A screenshot is a picture of your computer screen that you can take and save on your computer. Screenshots are useful if you want to show someone exactly what you can see on your screen.
This FAQ describes how to take and save a screenshot on Windows, Mac and Linux. Once you have saved the screenshot, you can attach it to an email to send it to others.
Taking a screenshot on Windows
- On your keyboard, press the Print Screen (Prt Scr) key. This will take a screenshot of your entire desktop. To take a screenshot of an active window, press Alt+Print Screen.
- To save a copy of the image in Microsoft Paint go to: Start > All Programs/Programs > Accessories > Paint.
- Press Ctrl+V to paste your screenshot into Paint.
- Go to the menu and click File > Save (please note where you save the image to, as you’ll need to find the file here if you want to attach it in an email).
- Enter a file name.
- In the Save as type: drop-down menu, select JPEG.
- Click Save.
Taking a screenshot on Mac
On your keyboard press Command+Shift+3 at the same time. This will take a screenshot of your entire screen and save it to your desktop in .png format.
Taking a screenshot on Linux
The easiest way to take a screenshot is to press the Print Screen (Prt Scr) key on your keyboard. This will take an image you can then paste into your graphics software and save as a file. Prt Scr will take a screenshot of your entire screen. To take a screenshot of an active window, press Alt+Prt Scr.
Important: On some keyboards, Prt Scr can appear as PRTSC, Print Scr, or a similar abbreviation. Some laptops and mobile devices don’t have a Print Screen key and might use key combinations, like Function+Insert, to take a screenshot. See the manual for the device to find out the correct key or key combination.
