As a new MacBook user or someone who has been using one for quite some time, it is important to know how to take screenshots. While there has been an in-built tool for capturing screenshots on Windows for a long time, up until the release of Mojave, macOS did not have an in-built tool. After the release, however, and with the latest macOS Big Sur update, there are many ways to take screenshots on a MacBook.

Taking a screenshot comes extremely handy several times. You may want to share an image with your friends or family, capture an error message to share with tech support, or snap a screenshot of your bills and tickets for record-keeping. Whatever the use case may be, you will appreciate the ability to quickly and conveniently capture screenshots that can be shared or preserved.

If you’ve jumped on the latest bandwagon of the powerful Apple M1 chips with the purchase of a MacBook Pro M1 and are wondering how to take screenshots on MacBook Pro, do not worry. Because we’ve got you covered with the various ways on how you can capture screenshots on your latest M1 MacBook Pro.

You can capture screenshots on your MacBook with the use of a mouse or trackpad. There are also key combinations that can easily capture the entire screen, a window, or a portion of the screen. Usually, your screenshots will be saved as a .png file that is labeled “Screen Shot’ and subsequently followed by the date and time of the capture of the screenshot. By default, your screenshots are saved on the desktop. But you can choose the desired folder for saving your captures.

Here are the various ways of how to take screenshots on MacBook Pro M1.

How to Take Screenshots on MacBook Pro M1

Let us look at the various ways by which you can capture an entire screen or a part of the screen on your MacBook Pro for sharing or saving for future reference. These can be achieved using the mouse or trackpad, and keyboard shortcuts. So, you can pick whichever way is more convenient for you to capture screenshots on your Mac computer.

1. Using Screenshot Tool

Using Screenshot Tool in macOS Big Sur

The Screenshot tool is the one-stop destination to capture the entire screen, a selected window, or part of the screen. You can access the screenshot tool by using the mouse or trackpad, or by using keyboard shortcuts.

You can navigate to Launchpad > Other > Screenshot where you will find options for capturing the entire screen, a portion of it, or a selected window. Alternatively, if you want to use keyboard shortcuts to access the screenshot tool, use the combination of Shift + Command + 5 to launch the screenshot tool.

Other than screen capture, you can also record video of the entire screen or a custom selection of the screen. This option can be useful at times when you want to share some technical issues with a support representative. The options drop-down menu enables you to choose the location for saving your screenshots, setting up a timer for capturing screenshots, and many other settings.

2. Take a Screenshot of the Entire Screen

Take a Screenshot of the Entire Screen

You can easily take a screenshot of the entire screen of your MacBook Pro M1 by using the keyboard shortcut of Shift + Command + 3. This will take a screenshot of the entire screen and save it to your desktop as a .png file unless you have explicitly chosen to save your screenshots in another folder through the options drop-down menu of the screenshot tool.

You may see a thumbnail of the screenshot in the lower-right corner of the screen, you can click on it to edit it before saving it. Otherwise, you can wait for the screenshot to save to your desired location folder.

3. Take a Screenshot of a Part of the Screen

Take a Screenshot of a Part of the Screen

You can take a screenshot of a portion of the screen by following the steps outlined below.

  • Press the Command + Shift + 4 keyboard combination.
  • Drag the crosshair icon that appears on the top-left corner of the screen over the selection area and release the mouse or trackpad button to capture the screenshot
  • You can move the selection area by pressing and holding the Space bar as you drag it. If you’re not satisfied with the screenshot, press the Esc (Escape) key to cancel.
  • If you see the thumbnail of the screen capture in the bottom-right corner of the screen, you can click on it to edit it or wait for it to save a .png file to the desktop or your chosen folder.

You can take a screenshot of images and documents to share with others or keep them to yourself for future reference and record-keeping purposes.

4. Capture a Window

Capture a Window on MacBook Pro M1


We will show you how to take screenshots on MacBook Pro M1 of a window or menu by following the steps mentioned below.

  • Open the window or menu that you want to capture.
  • Press and hold Command + Shift + 4 + Space bar. You will notice that the mouse pointer changes to a camera icon.
  • Click on the window or menu to capture a screenshot of it. If you want to exclude the shadow of the window or menu from the screenshot, you have to press the Option key when you click.
  • If you see the thumbnail of the screen capture in the bottom-right corner of the screen, you can click on it to edit it or wait for it to save a .png file to the desktop or your chosen folder.

Screenshot of a Window

By default, screenshots are saved to the desktop and labeled as “Screen Shot“ followed by the date and time of the capture of the screenshot.

5. Take a Screenshot of the Touch Bar

The Touch Bar on the MacBook Pro M1 is a small strip of OLED screen that sits on top of the keyboard and adds more convenience to the user. Depending on the app that is active on the screen, the Touch Bar reflects the best controls for the program. Another great thing about the Touch Bar is the presence of the Touch ID sensor which provides a simple way to authenticate yourself and to pay for products and services through Apple Pay.

You may at times want to take a screenshot of the various options on the Touch Bar of your MacBook Pro M1. If you’re thinking about how to take screenshots on MacBook Pro M1 of the TouchBar, this can be done with the use of the Shift + Command + 6 keyboard shortcut. The screenshot will be automatically saved to your desktop. In case you have the desktop synced with iCloud Drive, the screenshot can be accessed on other devices with the iCloud Drive app, including your iPhone and iPad.

6. Take a Full-Page Screenshot on Safari

Take a Full-Page Screenshot on Safari

On the Safari browser, you can take full page screenshots without the need for any plugins. This is a simple and quick way to capture the entire webpage on the browser. We will show you how to take screenshots on MacBook Pro of webpages on Safari browser in a few simple steps.

Follow the steps to take screenshots of the webpages you want to save and refer back in the future.

  • Open the Safari browser.
  • Click on Safari and then click on Preferences (⌘). Under the Advanced tab check on the box to show Develop menu.
  • Now, go to the webpage you want to capture.
  • Right-click on the browser and click on Inspect Element.
  • Right-click on the purple HTML tab <html> and choose Capture Screenshot. This will save the full-page screenshot of the webpage.

You can also take the screenshot of the tablet and mobile version of webpages on the Safari browser. To do this, you have to click on Develop and choose Enter Responsive Design Mode. Choose one of the responsive designs from the options available. For example, choose iPad to display web pages in tablet format.

After this, you can follow the steps as before by right-clicking and choosing Inspect Element, and then again by right-clicking on the purple HTML tab and choosing Capture Screenshot to save the full-page screenshot of the webpage in tablet format.

7. Take a Full-Page Screenshot on Chrome

Take a Full-Page Screenshot on Chrome

Similar to taking a full-page screenshot of web pages on the Safari browser, you can take a full-page screenshot on the Chrome browser in your MacBook Pro M1. The steps are similar and you can take the full-page screenshot using the Developer Tools option on the Chrome browser. Follow the steps below to know how to take screenshots on MacBook Pro M1 for web pages on Chrome.

  • Open the Chrome browser, navigate to the webpage you want to capture.
  • Open the Developer Tools pane by pressing Command + Option + I key combination.
  • Click on the three vertical dots on the top-right corner and click on Run Command (Command+Shift+P).
  • In the command line, type “Screenshot” and then choose “Capture full-size screenshot” from the list of commands

A .png file of the full web page will be saved to your default storage location for downloads from the Chrome browser. If you’ve enabled to ask the location for every download, you will be prompted to save the screenshot to a destination you can choose on your MacBook Pro.

You can also take full-page screenshots of the mobile and tablet versions of web pages on Chrome. Click on the Toggle Device Toolbar on top of the Developer Tools pane to choose your device for emulating web pages before proceeding with the steps mentioned above to capture a full-size screenshot.

8. Third-Party Software to Take Screenshots

Take Screenshots with Snagit

If your work demands taking a lot of screenshots and if you need more flexibility and power for regular use, software like Snagit is a great tool to accomplish your goals. Snagit enables you to capture the entire screen, a portion of the screen, or a window or menu with relative ease when compared to other screenshot capturing ways.

After you’ve taken the screenshots, there are options to refine your screenshots with image editing tools available from the software. The faster and better workflow of the software enables you to easily take multiple screenshots as part of your work. You can try the free trial of the software before committing to a full purchase of an annual plan or lifetime plan.

Snagit is loaded with features including all-in-one capture, screen recorder, animated GIFs, annotations, text replacements, stamps, video from images, audio recording, and more that make it a worthy investment for capturing and sharing amazing screenshots.

Screenshots are a quick and easy way to save and share images and documents. We have shown you how to take screenshots on MacBook Pro M1 with the many options available that are in-built and provided by third-party software. By following the steps mentioned, you can easily capture screenshots and share them with others or keep them to yourself for record-keeping and future use. It is important as a MacBook user to know how to take screenshots. After all, it’s not that complicated and you can make use of the various keyboard shortcuts to capture screenshots conveniently.