its users to screen capture a selected section of the page, an extended screenshot of a full web page, or across the visible area of the browser window. It’s compatible with all major browsers like Firefox, Chrome, and the Internet Explorer. It is a free screen capturing tool that you can use on Mac computers with Mac OS X 10.8 and above to get quick and fast screenshots. The free screen capture software for Mac allows you a maximum video recording of up to 5 minutes. It is an app that you can use on your menu bar for quick screen capture access.
I. Best way – Apowersoft Mac Screenshot
No matter you’re entry-level users or pro users, you can always find what you need in this light-weight but powerful application. This application has two useful screenshot modes, letting you capture full screen, web pages, application windows, webcam and more.
Moreover, it also comes with abundant editing options and cloud storage. Maybe you will find one or two functions as described in other applications, but this one has perfectly integrated all of them in one pack and presents the most comprehensive solution for Mac users. It’s also equipped with a simple interface that anyone can handle the things with just a few clicks. It’s an optimal choice for you to screen capture in OS X devices. You can get a free trial now and enjoy the fantastic screenshot experience of this utility.
If you prefer to use the default method to capture a screenshot on Mac, please keep reading the second solution.
II. Default way – Using keyboard on Mac
The content here falls into 3 parts below.
1. Screenshot a region on screen
- Command+Shift+4. Press this key combination, the cursor will turn into a cross-hair reticle.
- Capture a Screenshot. Click, hold and drag the cursor in order to capture a region. Release the mouse drag. If the sound of your computer is turned on, you will hear a camera shutter sound which means that the screenshot is taken successfully.
- Find your screenshot. The screenshot will be automatically saved as a PNG image file on the desktop.
2. Taking a shot of the entire screen
- Ensure your screen is displaying what you need in your screenshot image. You need to confirm that all the required things are clearly visible on the screen.
- Press Command+Shift+3. After pressing this key combo, the computer will make a camera shutter noise, indicating that your image has been captured.
- Find your screenshot. The screenshot is also saved to the desktop.
3. Take a screenshot of the application window
- Command+Shift+4 and hit the Spacebar. Once you’ve pressed “Command + Shift + 4”, the cursor will turn into a recticle. Then hit the “Sapcebar”, and that rectilce will turn into a small camera icon.
- Move the camera icon over the window to be captured. When the camera is moving over a window, you will see a blue rectangular which .
- Click your mouse. Locate a task window, and click your mouse to capture it. After that, check out the screenshot on the desktop.
This method is more likely to be suitable for people who want to have a quick workaround without installing other software on their computer.
III. The Simple way – Bundled Apple software for taking screenshots
Screenshots can also be captured in Mac OS X by using a bundled Apple utility called Grab. The software can be accessed by checking in the Utilities folder accessible through the Applications tab on the start menu. Grab makes it possible for users to take screenshots especially when they need to capture a menu or cursor in the screenshot. It is also useful when the screenshot needs to be in TIFF format. In order to include a cursor, you will be required to choose the cursor icon from the Grab Preferences. In order to capture a screenshot using grab, you will be required to:
- Run Grab. Go to “Finder > Applications” and find Grab.
- Choose a capture mode and take a screenshot. Click “Capture” on the top menu and select from “Selection”, “Window”, “Screen” and “Timed Screen”.
- The “Selection” mode allows you to capture specific regions of the screen. After you click that, a tip box will show up, telling you how to screenshot. The cursor is not included in this selection.
- The “Window” Mode, once selected, will pop-up a dialogue telling you how to capture a window. The instructions disappear once the user clicks on the “Choose Window” button. The clicked window is then captured.
- In the “Screen” Mode, you will also see a tip box. Do as it tells you.
- In the “Timed Screen”, you will be given 10 seconds to present anything you like to capture on the screen. After 10 seconds, a screenshot of the whole screen will be captured. This mode is very useful for taking screenshot of pop-up menus and tooltips.
- Save the screenshot. When a screenshot is captured, a preview of it will be shown in a window. To save the screenshot, just click “File > Save” on the top menu of the screen and choose the folder in which you want to keep it.
This tool lets you take screenshots more efficiently than the manual way using keyboard, but it still has an obvious drawback – it does not allow users to select the area of the screenshot, and therefore, you need to crop unwanted parts each time. Due to this shortage, people may still prefer a more flexible and customizable program like Apowersoft Mac Screenshot. It is applicable to any OS X devices. You can use it to screen capture for MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and others. Click the button below to download it.
IV. Specific guides of taking screenshots for Mac
The above content covers all general needs regarding screenshots on Mac in multiple ways. Here we have also included some accurate guides for the detailed occasions, check them below:
Taking a screenshot on a Macbook Pro – learn how to take pictures of screen on your Mac laptop, helping you communicate with others in office, library, meeting room, house and on other occasions via images intuitively.
How to do Screen Grab on Mac – a comprehensive article written in instructional tone, guiding users to make screen grab on Mac in multiple ways for free.
Make Screenshot on Macbook Air – a specific guide for users to work through the process of taking screenshot on Macbook Air.
iPod Screen Capture – you may be familiar with creating screenshot on Mac computers for sharing what you have seen on screen, but do you know how to capture the screen on iPod/iPad? Find the answers in this article.
Mac OS X Screen Capture – general solutions for users who work on Mac OS X to capture various things on screen for design works, system issue reporting, document materials, etc.
![Free Screenshot Software For Mac Free Screenshot Software For Mac](/uploads/1/1/1/8/111851885/493790187.png)
Screenshot for QuickTime – see a moving scene on QuickTime and want to record it down? Here’re the best tips for you to make snapshots for the videos on QuickTime.
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Screen recording has become one of the best methods to create a footage of your desktop activity with ease. There might be several occasions when you want to capture your gameplay, record streaming videos, or either make some video tutorials or software reviews on your Mac. In case these circumstances arise, a good screen recorder is necessary. Actually, there are lots of screen recording software that are available online. However, most of these tools only offer paid version or have a poor recording quality. In this article, we will introduce the best free screen recorder for Mac.
Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder
Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder is a free but in the meantime very comprehensive program that you can use to create high-quality videos. With the help of this tool, you will have an easy access to the experience of using a brilliant screen activity recorder that doesn’t leave any watermark at all on your video after a successful registration. Moreover, this program can capture your desktop activity together with the audio coming from your system and microphone. Overall, there is surely no doubt that Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder is one of the best free screen recorders for Mac available on the market. To utilize this program, you can follow the step-by-step guide below.
- Firstly, you need to visit the official website of Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder.
- On the main page of the site you can click the “Start Recording” button to launch the screen recorder.
- Once you launched it, you can set to record screen or webcam, custom recording area, and change audio input, etc. You can also go to settings and make some configurations.
- Once done settings, hit the red recording button to start recording. During the recording process, you can add a webcam to your screen, and you can even add some annotations to it.
- After you have finalized the recording, click the stop button to stop it. At this point, a preview window will pop up. On the preview window, you can save the video by clicking the “Save video” button, or even share the video with your friends by clicking the share button.
Monosnap
Monosnap is another mentionable flexible program specifically developed for Mac OS. You can use this program not only to record your screen but also to take quick screenshots in case you need to use it as a powerful screen recording software. In addition, this tool can be used as a storage software. This program can also offer the option of capturing your webcam, microphone or system sound as you can just set it before you start recording according to your need. Aside from that, the mentioned program can record in 60 fps. This means that you can record smoothly even you are playing high framerate games. If you want to use this free video recording software for Mac, you may follow the steps below.
- Download and install Monosnap.
- After successfully finalizing the installation, click the Monosnap’s drop down menu, then choose “Record Video” to start recording.
- In case you want to stop this program from recording, just click its drop down menu again then click “Finish recording” to end it. Afterwards, your recording will be saved automatically, and you can check it right away at the location of your choice of saving.
OBS Studio
The next free screen recording tool for Mac that you can rely on according to our list is OBS Studio. This is a free and open source screen recorder that is available on both Windows, Mac, and Linux. The suggested program will allow you to capture real-time activities and create excellent live streaming videos. Moreover, this program has the ability to incorporate footage from your previous recordings or add exiting videos. On the other side, this program is to some degree complicated, in the sense that you can take certain time familiarizing its interface and configurations. Here are the steps on how to use this program.
- First of all you need to have OBS Studio installed in your computer.
- Once you have it, launch OBS, then click “Scene” > “Source” > “Add Icon”, and then click “Windows Capture”.
- After the previous step is done, a pop up window will show and allow you to rename your video you are going to record. Once done, click the “OK” button to proceed.
- Next, select the window you want to record.
- Lastly, you only need to hit the “Start Recording” button to initiate recording. Once done recording, just click the top button to end it.
Jing
Another free screen recording software for Mac is Jing by Techsmith that has been very popular on the market for a long time. This program is very simple and easy to use that are the pillars of its popularity. It comes with a movable sun icon that can be placed anywhere on your display, which enables you to easily utilize its function. Aside from screen recording, you can use this tool to take screenshots and edit it right after capturing. However, this program can only record up to 5 minutes. If you are still interested to use this program despite its time limitation, you can follow these steps.
- First and foremost, download and install this program on your pc from the official Techsmith website.
- Hit the “Sun” icon and select “Capture”.
- Once you are inside the options panel, simply adjust the frame according to your preference then select “Capture video”.
- To stop the recording, simply hit the “Stop” button, and then the recorded file will automatically pop up for preview.
Quicktime Player
Free Screenshot Software For Mac Windows 7
The last recording program for Mac is the Quicktime Player. This is an extensible multimedia framework that can be used not only to record videos but also to play, edit and share videos on Mac. This tool can be characterized with that it has a very intuitive interface which makes it very easy to use even for beginners. This program can create footage of your Mac screen with a web camera or iPhone screen. You can follow the instructions below to capture your screen using this best free screen recorder for Mac.
- To begin with, you have to launch Quicktime Player at the first hand.
- Once you see the interface, click “File” and select “New Screen Recording”, then a screen recording window will pop up. On this window, you can configure your recording settings. After configuring, hit the red round recording button to start recording your screen.
- Once done with the complete recording process, click the “Stop” button in the menu bar, then your recorded file will automatically pop up.
Conclusion
Free Screenshot Software For Macbook
As you can see, the aforementioned programs are the currently best free Mac screen recording software you can find on the market. You can decide which program you will use for your recording. I highly recommend Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder. Compared to the other programs above, this program can be used to quickly record your screen, audio, as well as a webcam as it is a web-based application. Aside from that, it has an easy interface and even beginners can use it.