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I recently found a terminal command to disable shadows when taking screenshots in OSX, do you know a way to disable the toolbar and just have the image or window content saved in the clipboard when using shortcuts?

Here's the example for shadows fyi:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow true

Thanks for your help.

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  • idk how to only get the window contents, short of just using a drag-box rather than the whole window 'camera' icon, but did you know you can selectively kill the drop-shadow & border by opt-clicking the window?
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Dec 15, 2021 at 8:39
  • As far as I know, the shadow is an external property of a window (the window manager is adding it). But the toolbar is an internal property of a window (it's drawn by UI frameworks inside the window). I doubt there exists a way to disable/hide it for screenshots only. On the other hand, some sniping tool might be able to get the main content view as the view hierarchy is usually predictable.
    – DarkDust
    Commented Dec 15, 2021 at 8:53
  • @Tetsujin the most streamlined way of grabbing the image is by pressing space then clicking, the drag box is ok but because of the repeated use of screengrabs I'm doing I wondered if there was a quicker way. Looks like there isn't.
    – xGLUEx
    Commented Dec 16, 2021 at 15:24
  • @DarkDust Thanks for the explanation, looks like an external tool will do it.
    – xGLUEx
    Commented Dec 16, 2021 at 15:24
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    If you're capturing the same area over & over, use Cmd/Shift/5 instead of 4. You can set up a box that survives through sessions.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Dec 16, 2021 at 15:25

2 Answers 2

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I'm not sure exactly what you mean by 'disable the toolbar', but using CommandShiftCTRL4, I can select an area (or window using Space), and that will go straight to the Clipboard.

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  • Thanks, although I already used that shortcut but it ain't the fastest option as I'm doing "a lot" of screengrabs for my daily work. I'm using the shortcut with space bar to select the area automatically rather than dragging the mouse the for each image. I thought there would be a way to have an automatic selection discarding the toolbar and just have the image in the clipboard.
    – xGLUEx
    Commented Dec 16, 2021 at 15:20
  • @xGLUEx Assuming all toolbars are the same height, you could probably automate cropping the top.
    – benwiggy
    Commented Dec 16, 2021 at 17:49
  • I'd do that if I were tapping in the saved folder, but doing so in the clipboard on the fly copying pasting to an animation software wouldn't work.
    – xGLUEx
    Commented Dec 17, 2021 at 16:41
  • @xGLUEx Perhaps if you described your entire process, someone might suggest something.
    – benwiggy
    Commented Dec 18, 2021 at 9:42
  • Sorry @benwiggy, I was probably confusing in my messages. Basically I'm using the "copy picture of selected area to the clipboard" shortcut from the Shortcuts settings, and the output (paste) has the toolbar included in the screenshot, I wondered if there was a similar command to the one disabling the shadow but for the toolbar this time.
    – xGLUEx
    Commented Dec 20, 2021 at 8:39
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The only ways to do this natively both use a drag box to define the area.

Cmd ⌘ Shift ⇧ 4 offers the regular one-shot drag to snip that we're all used to…

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Another tip - rather than disable the drop-shadow from a window snipping on a permanent basis from Terminal, If you use Cmd ⌘ Shift ⇧ 4 then Spacebar & then hold Opt ⌥ whilst clicking in a window, it will prevent the drop shadow for that one time…

enter image description here enter image description here

If you have to repeat an identical clip many times, then you may find Cmd ⌘ Shift ⇧ 5 more useful. You can define a snipping area that is retained through sessions…

enter image description here

If you wondered how I managed to take screenshots of the screenshot tools in action - you can do that with Cmd ⌘ Shift ⇧ 3 which will capture the entire screen including the snipping overlays.

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    Thanks @Tesujin, I'm already using the shortcut with spacebar which is the quickest so far. I'm making screengrabs from FBX Review which doesn't have the ratio I need so I manually resize the window everytime I make screenshots. The disabled shadows command in the terminal makes wonders as I don't have to hold Opt ⌥ on top of the existing keys.
    – xGLUEx
    Commented Dec 17, 2021 at 16:45

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