The standard method to save the contents of the screen (screenshot) is by using the application named Grab, which is located in the Applications-> Utilities.

The faster and more convenient way, especially for developers, is to use some keyboard shortucts. And this is the topic we are discussing today.

I write this article hoping not to forget me.

shift+cmd+3
Capture the contents of the entire screen by saving it in a .png image on your desktop.

shift+cmd+4:
Capture the contents of a partial screen.
Once you have pressed the key combination, appears a little cross with the coordinates. Hold down the left mouse button and drag across the screen to define the area to be saved. When you release the mouse button, the screenshot is saved to your desktop.

shift+ctrl+cmd+4
Partial saving into the clipboard.

shift+ctrl+cmd+3
Capture the entire screen into the clipboard available for the others applications.

shift+cmd+4+spacebar:
Make the screenshot of a windows application of your choice. Once you press the keys, the cursor turns into a camera. This should be placed on the window that you want to save. Releasing the mouse, the screenshot of the window will be saved on the desktop.

shift+ctrl+cmd+4+spacebar:
Make the screenshot of a windows application of your choice into the clipboard. Once you press the keys, the cursor turns into a camera. This should be placed on the window that you want to save. Releasing the mouse, the screenshot of the window will be saved into the clipboard.

As said above, the screenshots are saved in png format and on the desktop.

 

Save the screenshot in different formats from .png

Do you want to save in other formats? For example in PDF? OK. Open the Terminal and type:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type pdf

and then the following command to make the changes take effect:

killall SystemUIServer

Or do you want to save in .JPG format? Type these commands:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg

killall SystemUIServer

In Tiff:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type tif

killall SystemUIServer

OK. Now do you want to return to save them in PNG?

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type png

killall SystemUIServer

Save the screenshot in different folders from the Desktop

Good. Now that we have filled the desktop with screenshots, we’d like them to be automatically saved in a folder?

Type from Teminal:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Desktop/Screenshots/

and the usual:

killall SystemUIServer

to save them in the Screenshot folder created in the Desktop.