Smartphones and Tablets
Taking a screenshot on your smartphone or tablet is easy. If you have an iPad, iPod, iPhone, Windows Phone, or Android device running version 4.0 or higher, just hold down the power button and then press the home button. It’s the same across all three platforms and automatically saves a snapshot of your entire screen no matter what app you run.
If you’re running an older version of Android, you may not be able to take screenshots easily. If you’re using an older version of Android, the method will be different depending on the manufacturer. There are two tricks you can try.
1. Press and hold the power button for a few seconds. A message pop-up should appear with options to “Power off the device,” “Restart the device,” and “Take a screenshot.”
If this doesn’t work, try the following:
2. Press and hold the power button, and then press the volume down button. This is common in many Sony Ericsson Xperia and Samsung Galaxy phones.
BlackBerry 10 smartphone users can take a screenshot by pressing both volume buttons simultaneously. A screenshot will be taken as soon as both buttons are pressed, regardless of the order in which you press them.
If you are using a Symbian phone and want to take a screenshot, then you can try Symbian OS Screenshot. This is a free open source project with a lot of positive feedback online and you can find the installer files here.
Desktop and laptop computers
If you use any version of Microsoft Windows, taking a screenshot of your entire screen is a simple two-step process.
1. Press the Print Screen or PrntScr button on the keyboard.
2. Open MS Paint and press ctrl+V.
For more control over your screenshots, we recommend downloading IrfanView. After installation, follow the steps below to capture a screenshot.
1. Press C and select the type of screenshot you want. You can choose a full-screen capture like the first method, or a specific monitor in a multi-monitor setup, a foreground window, or even a fixed portion of the screen (where you can enter the size and position). If you want to select a part of the page or image, then you should select “5) Custom Rectangle/Area Capture”.
2. Click and move the mouse to select the area you want to capture in the screenshot. Click again to save the screenshot or press Esc to cancel.
If you’re using a Mac, you only need to remember two screenshot commands.
1. If you want to capture the entire screen area, press cmd + shift + 3.
2. If you only want to capture part of the screen, press cmd + shift + 4. Now, click and drag your cursor to select the area you want to capture. Click again to save the screenshot to your desktop.
browser plug-in
Very few web pages will fit in your browser window. To see everything on a web page, most of the time you have to scroll down. If you come across an interesting web page and want to take a screenshot, the above methods are not enough – these methods only allow you to capture what is visible in the browser window. To capture an entire web page, you can use a Chrome extension called Awesome Screenshot, which is also available for Firefox, Opera, and Safari.
1. After installation, click the camera icon in the upper right corner of the browser.
2. Select “Capture entire page” (or press ctrl + shift + E).
3. The extension will open the saved screenshot in a new tab. Here, you can use the tools below the address bar to crop, add text, shapes, highlight parts of the page, and more.
4. When editing is complete, click the “Done” button on the right side of the tool. You will now see several options for saving screenshots on the right side of the page (save locally, Google Drive, etc.). Select what you want and you’ll get a screenshot.
Did you find this guide useful? Do you have any other favorite ways to take screenshots? Please tell us using the comment box below. To see how we did it previously, click here.
