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Taking Screenshots in Mac OS X and Changing the Default Filetype from PNG to Whatever

December 8th, 2006 - Mac OS X, Tips & Tricks

Many Mac users take screenshots of their desktop for various reasons, be it showing off their setups, post to their blog or flickr, development, whatever. Most of us just use command-shift-3 and command-shift-4, but did you know there’s more options than just those two keyboard shortcuts? I’m not talking about third party apps, but options built right into Mac OS X. From specifying windows and filetypes, to saving to the desktop or the clipboard, it’s all here. Take a look:


Here are other screenshot options built right into Mac OS X, and their accompanying key commands:

Full screen (Save to Desktop) – CMD+Shift+3
Full screen (Save to Clipboard) – CMD+CTRL+Shift+3
Select region (Save to Desktop) – CMD+Shift+4
Select region (Save to Clipboard) – CMD+CTRL+Shift+4
Select item (Save to Desktop) – CMD+Shift+4 then Spacebar
Select item (Save to Clipboard) – CMD+CTRL+Shift+4 then Spacebar

One thing I dislike about the default settings of Mac OS X screenshots is the filetype PNG. PNG can be great and certainly has its place, but I generally find JPEG format to be more compatible across all platforms. So how do you change the screenshot setting from PNG to JPG? Easy:

Open up a Terminal and type:

defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleScreenShotFormat JPEG

You won’t receive any confirmation but it does work, and testing it out is simple, just take a screenshot and look for the JPG file on your desktop. You can actually change the format to things other than JPEG and PNG; PICT and TIFF are also formats to use if you’re so inclined. Simply replace JPEG with any of the other filetypes and it will work the same.

Screenshots ahoy! Thanks to 5thirtyone for the keyboard shortcut list.

Posted by: Editor

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Comments:

Comments: 11

Comment from anonymous
Time: December 8, 2006, 4:33 pm

I believe that this can also be accomplished within a very handy little program (read: feature story … ) called OnyX from a GUI, for those who don’t rock the command line action.

Comment from JohnM
Time: December 12, 2006, 11:35 am

Great tips … I knew most of the keyboard shortcuts but excellent reminders. And the terminal command is the bee’s knees!

Comment from anonymous
Time: December 14, 2006, 12:06 am

I followed your instructions on my brand new C2D-MBPro and couldn’t get the screen capture to save in another format, I even logged out/in. I have an “out of the box” Mac OS X 10.4.8. Googled for this issue and didn’t find much help on it. Is there anything else you need to qualify? I.e. do you have to run ’sudo’ for root access, or change any other settings?

Pingback from Techzi » Blog Archive » Call for Help: Change Grab’s default filetype on my Mac?
Time: April 11, 2007, 2:15 pm

[...] While I’d love to help, this is one annoyance that I’ve never been able to figure out myself. I know how to change the filetype with the Cmd-Shift-3/4 tools, but Grab is more robust and I’d love to be able to take PNGs with it. If you’ve got a good solution, help Chaz and me out in the comments. Otherwise I’m sticking with previously mentioned InstantShot, which has no shortcuts but does allow for a lot more filetype options. — Adam Pash [...]

Pingback from SoftSaurus
Time: April 11, 2007, 3:03 pm

[...] While I’d love to help, this is one annoyance that I’ve never been able to figure out myself. I know how to change the filetype with the Cmd-Shift-3/4 tools, but Grab is more robust and I’d love to be able to take PNGs with it. If you’ve got a good solution, help Chaz and me out in the comments. Otherwise I’m sticking with previously mentioned InstantShot, which has no shortcuts but does allow for a lot more filetype options. — Adam Pash [...]

Pingback from Call for Help: Change Grab’s default filetype on my Mac? at SoftSaurus
Time: April 11, 2007, 4:39 pm

[...] While I’d love to help, this is one annoyance that I’ve never been able to figure out myself. I know how to change the filetype with the Cmd-Shift-3/4 tools, but Grab is more robust and I’d love to be able to take PNGs with it. If you’ve got a good solution, help Chaz and me out in the comments. Otherwise I’m sticking with previously mentioned InstantShot, which has no shortcuts but does allow for a lot more filetype options. — Adam Pash [...]

Pingback from CALL FOR HELP: Call for Help: Change Grab’s default filetype on my Mac? at SoftSaurus
Time: April 26, 2007, 2:16 pm

[...] While I’d love to help, this is one annoyance that I’ve never been able to figure out myself. I know how to change the filetype with the Cmd-Shift-3/4 tools, but Grab is more robust and I’d love to be able to take PNGs with it. If you’ve got a good solution, help Chaz and me out in the comments. Otherwise I’m sticking with previously mentioned InstantShot, which has no shortcuts but does allow for a lot more filetype options. — Adam Pash [...]

Pingback from Spamemr
Time: October 30, 2007, 3:05 pm

[...] I came across this last night and thought it was definitely worth sharing with you all. [...]

Pingback from Woms
Time: October 31, 2007, 7:22 am

[...] I came across this last night and thought it was definitely worth sharing with you all. [...]

Comment from mike
Time: December 8, 2007, 10:44 pm

when I take a screenshot using any of the aforementioned keys, I just see a bunch of colored lines–it is not clear what it is. Has anyone experienced this with leopard?

Comment from Nadine
Time: January 22, 2008, 8:35 pm

I’m getting coloured lines as well when i screenshot. If i use the spacebar commands the screenshot is clear (but full screen pics only), but the usual Apple/Shift/3 or my fav Apple/Shift/4 to select just won’t take a clear pic. I’m on macbook pro with leopard.

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December 8th, 2006