Mac 101: Eliminate shadows in screen grabs
Sharing screen grabs and screencasts is a great way to show someone exactly how to do something with their Macs. You've got several choices for screencast software (here's a list of posts in our screencast category), but snapping a simple screen grab is much simpler.- Shift + Command + 3 produces a snapshot of the whole screen
- Shift + Command + 4 produces a crosshair that you can drag over a specific area of your screen
- Shift + Command + 4 followed by the space bar turns the crosshair into a camera
That's great and all, but for some real fun, take a screenshot of a collegue's desktop, move all his desktop icons onto his hard drive, set your screenshot as the desktop image and feign ignorace while he clicks furiously on his "icons." You're welcome.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
trickbox said 7:34AM on 7-02-2008
Fantastic! I've been looking to disable this feature for ages
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Think Adrian said 7:40AM on 7-02-2008
I like the shadows, makes my screen grabs look more pro (and nerdy)
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smacklin said 8:16AM on 7-02-2008
Also good fun - rotate the screen shot 180 degrees before setting it as the desktop. A good blur filter can be useful too. And don't underestimate the value of having an application window that will not close - even after restarting the system.
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Mike said 9:16AM on 7-02-2008
I'll do you one better. Back in 1997 we took a screenshot of a colleague's desktop when she was out to lunch. A quick little Director app that flipped the screenshot 180° whenever the mouse was clicked created a bit of amusement for us and a few moments of panic for her. Good times.
John Hopper said 8:43AM on 7-02-2008
If you add the control key to any of those commands, the screenshot will be saved to the clipboard instead of a file.
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David Teare said 12:02PM on 7-02-2008
Ah! Thanks! I needed that and didn't know it was so easy.
Comradephate said 11:44AM on 7-02-2008
Haha, you guys are obviously classier than my friends and I. We'd make a bunch of folders with names like "all anal" and "horse porn", screenshot, delete them, desktop background. Good times.
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Justin D said 1:15PM on 7-02-2008
"You're welcome"? For what? That gag has been around as long as the Mac has had screen capturing - wouldnt be surprised if it existed a helluva long time before that, either.
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Jerome said 8:59PM on 7-02-2008
Ah. that reminds me of what I did on a windows machine to my colleague. I killed all apps, took a screenshot, and saved it as background. Killed explorer.exe and watched the fun. "hey, why doesn't the start button work? I can't turn it off!" says colleague.
Also works with BlueScreen on windows computers.
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orefalo said 12:17AM on 7-05-2008
What about the screenshot plus widget...
it is 100% times simplier
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