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When I create a screenshot of a part of my screen by pressing Shift-Command-4 and then selecting the area using the trackpad, often I release the trackpad in the wrong time, which means the screenshot doesn't look good.

It's like you released the trackpad in the wrong time, said "oops", quickly pressed the Escape key, and by this, prevented that screenshot to appear.

To "fix" this issue in my life, I would prefer to have a keyboard shortcut, which, if I press it quickly enough — before the file would appear on a Desktop, will cancel its creation.

Is there a third-party tool or a built-in fix for this?

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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You can press Escape while you're still drawing the bounding box -- though this requires two hands.

For the last few years, by default, the screenshot goes into a thumbnail window at the bottom right of the screen, for 5 seconds, before it is saved.

You can click on it, which brings up a window that has a toolbar, including a Trash icon.

Screenshot floating window

It's pretty easy to just click and click to not have the image saved to your Screenshots destination.

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    Thanks a lot, Ben. Actually, inspired by your solution, I've found even a simpler one: just tap that floating thubmbnail using two fingers on MacBook's trackpad (or use Control-click, or use Right-click (if you use a mouse)), a context menu opens, and there select Delete.
    – johnm
    Commented Nov 13 at 0:42
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The simplest approach, I think, is to use Shift-Command-5, not Shift-Command-4. Shift-Command-5 brings up a small screenshot panel that lets you choose among the different types of screenshots. When you choose the 'selection' mode and select an area on the screen, a 'capture' button will appear on the panel that allows you to adjust the selected area before committing to the screenshot, or to cancel the screenshot if you want to start over.

Shift-Command-4 is useful if you want quick-and-dirty capture, but Shift-Command-5 the way to go for precision.

I'll add that the approach I use is somewhat different. I used the 'options' button on the screenshot panel to save my screenshots into a 'temporary' folder on my desktop, and then I created a launchd agent that deletes items over a month old in that folder. That way I can take a bunch of different screenshots, choose and use the one(s) I like best, and forget about the rest.

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    If you add control- into the existing screenshot key combos, you'll copy to the clipboard instead of to a file. In many cases this is faster, though obviously ymmv.
    – da4
    Commented Nov 12 at 20:13
  • @da4: I did not know that. Thanks!
    – Ted Wrigley
    Commented Nov 12 at 20:14
  • @da4: Apparently you can use the control key while clicking the 'capture' button in ⎇⌘5 to get the same effect
    – Ted Wrigley
    Commented Nov 12 at 20:17

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