Before we start our article about snipping tools that you can use on your Mac devices, lets first break up what snipping is or what are snipping tools. Most of you must have heard about snipping on your computer desktop, and those who might not be aware of this term; “in simple words snipping is like taking a screenshot on your computer screen of a particular window or page or video.”

“Snipping tool is basically a utility or application which you can use in Microsoft devices such as on windows vista. Once you have taken a screenshot or snip, you can later save them in your device or can copy them on the clipboard and then paste them wherever you need to.

However, people often wonder, “why do they have to take a snip or screenshot on their PCs’?” they could easily take a picture of what is on screen in their mobile phones.

So, let me tell you a few basic reasons why a person or a user would like to take a snip on their Mac devices or any other computer device:

  • You might want to take a snip of steps of a processor cycle etc. if you are making a tutorial video for your students or blogs.
  • Snipping helps you in keeping records of things such as important documents or a step in a video or etc. in case there is no option of downloading it.
  • Most of the web developers and tech blog writers like to take a snip to share them on their blog or article.

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Are All Snipping Tools the Same?

Another important thing to note is that not all snipping tools work in the same way. Each and every snipping tool has its own individual features, but most often each tool comes with their packed features.

Such as one tool may allow you to take a screenshot or snip without zooming in to the page or window whereas another tool might come with zooming in the feature when taking a screenshot, some might even allow you to edit screenshot, add graphics or table, pictures, etc.

Therefore, before selecting a snipping tool, do read all about their features and make sure it provides you everything you are looking for in a snipping tool.

Take a Screenshot Using Mac’s Built-In Tool

First things first, before trying out any other snipping tool on your Mac device to take a screenshot; might I suggest you to use Grab snipping tool.

Grab is the official snipping tool of Mac devices and is also packed with features such as screen capture mode, supports keyboard shortcuts and it comes with all recent versions of Mac plus it allows you to change the default format of your file into JPG, GIF, TIFF, PDF, PNG, etc. Once you have Grabbed on your Mac device all configured and all set to run you can use following short cuts to take screenshots:

Step 1 – Shift + Command + A = it allows you to trigger the selection option or you can select Grab > Capture > Selection.

Step 2 – Shift + Command + W or Grab > Capture > Selection = allows you to take a screenshot of the window that you select.

Step 3 – Command + Z or Grab > Capture > Screen = this allows you to take a screenshot of the whole screen.

Step 4 – Shift + Command + Z or Grab > Capture > Timed Screen = it allows you to take a timed screenshot usually a 10 seconds timer, you can select a part of your screen and take a screenshot.

Other than Grab if you want a little simple way to take a screenshot on your Mac device you can use following commands:

Step 1 – Command + Shift + 3 = captures screenshot of entire screen.

Step 2 – Command + Shift + 4 + Space = it allows you to move over to an open window via its small camera icon option and then take a screenshot of it.

Step 3 – Command + Shift + 4 = allows you to take a screenshot of a portion of the screen.

I hope you like this guide. So, this is how you take a screenshot on Mac.