What are the prerequisites for take and print a screenshot on a mac?

You need administrative access to your Apple environment, basic familiarity with the relevant tools, and a properly configured environment. See the prerequisites section for specific requirements.

How long does it take to take and print a screenshot on a mac?

The procedure typically takes 5-15 minutes for experienced administrators. Allow extra time if you need to install prerequisites or troubleshoot issues along the way.

What is the most important step in this process?

The key step involves changing the default save location. Make sure to follow the instructions carefully and verify the results before proceeding to the next step.

Anleitung: Take and Print a Screenshot on a Mac

Unlike Windows, which has a dedicated Print Screen key that sends the screen directly to the clipboard or printer, macOS uses a different workflow: you first capture the screenshot to a file or the clipboard, then open and print it. This two-step approach is actually more flexible, giving you the opportunity to crop, annotate, and choose exactly what to print.

Capturing Screenshots on a Mac

macOS provides built-in keyboard shortcuts for capturing screenshots. No additional software is required.

Full Screen Capture

Cmd + Shift + 3

This captures the entire screen (or all screens if you have multiple monitors) and saves a PNG file to your Desktop. The file is named with the date and time, such as Screenshot 2026-02-11 at 10.30.00 AM.png.

Selected Area Capture

Cmd + Shift + 4

After pressing the shortcut:

Your cursor changes to a crosshair.
Click and drag to select the rectangular area you want to capture.
Release the mouse button to take the screenshot.
The selected area is saved as a PNG file on your Desktop.

Helpful modifiers while selecting:

Hold Space — moves the entire selection rectangle without resizing it.
Hold Shift — locks the selection to resize only horizontally or vertically.
Hold Option — resizes the selection from the center outward.
Press Escape — cancels the capture.

Single Window Capture

Cmd + Shift + 4, then press Space

Press Cmd + Shift + 4.
Press the Space bar. The crosshair changes to a camera icon.
Hover over the window you want to capture (it highlights in blue).
Click the window to capture it.

The screenshot includes the window’s drop shadow by default. To capture without the shadow, hold Option while clicking.

Screenshot to Clipboard (Not to File)

Add Control to any of the above shortcuts to copy the screenshot to the clipboard instead of saving it as a file:

Cmd + Control + Shift + 3 — full screen to clipboard.
Cmd + Control + Shift + 4 — selected area to clipboard.
Cmd + Control + Shift + 4, then Space — window to clipboard.

You can then paste the screenshot directly into a document or image editor with Cmd + V.

Screenshot.app (macOS Mojave and Later)

Cmd + Shift + 5

This opens the Screenshot toolbar at the bottom of the screen, providing a visual interface with these options:

Capture Entire Screen
Capture Selected Window
Capture Selected Portion
Record Entire Screen (video)
Record Selected Portion (video)

Click Options in the toolbar to configure:

Save to: Desktop, Documents, Clipboard, Mail, Messages, Preview, or a custom location.
Timer: None, 5 seconds, or 10 seconds.
Show Floating Thumbnail: When enabled, a small preview appears in the corner after capture, which you can click to annotate immediately.

Changing the Default Save Location

By default, screenshots save to the Desktop. To change this:

Using Screenshot.app (macOS Mojave+)

Press Cmd + Shift + 5 to open Screenshot.
Click Options.
Under Save to, choose a different location (or click Other Location to browse).

Using Terminal

Open Terminal and run:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Pictures/Screenshots
killall SystemUIServer

Replace ~/Pictures/Screenshots with your desired folder path. The killall SystemUIServer command restarts the screenshot service to apply the change.

Printing a Screenshot

Method 1: Open in Preview and Print

Locate the screenshot file on your Desktop (or wherever it was saved).
Double-click the file to open it in Preview (the default image viewer on macOS).
Go to File > Print or press Cmd + P.
In the Print dialog:
- Select your printer from the Printer dropdown.
- Choose the Paper Size (Letter, A4, etc.).
- Adjust Scaling if the screenshot is larger or smaller than the paper:
  - Scale to Fit shrinks or enlarges the image to fit the page.
  - Print Entire Image shows the full screenshot without cropping.
- Set Orientation to Landscape if the screenshot is wider than it is tall.
Click Print.

Method 2: Quick Look and Print

Select the screenshot file on the Desktop.
Press Space to open Quick Look.
In the Quick Look window, click the Share button (the box with an upward arrow) if available, or close Quick Look and use the File menu.
For a more direct approach, right-click the file, hover over Quick Actions, and look for a Print option (availability varies by macOS version).

Method 3: Print from Clipboard

If you captured the screenshot to the clipboard:

Open Preview.
Go to File > New from Clipboard (Cmd + N).
Preview creates a new image from the clipboard contents.
Go to File > Print (Cmd + P).
Configure print settings and click Print.

Method 4: Paste into a Document and Print

Open a word processor (Pages, Word) or any application that supports images.
Paste the clipboard screenshot with Cmd + V.
Print the document with Cmd + P.

This method is useful when you want to add text or context around the screenshot before printing.

Annotating Screenshots Before Printing

Preview includes a powerful Markup toolbar for annotating images:

Open the screenshot in Preview.
Click the Markup toolbar button (a pencil-tip icon) or go to View > Show Markup Toolbar.
Available annotation tools:
- Shapes — rectangles, ovals, lines, arrows, speech bubbles.
- Text — add text labels anywhere on the image.
- Draw — freehand drawing with pencil or pen tools.
- Highlight — emphasize areas with colored highlights.
- Crop — drag the edge handles to crop the image.
- Redact (macOS Monterey+) — permanently black out sensitive information.
After annotating, save the file (Cmd + S) or print directly.

Printing Tips

Landscape orientation usually works best for screenshots since screens are wider than they are tall.
Scale to fit prevents the screenshot from being cropped. For high-resolution Retina screenshots, the image may be very large; scaling down ensures it fits on a single page.
Print to PDF by clicking the PDF button in the bottom-left of the Print dialog and selecting Save as PDF. This is useful for sharing or archiving.
Adjust quality in the Print dialog under printer-specific options if you need draft (faster, less ink) or high-quality output.

Quick Reference

Action	Shortcut
Full screen to file	Cmd + Shift + 3
Selected area to file	Cmd + Shift + 4
Window to file	Cmd + Shift + 4, then Space
Full screen to clipboard	Cmd + Control + Shift + 3
Selected area to clipboard	Cmd + Control + Shift + 4
Screenshot toolbar	Cmd + Shift + 5
Print (from any app)	Cmd + P
New image from clipboard	Cmd + N (in Preview)

Zusammenfassung

To print a screenshot on a Mac, first capture it using Cmd+Shift+3 (full screen), Cmd+Shift+4 (selected area), or Cmd+Shift+5 (screenshot toolbar). The screenshot saves to your Desktop as a PNG file by default. Open it in Preview, optionally annotate it with the Markup toolbar, then press Cmd+P to print. For quicker workflows, capture directly to the clipboard with the added Control key and paste into Preview or a document before printing.