Best screen capturing app

Snipping Tool for Mac Free Download: Snipping is a screen-capture application for Mac OS that captures the active windows or custom area. As the screenshots have become a great necessity especially when it comes to making tutorials, game records, troubleshooting etc. You can take the Screenshot on Windows by pressing the “PrtScn” button. Mac’s Built-In Option. Before we look at alternatives, let’s start with the native snipping tool.

Use CleanShot X for all your screen recording needs.

Screenshots have become so ubiquitous nowadays that we don’t give them too much thought anymore. Yet every day we use them to show, explain, and communicate. Whether it’s sending an image of a software bug to customer support, a quick how-to GIF to a colleague, or a heartfelt joke a loved one, screenshots help us enrich and liven up our daily communication patterns.

Naturally, for creating and editing screenshots, Windows PC has its widely respected Snipping Tool. In fact, if you’ve recently switched your PC for Mac, at some point you’re guaranteed to wonder where and what is Snipping Tool for Mac.

Tool

Rest assured, you’re not left without screenshots forever. A snipping tool for Mac does exist. Moreover, just like on Windows, it’s built right into the operating system — which is the answer to the common question of where to download snipping tool for Mac. In addition, there are plenty of third-party snipping tools out there that considerably expand on the functionality of the pre-installed option.

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A superb edition of best apps that take your snipping on Mac to the new level. All in one pack.

What is the best Snipping tool for Mac?

Mac OS snipping tool is so baked into the operating system that it doesn’t even have a name. It just … well, works, mirroring the Snipping Tool you’ve grown accustomed to on Windows almost to a T.

Plus, there’s not just one snipping tool on Mac — there are dozens. Below, we’ll compare the default screenshot snipping tool Mac offers to its Windows alternative, and introduce third-party tools like CleanShot, Dropshare, and Capto as well.

How to use Snipping tool on macOS

Download Snip Tool For Mac Installer

What is the shortcut key for Snipping Tool? The shortest answer to “How to snip on Mac?” is to press ⇧⌘5. The shortcut calls up a small menu in the lower part of the screen with lots of options to choose from.

This menu is new to Mac, as it first appeared in macOS Mojave in 2018. Before then, Mac users were limited to either using ⇧⌘3 to take a screenshot of the whole screen or ⇧⌘4 to select an area (these shortcuts still work the same). If you’re using one of the macOS versions before Mojave, make sure to update to the latest macOS available to make full use of the snipping tool on Mac.

So the menu for the Mac OS snipping tool features the following options:

  • Capture Entire Screen,
  • Capture Selected Window,
  • Caption Selected Portion (area),
  • Record Entire Screen,
  • and Record Selected Portion (area).

Besides, there is also an Options dropdown, where you can change where to save the resulting image, set a timer, and choose whether to show the mouse pointer.

BTW, did you know that you can use Mac Snipping tool also to taking screenshots of the Touch Bar itself?

  • To save a screenshot of Touch Bar as a file on your desktop press ⇧⌘6
  • To copy what you see on Touch Bar to your clipboard press ⌃⇧⌘6

You can customize your keyboard shortcuts by going to System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Screen Shots

Right away you can see how similar the functionality of a snipping tool on Mac is to its Windows counterpart. Let’s compare screenshot capabilities side by side:

  • Full screen: Mac and Windows
  • Single app window: Mac and Windows
  • Area: Mac and Windows
  • Freeform: Windows only
  • Video: Mac only
  • Delay: 5 or 10 seconds on Mac, 1 to 5 seconds on Windows
  • Editing: full toolkit on Mac, limited on Windows

Diving into details, you might notice that the snipping tool on Mac doesn’t allow for a freeform capture. Likewise, its Windows alternative can’t record video and only offers limited annotation options. So naturally, this default screenshot grabber on Mac would be your go-to in most cases. However, if you need to be able to capture screenshots with a freehand selection or you’re just eager to use something more powerful, third-party Mac apps have a lot to offer.

Snipping tool alternatives

Download apps that allow to customize and enjoy screenshotting on Mac – better than default programs.

Snipping tool to capture your screen without distractions

While Mac’s default snipping tool can create basic screenshots, a professional utility like CleanShot seamlessly enhances its functionality. It allows you to hide all desktop icons to capture your screen with no distractions, change the wallpaper, preview screenshots before you save them, copy the resulting image or video into your clipboard, annotate images with ease, and much more.

To give yourself an example of what CleanShot is truly capable of, choose Capture Area within the app (notice how desktop icons disappear), drag your mouse to make a screenshot, and click the pen icon to edit the result before it gets saved.

To be able to always capture your screen without all the desktop icons getting in your way, set and use custom hotkeys in the Preferences menu of the CleanShot app. And if you wonder what’s the most effective way to share your screenshot with others, you need to know about one more app.

Share screenshots with others instantly

Unlike the default snipping tool on Mac, we have a tool approaches the problem of screenshots as a sharing problem first and foremost.

Dropshare is a Mac snipping tool alternative that allows you to choose between capturing a specific area, capturing and editing, and recording an area or full screen. After you done, all URLs would be saved automatically and ready to share with your team. Every time you take a screenshot, Dropshare swiftly uploads it to the cloud and gives you a short link to share with others. It’s also robust in its uploading options, offering you a choice between 10 GB of its own storage or any of the cloud providers you already use, such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Rackspace, Amazon S3, etc.

However, if you want to make 100% freehand selections or take webpage screenshots of any length, you need to combine Dropshare with another brilliant utility.

How to capture freehand region on a Mac

Compared to other tools discussed above, Capto is in a league of its own and virtually redefines how to snip on Mac. It lets you capture full screen, circle area, rectangle area, freeform area, single app window, menus, webpages, and more. Besides, it features a robust editor to help you modify the results.

To create screenshots of any type, simply choose Freehand and draw out the shape.

Similarly, the options for instantly taking seamless screenshots of long webpages are available under the Web tab, where you can choose to use a built-in browser to search for the website or open the current URL.

This feature completely eliminates the need for the old-school way of taking screenshots as long as your display allows and then somehow stitching them all together by hand.

Does Mac have a snipping tool for me?

Yes, and lots! As you can see, your Mac has a wide array of snipping tools to cover every need possible. And hopefully, by reading this far, you’ve come a long way from wondering whether “Mac has snipping tools at all” to “how to use snipping tool for Mac” to “omg, which snipping tool do I choose.”

Your choice in using a specific snipping tool should correlate to your needs. It’s probably a good idea to disregard the default Mac OS snipping tool and instead use CleanShot right away, as it features more functionality and much cleaner experience. But if communication is key, turn to Dropshare, which enables you to stay in the loop in a super-productive and visual way. And finally no screenshot functionality is too complicated for Capto, which brings all custom screenshot needs under one roof.

Best of all, you can try and download all these apps, and decide which one you like the most for free because all of them are available through Setapp, a platform for over 150 best-in-class Mac apps for any job. Taking screenshots with unique apps from Setapp will bring you the most beautiful results of the highest quality in no time. Screenshot away!

Setapp lives on Mac and iOS. Please come back from another device.

Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.

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Download Snip Tool For Mac Shortcut

Table of Contents
  1. What Is Snipping?

Have you ever wanted to capture a screenshot of your Mac’s screen, but don’t know how? It’s a common issue faced by many Mac users every day snip it for Mac. Thankfully, there is a solution — it’s called snipping tool Mac.

If you don’t know how to snip on Mac, keep reading for a full guide about learning to use a Mac.

What Is Snipping?

Snipping tool Mac is a specific way to take a screenshot on your computer (Mac in this case).

Snipping is different than an average screenshot. When you take a screenshot, you’re left with an image of the full computer screen. This includes the entire user interface, from the top-bar to the hot-bar at the bottom of the screen.

When you snip, you can choose a specific portion of the screen to take a shot of. Usually, this is done by clicking and dragging your mouse across the area you want to capture. This lets you take screenshots of smaller portions of your screen, and whole-screen-shots without things like the hot-bar entering the picture.

How to Snip on Mac?

There are a few different ways you can snip on Mac. Fortunately for everyone, none of them are very complex.

Here are a few of the many ways you can learn how to snip on Mac and get the tips to start using a Mac like the Mac Pro you are.

Use Mac’s Built-In Snipping Tool Mac

The easiest way to take a snip on Mac is to use the built-in Mac snipping tool.

Mac’s snipping tool isn’t an application, but rather a keyboard shortcut. Most people know you can take a screenshot by hitting ‘shift + command + 3.’ What most people don’t know is you can also take a snip by hitting ‘shift + command + 4.’

Once you hit ‘shift + command + 4’ your mouse pointer will turn into a crosshair. With the crosshair, click and drag a square over the area you want to capture. You can snip as large or small an area as you desire.

Once you’ve got the area you wish to snip covered, simply release the mouse button and you’re done. You can view your snips and screenshots by hitting ‘shift + command + 5’ to open the Screenshot app.

Shift + Command + 5

By just clicking ‘Shift + Command + 5’ you get the Screenshot app/toolbar.

At the bottom of the screen, you’ll see options to capture the whole screen, a selected window or portion, or even record areas of the screen. Under ‘Options’ there are timer selections, and pointer visibility options among other things.

You can use this bar to take more control over your snips. It doesn’t offer anything radically different, but is great for those who want screen recording.

This is a perfect way to snip for most snip it for Mac users, but for some it won’t be enough. The built-in snipping tool offers the most bare-bones snipping experience. If you want a more feature-full snip it for Mac, try some of the options below.

Snagit: Advanced Features

Snagit brings Mac snipping tool to the next level with some truly advanced features.

Snagit is both a snipping tool, and a screen recording tool. It lets you take snips like normal, and record a video of your screen. These aren’t what sets Snagit apart from the competition, though.

The coolest Snagit feature is panoramic snipping. This lets you take long snips down a scrolling web or other page. This is much faster and more reliable than taking multiple snips of a single long-form page and splicing them together.

Another cool feature is text extraction. With Snagit, you can take a snip, then copy the text from said screenshot into a text document. With this feature, you can save yourself a lot of time copying text you might need from images.

Beyond that, Snagit also has webcam and GIF capture, and editing/sharing options for all your snips. If you want a true 21st-century snipping tool, Snagit is the choice for you.

Droplr: Snipping Tool Mac at a Business Level

If you want a snipping tool at a business level, try Droplr.

With Droplr, you can make GIFs, record your screen, and take snips for a low monthly cost. Droplr utilizes the cloud to save all your snips and recordings, and even gives you a shortened link to share all these snips through. This gives you a way to quickly share your Droplr snips with friends and co-workers without any lengthy downloads.

Droplr snaps can be sorted into boards and tags through the Droplr interface, including the option to tag points of interest on the snip. Every snip and recording is encrypted to keep them secure. It’s also got tons of integration options with apps like Slack and Photoshop to make sharing and editing as easy as possible.

If you’ve got a lot of serious snipping to do, Droplr will get it done in Mac snipping tool.

Skitch: A Free Snip It for Mac

If you want a free snipping tool, try Skitch.

With Skitch, you can take and edit snips, then share them online in moments. Skitch is fast to launch and use, and has a friendly interface that’s easy to learn. Each icon is nice and big, making the application very simple to navigate.

Skitch gives you mark-up tools like highlighters, shapes, blurring, and cropping tools to perfect your snips. If you have an Evernote premium account, you can even markup PDFs with Skitch.

There’s no better free snip tool Mac than this how to snip on mac.

Learn Mac Snipping Tool for a Picture

Above are just a few of the most convenient and feature-full ways on how to snip on Mac. Review the content above to learn snip tool Mac, and experiment with a few different apps to find the right way for you. You’ll be taking professional-level screenshots in no time.

For more informative tech and lifestyle articles like this, check out the rest of our Technology blog.