How to screenshot on laptop: Windows and Mac

Sunday, April 14, 2019 at 9:36 AM by Adrianna Simwa 5 min read

Ever wondered, "How to screenshot on laptop?" We will answer this question fully, so you do not have to search for this information any longer.

How to screenshot on laptop: Windows and Mac — Image: pexels.com
Source: Depositphotos

We are going to present you two easy methods of how to make a screenshot on laptop on Mac and Windows. You will be surprised by how easy it can be performed.

How to screenshot on Windows?

If you have Windows installed, you can take a screenshot using the ‘Print Screen’ button. This button sometimes still has the inscription ‘Sys Rq’, but this function is not currently used, for its operation it is necessary to connect the necessary functions in the system specifically. Only the ‘Print Screen/Sys Rq’ button will take screenshots.

Follow the next steps and tips to get a screenshot of a laptop or computer screen:

Press the ‘Print Screen’ button (it may have the inscription PrntScrn, PrtScn, PrtScr or PrtSc), it is located at the top right, along with the keys ‘F1-F12’. When you press it, it takes a screenshot and fits into the memory area of the clipboard. In this case, you will not notice anything, on the screen there will be no messages about this.
If you want to save only the image of the active working window, and not the entire desktop, then press the ‘Alt + Print Screen’ combination (means pressing simultaneously; pressing Alt and without releasing, press Print Screen).
On a laptop, you may need to use the ‘Fn + Print Screen’ combination if you cannot save the screen by simply pressing ‘Print Screen’. To save the active window – ‘Fn + Alt + Print Screen’.
If the laptop is with Windows 8, then the key combination ‘Win + PrintScreen’ may work, using this combination, the image will immediately go to the image library on your computer in the ‘Screenshots’ folder.
Now that the screenshot is on the clipboard, you need to send it to the image processing program. In Windows, there is always a common paint editor. It can be found along this path. Start ⇒ All Programs ⇒ Standard ⇒ Paint.
With Paint open, click the Paste button in the menu, or the Ctrl + V key combination, or click Paste in the context menu.
When the image of the screenshot is already inserted into the Paint program, you can edit this image using the tools of the program itself, that is, cut out the desired section, write text, change the colour settings, etc. You can also use any other installed image editor, such as Photoshop or other.
After processing, you can save the screenshot. To do this, click the ‘File’ menu item and select ‘Save As’ there, in Paint you can click the icon as shown in the figure. Then select ‘save as’, the desired format of the saved image. Usually, the users choose the format png or jpeg.
If you have Windows 8, then you can find Paint to save the screenshot through a search. You lead the mouse in the upper right corner and open ‘Search’, in the search bar enter the name of the desired program. You can also right-click on an empty screen, and all applications will open.
How to make a screenshot on a laptop if you have Windows 10? The same as written above for the seven applies for 10. You can find the applications in the menu of the start button, or you can call up ‘search’ and find it by program name.
Another method of how to make a screenshot on a laptop with Windows 7.
Find the Scissors tool in Windows 7. This program is here: Start ⇒ All Programs ⇒ Standard ⇒ Scissors. Click on the ‘create’ menu, and after that, the menu will become available with the choice of the shape of the image to be saved. You choose what you want. After that you can process the image, the available tools are visible in the menu. There everything is intuitively clear, with the help of ‘Marker’ you make the selection of the desired area in the image, and with the help of “Pen” you make entries in the screenshot. After that, either save the screen or send by mail directly from the program.

How to screenshot on laptop Mac?

How to screenshot on laptop: Windows — Image: pexels.com
Source: UGC

Apple does not use the ‘Print Screen’ button on its Mac OS system, so other shortcut keys work there:

cmd (⌘) + shift + 3 - takes a snapshot of the entire screen, and places it on the desktop;
cmd (⌘) + shift + 4 - takes a snapshot of a selected area of the screen, and places it on the desktop;
cmd (⌘) + shift + 3 + space - takes a snapshot of the selected working window and places it on the desktop.
To save a screenshot to the clipboard, use the Ctrl key with the keys provided.

How to screenshot on laptop using additional programs?

If you often use screenshots, you can use special programs to create a screenshot.

You can install an add-on in the browser, and when you click on the add-on icon in the browser menu, you will be asked to select an area in the save window. Further addition will offer you options for saving the screenshot of the window. However, their action is limited by the browser.