Take a screenshot of a QuickTime movie frame?

Question

I'm trying to export a screenshot of a part of a video in QuickTime Player 10.

How can I save a freeze frame capture from a QuickTime movie?

The saved image should be only the single video frame, not including the QuickTime Player window's chrome or controls.

I can't find a screenshot menu item in the Export menu...

pkamb · Accepted Answer · 2023-03-20 21:06:55Z

51

QuickTime solution:

Pause the QuickTime video on the still frame you want as an image, then hit Edit > Copy or Cmd ⌘C.
Open the Preview app and select File > New from Clipboard or Cmd ⌘N.

pkamb

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answered Mar 23, 2020 at 18:33

Christoph

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1

Wow, unexpected but still working in macOS Ventura 13.0.1 👍
– Alessandro Muzzi
Commented Nov 17, 2022 at 18:54
1

definitely still working in latest Monterey :)
– Christoph
Commented Mar 20, 2023 at 21:10
7

Unfortunately didn't work on Ventura 13.3.1
– mdikici
Commented Apr 21, 2023 at 12:47
1

I never had issues with this pre-Ventura, but Ventura 13.4: it sometimes works... You might have to play/pause, scrub around a bit before it will let you cmd+C. I don't know what the magic combination is but just try to play around with it a bit and it should eventually let you copy the frame. Weird.
– Matt Popovich
Commented Jun 21, 2023 at 16:03
1

I had to play/pause to get it to work
– PJM Design
Commented Sep 26, 2023 at 16:19

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pkamb · Accepted Answer · 2023-03-21 18:47:13Z

9

If you can't get this to work in your version of QuickTime you'll need another tool.

VLC [Freeware] can snapshot either on the fly or when paused with Opt ⌥ Cmd ⌘ S & generally runs rings round Quicktime as a player.

Note, because of its popularity, there are scam sites primed for unsuspecting prey.
VLC's domain is videolan.org

pkamb

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answered May 18, 2018 at 17:53

Tetsujin

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1

So, to conclude, it can't be done in Quicktime?
– User
Commented May 26, 2018 at 1:50
Not as far as I’m aware.
– Tetsujin
Commented May 31, 2018 at 4:47

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