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As a developer, I take a lot of screen captures. I often take a lot to share with StackExchange members on chat. The problem is my desktop is so cluttered with screen captures that they're now overlapping!

On Mac OS X 10.5.8, how do I change the default location where screen captures (taken with Command+Shift+3 or Command+Shift+4) are placed?

EDIT: I would prefer a solution which doesn't require installing any software.

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3 Answers

up vote 9 down vote accepted

According to this page...

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location <path>

Also, to turn on/off shadow:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool true
defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool false

And to change file type:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type <format>

You'll want to

killall SystemUIServer

to make the commands take effect.

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1  
Perfect, Thank you! My desktop is happy now. – Josh Nov 18 '10 at 23:54

If you use TinkerTool you can change the location that screen capture will saved:

alt text

And also you can Add control to the two shortcuts above to place the screen shot on the clipboard instead of saving it to the desktop., and paste it in image Editor like Acorn.

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Thanks... any way to do it using defaults ? – Josh Nov 18 '10 at 23:15

Use the screen shots from Preview. You can save to any place you like, change the screenshot's name or file type. It is under Previews File menu.

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You've misunderstood my question. Obviously I can move them after they're taking, I wanted to know how to change their location when they're taken. – Josh Feb 20 '12 at 21:05

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