Member Avatar for Phaelax

i just recently bought my first mac, a powerbook running tiger. Naturally, the laptop keyboard has no print screen key, so how can I take a screenshot into the clipboard?

  • 3 Contributors
  • 2 Replies
  • 215 Views
  • 15 Hours Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by kc0arf

Dani AI

Generated

Brief summary: the built‑in Mac shortcuts mentioned by , and save image files by default, but pressing the Control key at the same time copies the screenshot to the clipboard instead of writing a file. Apple documents this behavior and gives the same modifier approach for the Screenshot tools. (Apple Support — Take a screenshot on Mac).

Common clipboard shortcuts (hold Control plus the normal capture keys):
Control-Command-Shift-3 — copy the entire screen to the clipboard.
Control-Command-Shift-4 — drag to select an area and copy that selection.
Control-Command-Shift-4 then press Space — change to camera mode and copy a window to the clipboard.
These are the clipboard variants of the keyboard captures described in Apple documentation and in practical guides. (Apple Support, Computerworld guide).

Alternate workflows for older/newer systems: Classic Tiger users can use Grab.app (Applications → Utilities) to capture and then copy or save (Grab historically produced TIFFs). Newer macOS has the Screenshot app (Shift‑Command‑5) with an Options menu that can be set to “Save to Clipboard.” After copying to the clipboard, Preview’s File → New from Clipboard creates an editable image document for saving or annotation. (See Computerworld and Apple’s Preview guide.) (Computerworld, Preview User Guide).

Quick troubleshooting notes: if paste doesn’t work, confirm the screenshot shortcuts are enabled in System Preferences → Keyboard → Shortcuts, check the Screenshot app’s Options for “Save to Clipboard,” and remember some apps (DRM/Apple TV content) block captures. To change the default file format or save location for saved screenshots, the screencapture defaults can be adjusted via Terminal (for example with defaults write com.apple.screencapture type png; killall SystemUIServer). (Apple Support, LaptopMag on changing format).

Recommended Answers

All 2 Replies

Member Avatar for digger

i just recently bought my first mac, a powerbook running tiger. Naturally, the laptop keyboard has no print screen key, so how can I take a screenshot into the clipboard?

The following keys Cmd-Shift-4-Space will allow you to take a picture of any particular window open or the desktop, and save it to the desktop.
When you press the keys, a camera will pop up, just move it to the screen that you want the pic of.

Member Avatar for kc0arf

Hi,

On my Macs, it has always been Apple-Shift-3 to make the picture. I do wish OS X would leave the picture in .pict format instead of converting it to .pdf though.

Christian

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.