Your Mac comes with a native screenshot tool. Simply press Command-Shift-4 and it turns your cursor into a crosshair, which you can drag to select a portion of your screen to capture it. And while it’s useful for beginners, there is also no denying that lacks many useful features such as – photo editor, Email sharing, cloud upload, etc. This is where third-party screenshot apps come in. Imagine accessing your screenshots from any browser, leave aside a clipboard manager that sits a click away. These apps offer features like screen recording, smart annotations, even GIF support and almost all of them are free.

• Mac Screenshot Tool
• Best Screenshot App For Mac
• Readagogo Reviewsnap Screenshots On Mac
• Best Screen Capture App For Mac

Let’s have a look.

Read: How to Convert a Screenshot to a Jpeg on a Mac

Here is a list of the best free software to screen capture MAC.There are a number of inbuilt software to help you capture screen on MAC. You can make use of different applications, like: Grab, Preview, and Screen Capture tool to take the screenshot. You can also make use of Terminal to take screenshot using commands. There are several other software as well that let you take screenshot on MAC. The Best Free Screen Recorder Mac Users Can Try. The following are some of the best screen capture software for Mac users. Keep in mind that we aren't ranking these programs in any order – each app is great to use based on your specific needs.

Best Screenshot Apps For macOS

1. Lightshot

Lightshot is one the most popular screenshot app for Windows, which is also on macOS.

It’s light, easy to use and absolutely free. Lightshot is a heavily loaded package and yet sits quietly on your menu bar. Press the default shortcut sequence ‘shift + cmd + 9‘ for a screenshot. The shortcut can be easily changed to anything you prefer from the app preferences.

One caveat though is privacy. All the screenshot uploaded to the cloud is public. So, when you upload the screenshot to the cloud and share the link with someone, they can change a few digits in the URL to access other screenshots. For example, https://prnt.sc/lk8ap7 is a valid screenshot and if you change the last digit i.e. https://prnt.sc/lk8ap7 or https://prnt.sc/lk8ap9, they also lead to screenshots by other users.

Pros:

• Annotations
• Copy to clipboard
• Cloud and Social Media direct upload
• Google image search

Cons:

• No Email sharing
• Uploaded screenshots are public

Download Lightshot Screenshot (free)

2. Monosnap

Monosnap might be one of the most complex apps on the list given the purpose its made for. It not only lets you take a screenshot but also has the ability to record your screen while the webcam footage sits as picture-in-picture mode in the same frame. The app settings let you customize actions before & after screenshot, sharing options, hotkeys, image format and what not.

Pros:

• Smart Annotations
• Cloud and Email upload
• FTP & WebDAV sharing
• Screen recording
• Record gif
• Blur tool
• Add multiple screenshots

Cons:

• Complicated interface and settings

Download Monosnap (free)

3. Snappy

Snappy mainly focuses on creating an easily accessible clipboard of all the screenshots that you take. You can drag and drop an image on any medium by clicking on the menu bar icon of the app. Alternatively, you can take a silent snap that doesn’t show the screenshot preview but simply copies the URL on the clipboard.

Pro tip: Right click on a snap for editing options. Double click to close a snap, there are no buttons.

Pros:

• Multiple snap clipboard
• Snap Library
• Annotations
• Cloud, Imgur and Email sharing support
• Direct URL copy
• Webpage preview snap via URL
• Customizable hotkeys

Cons:

• None

Download Snappy (free)

4. Apowersoft Screenshot

Apowersoft Screenshot also packages a color picker tool and a cross-hair tool to know the size of a frame on your screen. The screenshot feature also holds a number of editing options which pop-up on your screen after you select the frame of your shot.

Pros:

• Annotations with the blur tool
• Single entry clipboard
• Cloud and Social media sharing
• Color Picker

Cons:

• No Email sharing support

Download Apowersoft Screenshot (free)

5. Super Screenshot Lite

Don’t go by the name unless you are a 24*7 Trello user. Apart from a specific integration with your Trello account, the app offers only some basic tools. In fact, when you click the screenshot button on the menu bar the whole screen gets snapped and then you have to crop your area out if you need to.

Pros:

• Trello integration
• Annotations

Cons:

• No Cloud and Email Sharing
• No Social Media uploads
• No Clipboard or URL manager

Download Super Screenshot Lite (free)

6. Nimbus Capture

Nimbus Capture comes with some special mark-up tools like number stamps for easy step-by-step guide screenshots. The app also has screen recording options which can focus on the desired section of your screen. Creating a Nimbus account lets you manage your uploaded screenshots.

Pros:

• Annotations with the blur tool
• Number stamp mark-up
• Screen Recording
• Copy URL
• Nimbus cloud upload

Cons:

• No Email and social media sharing support
• No Personal cloud sharing

Download Nimbus Capture (free)

7. Xnip

Xnip offers a shadow effect around your screenshot just like the native screenshot feature on macOS, plus it works in selection mode as well. Just press ‘option’ key on your keyboard to toggle the feature while you are finishing your selection.

Pros:

• Smart annotations & selection tools
• Number stamps with captioned comments
• Single shot clipboard

Cons:

• No Cloud and Email support
• No Social media support

Download Xnip (free, $2 yearly for pro version)

8. Jumpshare

Jumpshare has something that no app on the list offers, GIF support. You can take a screenshot, a screen recording, and a GIF as well. The app requires you to log in via Google account and also supports workspace mode wherein you can add people to a shared portal. The plus version of the app offers more space and file size support but it’ll work without it.

Pros:

• Annotations and blur tool
• Screen recording
• GIF support
• Cloud support
• Workplace mode
• Easy URL copy

Cons:

• Expensive pro version

Download Jumpshare (free, $99 for plus version)

9. Snagit

Snagit is a commercial level software that provides almost all basic tools of photo editing and annotating apart from being a screenshot tool. Setting up the app could be a hideous process when compared to other apps on the list but the extra ton of features will make up for it. The app comes for a heavy price considering there are no upgrades but does give you a 15-day trial so you can test it before you spend.

Pros:

• Smart annotations with stamps and dialogue boxes.
• Photo editing tools
• Direct file sharing with all available sources
• Customizable interface

Cons:

• Expensive

Download Snagit (15 days free trial, $57)

10. Standardized Screenshots

Standardized Screenshots is not your regular screenshot app, rather a chrome extension. It takes a snapshot of the current window, adds a macOS-ish title bar and adds a shadow.

Using it is easy, just click the extension to snap a screenshot. It generates a preview which you can click to download the actual screenshot with frame and drop shadow included. There is, however, one small caveat that it doesn’t capture screenshots of some websites due to Chrome’s restrictions. Other than that, it works flawlessly. It really saves time when you have to capture screenshots every day for TechWiser.

Install Standardized Screenshots

Best Screenshot Apps For macOS

MacBook’s native screenshot feature is better than any of those on Windows. The quality it provides is very clean and the default shadow effects bring out the snap quite well. If you already didn’t know, you can also snap the touch bar on the MacBook Pro natively, just press Cmd+Shift+6. But if screenshots are something you use every day one of the apps on the list must fit your requirement. Like, Snappy for a better clipboard manager, Monosnap for better annotations and sharing options or maybe Jumpshare for GIF support. Take your pick and let me know the experience in the comments below.

Best screen capturing app

For many new Apple users, particularly those who are migrating from Windows and are used to that Prt Scrn (Print Screen) button, the answer to the question of how to screenshot on Mac isn’t immediately obvious.

Although it only takes pressing a couple of keys to take a screenshot on Mac, the fact remains that Mac screen capture is something that hasn’t historically felt all that intuitive. For example, in addition to different key commands for screenshotting windows vs. smaller selections, recording video of your screen for a long time was only possible through QuickTime Player.

Best screenshot apps for macOS

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Although macOS Mojave has changed much of this, how to screenshot on Mac remains a heavy-hitting search query, as not everyone uses the latest version of macOS. Below you’ll find more information on taking a screenshot on Mac (and capturing video), as well as some useful tools to make your Apple screenshot life easier.

Exploring Mac Screenshot Basics

As there’s no dedicated button for print screen on Apple products, there are a few different commands associated with screen capture on Mac that vary slightly depending on your setup.

It makes sense to divide the world of how to take a screenshot on a Mac into pre and post-Mojave, since it was with this iteration of macOS that Apple really revolutionized their Mac screenshot command system.

1. Pre-Mojave Mac screenshot commands

If for whatever reason you don’t want to upgrade to Mojave then you’ll need to familiarize yourself with a couple of key Mac screenshot shortcut options:

• ⌘ + Shift + 3
• ⌘ + Shift + 4

The first of these commands is probably the easiest to get to grips with and the quickest one to take advantage of when taking a screenshot on Mac, as it captures the entire screen at once. If you’re using multiple screens, it takes a screenshot in Mac OS for every screen you’re using simultaneously.

The second of the commands represents a slightly more nuanced way to take a snapshot on Mac. Rather than capturing your entire screen, it prompts you to select the area you want to capture. If you follow it up with a press of Space, it allows you to choose the window you want to screencap instead.

Overall, while these commands do let you print screen on Mac, they feel sort of like an afterthought rather than a fully fledged feature of macOS. With so many people looking into how to screenshot on Mac, it’s not surprising that Apple recently decided to make it a little more clear how to screenshot in Mac OS Mojave.

2. Post-Mojave Mac screenshot command menu

In addition to the above commands, which still work for Mojave users, there’s now an option for them that’s very much in keeping with the existing format of how to print screen on Mac — ⌘ + Shift + [Number].

If you’re a Mojave user, you can use ⌘ + Shift + 5to bring up a screen capture menu that will allow you to:

• Capture Entire Screen
• Capture Selected Window(s)
• Capture Selected Portion
• Record Entire Screen
• Record Selected Portion

At the right-hand side of this menu there’s also Options that lets you (among other things) select where your MacBook screenshot and video output is saved.

In other words, anyone looking for an easy answer to the question “how do you screenshot on a Mac?” could do a lot worse than considering an upgrade to Mojave in order to streamline the process.

3. Third-party Mac OS screenshot apps

You might notice that, even with the inclusion of ⌘ + Shift + 5 Mac screen capturing menu, the options for taking a Mac screenshot remain pretty basic. If you’re looking for a snipping tool for Mac that can do a little more, you may need to turn to a third-party developer.

CleanShot X is unbeatable here. The app toolkit is tailored for 50+ different changes, which makes it an ultimate screen capturing tool for Mac. You can use CleanShot X to capture screen — whether it’s a window, full screen, area, or even scrolling content, as well as record video.

While capturing anything on your desktop, you can choose to hide all desktop clutter and disable desktop notifications in one click. Once you have your clean screenshot, open it from the overlay window that pops up, and start editing. You can add annotations, blur specific parts, or draw — CleanShot X will help you customize virtually anything.

A few not-so-obvious yet cool features to mention are self-timer, screenshot pinning, and internal cloud. Want to capture something with a delay? CleanShot X has a self-timer that will help you pick the right moment. If you want your screenshot to be visible on the screen, pin it to desktop. Finally, save your screen captures to the internal CleanShot Cloud and get shareable links in a flash.

Mac Screenshot Tool

If you’re looking for something with a little more emphasis on screen recording, Capto could be the ideal solution for you. In addition to recording video, or just taking a snapshot on Mac, you can also annotate and edit captures via an intuitive iMovie-esque interface.

Best Screenshot App For Mac

Capto does wonders for software walkthroughs. And given its strong visual component, it’s also perfect for those with auditory shyness who would rather add captions than a voiceover. Capto’s built-in organizer is pretty helpful for keeping track of your screenshots too.

Mac OS screenshot organization

If you take a lot of screenshots then you’re probably way too used to your Downloads folder or Desktop being clogged up with images that have filenames like “Screen Shot 2019-XX-XX at 21.36.15”.

Unfortunately, this inelegant and cluttered outcome is the default Mac screenshot shortcut. Not particularly helpful for keeping all of your images in check, especially when macOS is prone to heavily abbreviating filenames.

While it’s possible to use Finder in conjunction with Preview to view all of your caps, that still isn’t a particularly satisfying visual experience. One of the best solutions is Inboard, which functions like a private Pinterest for your desktop and allows you to tag and filter all of your screenshots for later use.

Inboard takes care of the design savvy out there too with a feature that connects your Dribbble account to import all your likes for digestion at a later date.

But even once you’ve solved the question of how to do a screenshot on a Mac, sharing those screenshots with, say, colleagues or friends isn’t necessarily the easiest thing to do.

Rather than emailing files back and forth, or having to upload everything to a public Google Drive, you might consider a solution like Dropshare. As the name suggests, it makes sharing screenshots (and other files) as simple as dropping them into the relevant area.

Dropshare connects with a range of major third-party cloud apps, but you can also lean on proprietary Dropshare Cloud if you prefer, which is helpful if you want to keep your Mac screen capture sharing separate from your other sharing activity.

The future of how to take a screenshot on a Mac

As you can see from above, learning how to screenshot on Mac isn’t particularly difficult, and screen capture on Mac is now easier than ever thanks to the addition of a dedicated MacBook screenshot and video capture menu in macOS Mojave.

It’s clear from this new feature that Apple understands the issue of how to print screen on Mac is one that has been, to put it lightly, unintuitive in the past, so you can likely expect to see further tweaks to the process in the future.

In the meantime, there are some excellent options in the snipping tool for Mac market that facilitate the process and offer a range of diverse features you won’t find among those built-in options for taking a screenshot on Mac.

Best of all, you can try all the apps mentioned here: CleanShot, Capto, Inboard, and Dropshare absolutely free with a 7-day trial of Setapp, a Mac platform with over 150 essential apps for any task at hand. Now you’re all set for your screenshotting game.

Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.

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Best Screen Capture App For Mac