A Complete Guide on Making Screenshots

John Smith
2 years ago

Making screenshots can be very useful when you need to capture an image of something on your computer screen for later use. Whether it’s for visual instructions, work-related purposes, or just for fun, having a screenshot of an interesting moment will make it easier to refer back to in the future. In this guide, we’ll walk you through all the steps of making a basic screenshot and show you various ways to customize and save your images so they look exactly how you want them.

Guides for specific devices:

How to Take a Screenshot on iPhone or iPad

Taking screenshots on iPhone and iPad is incredibly easy. Here are the steps you need to follow: 

  1. Press and hold down both Side or Home button (depending on model) and Volume Up button at the same time. 
  2. Release both buttons when you hear a shutter sound, indicating that the screenshot has been taken successfully. 
  3. A thumbnail of your screenshot will appear in the bottom left corner of the screen – tap it to open it up fully and edit/share if desired. 
  4. You will also find all your screenshots saved in the Photos app as well as Camera Roll album within Photos app where they can be accessed easily anytime you want.

How to Take a Screenshot on Android

Taking a screenshot on Android devices is fairly simple. Here are the steps: 

  1. Open the content that you want to capture on your Android device.
  2. Press and hold the Power button and Volume Down key at the same time. 
  3. Keep holding them until you hear a shutter sound or see a brief animation, usually accompanied by a notification in your notification bar. 
  4. Your screenshot will now be saved into your Gallery app (or Photos app) under a folder named “Screenshots”. 

How to Take a Screenshot on Apple Watch

Taking a screenshot on your Apple Watch is relatively simple and can come in handy for sharing information with friends or creating a reference for yourself down the road. Here’s how to do it: 

  1. Press and hold the Digital Crown (the side button) and the Side Button at the same time. 
  2. The screen will flash white, indicating that you have taken a screenshot. 
  3. You can view your screenshots by opening the Photos app on your iPhone, tapping Albums, then tapping Screenshots. 
  4. Once in your Photos app, you can share, delete or save your screenshots as desired. 

Capturing an image of what’s currently on your Apple Watch’s display can come in handy for a number of reasons, including as a reference if you’re troubleshooting an issue or need to show someone exactly what you’re seeing.

How to Take a Screenshot in Windows 10/11

Taking a screenshot on Windows is easy. Here are the steps to follow: 

  1. Locate and press the Print Screen (PrtSc) button on your keyboard. It may be labeled “PrtSc,” “PrntScrn,” or something similar.  
  2. Open an image editing program such as Paint or Microsoft Word, then create a new document by clicking File > New. 
  3. Paste the screenshot into the document by pressing Ctrl + V, or by right-clicking inside the document and selecting Paste from the window that appears. 
  4. Once you have pasted in your screenshot, you can crop it, add annotations and other edits. 
  5. When you are finished, you can save the screenshot to your computer by clicking File > Save As, and selecting an image format such as .PNG or .JPG from the window that appears.

How to Take a Screenshot on Mac

Taking a screenshot on a Mac OS is easy and quick. To take a full-screen or window screenshot, follow these steps: 

  1. On your keyboard, press the command + shift + 3 keys together. 
  2. A PNG image of your entire screen will appear on your desktop. This image will be labeled with the date and time it was taken. 
  3. If you want to take a picture of just one portion of the screen, press command + shift + 4 instead and then select the area that you’d like to capture with your mouse or trackpad cursor. 
  4. After selecting the desired area, release your mouse/trackpad button to create the screenshot in PNG format on your desktop with its own time-stamped filename. 
  5. If you’d like to copy the screenshot directly into your clipboard, press command + control + shift + 3 or command + control+shift+4 for a portion of the screen instead. You can then paste it into another application or onto an image editor.

How to Take a Screenshot on Linux

Taking a screenshot on Linux can be accomplished using various methods depending on your Linux distribution and desktop environment. Here are some common ways to take a screenshot:

  • Using the Print Screen key: Press the “PrtSc” or “Print Screen” key on your keyboard. This will capture the entire screen and save it to the default location for screenshots.
  • Using the Command Line: You can also take a screenshot using the command line. Open your terminal and type in the following command to take a screenshot of the entire screen: “$ gnome-screenshot”. If you want to capture a specific window, use the following command: “$ gnome-screenshot -w”. This will change the cursor to a crosshair. Click on the window you want to capture, and the screenshot will be saved to the default location for screenshots.

How to Take a Screenshot on a Chromebook

Taking a screenshot on a Chromebook is easy and can be done in three quick steps. 

  1. To take the screenshot, press and hold down the “Ctrl” key and then press the “Switch Window” key. This will capture the entire screen of your Chromebook. 
  2. The screenshot will automatically be saved to your Downloads folder. You can also access it from the notification bar at the bottom right corner of your screen. 
  3. If you want to find or edit the screenshot later, simply go to your files app and select “Downloads.” It should be there as either a PNG (Portable Network Graphics) file or a JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) file.

How to Take a Screenshot in a Web Browser

For Chrome and Firefox, you have the added benefit of taking full page screenshots—no need to manually piece together multiple images! Here’s how: 

  1. On either Chrome or Firefox, open the screen you want to capture. 
  2. Press the “Ctrl + PrtScn” keys on Windows (or Command + Shift + 4 on Mac). This will save an image of your entire screen to your clipboard. 
  3. Open up Paint (or any other type of image editing software) and paste the image you just captured. 
  4. You can then crop, edit, or annotate the screenshot as necessary before saving it to your computer. 

In conclusion

A screenshot is a universal tool that can be used to capture an interesting moment from the game you’re playing, show something to your interlocutor, or send a bug report to a support service. Now that you know a few days to do it, using your PC will be much more convenient.