Notes on saving screenshots in OS X, so I don’t have to look it up again.
This started as a search to find how I can set the OS screenshot save location. OS X Daily provided that information and much more. I suggest you check it out for your OS X tips.
The Shortcuts I Use
My fingers pretty much have these memorized, but it would be nice if my brain knew them too.
| Keys | Action |
|---|---|
⌘ + ⇧ + 3 |
Save full screen to file |
⌘ + ⇧ + 4 + select area |
Save selected area to file |
⌘ + ⇧ + 4 + spacebar + click |
Save selected window to file |
There are several more that I do not use. I’m already trying to learn Emacs shortcuts. I don’t feel like cluttering my brain with additional OS X shortcuts I won’t use.
Setting The Save Location
OS X saves these files to ~/Desktop by default, which results in much visual clutter on my screen desktop. Eventually I tired of the periodic cleanups and learned how to save in a different folder.
$ mkdir ~/Pictures/Screenshots
$ defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Pictures/Screenshots/OS X Daily suggested changing the setting and running killall SystemUIServer. Somewhere in the years since that post was published, restarting SystemUIServer became unnecessary.