How to take screenshots on macOS without having to remember a bunch of key combinations?

Question

There was a program called Grab.app on earlier versions of macOS that you ran to make screenshots.

Now there are only combinations of keys that take the screenshot. I can't remember these and have to spend some time googling for the combination, which leads me to takes me to lists of they keys including very difficult ones to access

Is there way to get similar behaviour to the way the Grab.app did this that is as a standard macOS application with its functions provided by menu. (or any other way of getting these functions on a menu e.g. services or menu-bar)

Answer 1

Screenshot.app

The application Screenshot.app replaces Grab.app in recent macOS versions. You can find Screenshot in the Applications > Utilities folder.

Once started, the Screenshot app presents an overlay with a selection area and a toolbar with buttons to:

• Capture the screen, the current window, or the selected area.
• Record the screen or the selected area as a movie.

There are also options like delaying the capture by 5 or 10 seconds, and where to save the file.

For more info, see macOS User Guide > Take screenshots or screen recordings on Mac.

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Remark: As it was mentioned in a now deleted comment, the macOS Spotlight search finds Screenshot.app even if the old application “Grab“ is used:

For those who are interested how this works: The Info.plist file of Screenshot.app has an MDItemKeywords":"Grab" entry.

Answer 2

Preview app

Additionally to the answers already provided, the built-in Preview.app lets you make screenshots under the "File > Take Screenshot" sub-menu.

Answer 3

Note that it's also possible to add a shortcut to Screenshot.app directly to the Touch Bar, if you have one.

You can add it from the Keyboard settings.

Answer 4

I use Shottr which can be triggered by keyboard shortcuts and menulet entries. In addition to plain screenshot functionality, it also allows for some basic markup functionality (arrows, boxes, text).

Answer 5

This is an alternative answer, however a quite expensive one: some keyboards made for Mac OS have a dedicated screenshot key. For instance, in this keyboard I'm using (Keychron K3), notice the key to the left of del:

One nice thing about that dedicated key is that it can be used with Control as well: pressing it alone is the equivalent of Shift + Command + 4, which takes the screenshot. However, I normally prefer Shift + Control + Command + 4, which copies the screenshot to the clipboard so I can use it on another application quickly, and that dedicated key also does this copy feature.

Answer 6

My solution might seem clumsy to some people, but it works for me!

I have a hot corner - the lower left one, specifically - set to open Launchpad. Then, in Launchpad, the application in the bottom left corner of the first page is Screenshot.

Now, I know Cmd+Shift+5 is the keyboard combination to bring up the dialogue box for Screenshot.app, but if I'm using the mouse for a task, it's much quicker to keep my hands on the mouse/trackpad and use my hot corner solution.

I've also suggested my solution to a few people who have trouble remembering key combinations. Whilst none have come back to thank me for the solution, they haven't come back to ask me how to take a screenshot, either. Maybe it works for them, too.