Is your computer running Windows 10? Do you know how to take a screenshot on Windows 10 yet? A screenshot is an image of a part or all your computer's screen, depending on the way you take it. You may need a screenshot for work, for archiving, for sending to tech support, or simply to keep an interesting moment that happens on your screen.
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- 7 Ways You Can Take Screenshots In Windows 10 - CNET
- Windows Screen Shots Windows 10
- The Snip & Sketch tool is easier to access, share and annotate screenshots than the.
- Take a full-screen screenshot. To capture an image of your entire display and save it to a file on the desktop, press ⌘ +⇧ Shift + 3. The computer will make the sound of a camera shutter, and a file labeled 'Screen Shot date' will appear on your desktop.
Press the “F12” key on your keyboard to take a screenshot. You’ll hear a shutter sound and a “Screenshot saved” notification will appear at the bottom right corner of your screen. You can change the F12 key to another shortcut key, if you like.
There are several methods to take a screenshot on a Windows computer. The built-in screenshot tool works great for basic tasks, but third-party programs come with many flexible features for customizing. But first, let us guide you through the most straightforward way, and then we will show you possible methods with third-party programs.
Are you ready to find out? Take a look at the summary of this article below!
Table of ContentsHow To Take A Screenshot On Windows 10 With Keystrokes
Taking a quick screenshot with the Print Screen (PrtScn) key on your keyboard is the easiest and simplest way. Just bring up the object that you want to capture on your screen and then press the key. Some keyboard models label this key differently, such as PrintScreen, PrtScn, PrntScrn, PrntScr, PrtScr, PrtSc, Print Scr, or something similar.
If you want to find it, look at the key located between F12 and Scroll Lock.
The Print Screen key can take a screenshot and save it to the clipboard, save it as a file, or even take a screenshot of only one window instead of the whole screen.
Are you ready to find out how they differ?
Take A Screenshot On Windows 10 With Print Screen Key
When you only use the Print Screen key, it takes a screenshot of the entire screen and saves it to the clipboard of Windows. You have to paste this screenshot into Microsoft Paint or another image editing tool and then save it from there.
This is the simplest way, but it’s not the most effective, specifically when you need to capture multiple screenshots. There are too many operations you need to do, such as bring up the object, press the key, paste to Microsoft Paint, save the screenshot. You can save time by capturing a screenshot and directly save it to the 'Screenshots' folder. How to get skyrim special edition pc.
Take A Screenshot On Windows 10 And Save It As A File
Instead of pressing only the Print Screen key, you can use the Windows + Print Screen keystroke to take a screenshot on your Windows 10 PC and save it as a file. Your screenshot will save to the 'Screenshots' folder, inside the default 'Pictures' folder.
This way is more effective because you only need to bring up the object you want to capture the screenshot and then press Windows + Print Screen. When you take multiple screenshots, just bring up the object, press the keystroke, and then repeat. One by one, they will be saved to the 'Screenshots' folder for editing afterward.
Take A Screenshot Of A Specific Window On Windows 10
If you want to capture a screenshot of a specific window on your computer, for example, Google Chrome, you can use the Alt + Print Screen keystroke.
First, click on the window you want to take the screenshot to make it active, then press the Alt + Print Screen keys together. The screenshot you have just taken will be saved to your clipboard. You need to paste it into Microsoft Paint and then save it as a file.
Sadly, this way doesn't support you to save the screenshot as a file directly. Don't try to press the Windows + Alt + Print Screen keystroke as it doesn't work.
Note: If you are on a laptop, you may need to press Fn + Print Screen, or Fn + Alt + Print Screen
Take A Screenshot Of Part Of Your Screen On Windows 10
This is a new feature that comes with the Creators Update on Windows 10. It's quite similar to the Command + Shift + 4 key combination, which is used to take a screenshot on a Mac with customized size.
When you want to take a screenshot of a specific part of your screen, press the Windows + Shift + S keystroke. Your screen will blur out, and your mouse cursor will change to the crosshair.
Click and hold your left mouse and then drag on your computer's screen to choose the part you want to capture. The screenshot will be saved to your clipboard. You can paste it into Microsoft Paint or another image editor and then save it as a file like the way you do when using the Print Screen key.
This keystroke allows you to take a screenshot in different modes:
- Rectangular Snip: Move your mouse cursor to select a rectangular area to capture.
- Freeform Snip: Move your mouse cursor to select an area you want to capture. This screenshot doesn't have a certain shape. It depends on how you move the mouse.
- Window Snip: Take a screenshot of a chosen window on your computer.
- Fullscreen Snip: Capture a screenshot of the entire screen like the way you press the Print Screen key.
How To Take A Screenshot On Windows 10 With Snipping Tool
The Snipping Tool is a screenshot utility that has been included in Windows for a long time. You can use this screenshot taker to capture a screenshot of a chosen rectangular area, a selected free-form area, a specific window, or the entire screen.
The Snipping Tool allows you to annotate the screenshot with different colored pens or a highlighter. You can choose to save the screenshot as a file or send it to a friend through email afterward.
With the Delay option, you can easily take a screenshot of a pop-up menu or tooltip. It allows you to select how many seconds you would like to wait until the screenshot is taken. When using this option, your screen will not blur out immediately. Instead, you will have between one to five seconds to set up your screenshot, depending on the delay time you set. You can use this time to open the pop-up menu or tooltip you want to take the screenshot.
When the time ends, your screen will blur out, so you can move your mouse cursor to capture your screenshot. But if you select the window or full-screen mode, Snipping Tool will start to take the screenshot immediately after the time has passed.
How To Take A Screenshot On Windows 10 With Snip & Sketch
Microsoft has brought the Snip & Sketch tool to Windows 10 users in the October 2018 Update. Unlike the Snipping Tool, you can download and install this application from the Microsoft Store. With Windows 10's Snip & Sketch tool, you can capture, annotate, save, and share screenshots quickly.
This app can take a screenshot of an entire screen, a chosen rectangular area, or a freeform section that you draw. You can either take a screenshot instantly or delay up to 10 seconds with the timer. After capturing, you can edit your screenshot by cropping, drawing, or highlighting on the image. When you are done, you can save it as an image file for work or share it with friends. The Snip & Sketch tool not only allows you to capture and edit screenshots but also lets you annotate old images as well.
To use Snip & Sketch, you can open this app from the apps list in the Start Menu. You can also quickly access this tool by clicking on the Action Center icon (or press Windows + A keystroke) and choose the Screen Snip option.
Besides, you can assign this app to the Print Screen key to replace the default screenshot function of Windows.
To do so, go to Settings > Ease of Access > Keyboard, find the '> Use the PrtScn button to open the screen snipping' option="" under="" the=""> Print Screen shortcut' section="" and="" switch="" the="" toggle="">
Using the Snip & Sketch tool is quite simple! When you launch the app, your screen will dim, and a small toolbar at the top of the screen appears. From this toolbar, you can choose to capture a rectangle, a freeform area that you draw, or the entire screen.
After capturing a screenshot, it gets loaded to the Snip & Sketch tool, where you can annotate it with the ballpoint pen, pencil, or highlighter.
How To Take A Screenshot On Windows 10 With Third-Party Apps
In addition to the built-in functions available in Windows or official apps from Microsoft, such as the Snipping Tool and Snip & Sketch, there are also many third-party programs that you can use to take screenshots. Most are freeware, but there are also premium versions with advanced features that you have to pay to use.
The common point is to assist you in taking screenshots more quickly, crop and annotate with tools, and then share with everyone. A few apps have advanced features or great customize tools that make them different from the others.
Which app should you use? Which one is the best?
Don't worry! Let us show you a few screenshot taker apps that can help you capture screenshots faster and easier.
Take A Screenshot On Windows 10 With Lightshot
Lightshot is designed to work on both Windows and Mac. It's not only available as an application but also as a web browser extension, which you can use to take a screenshot of webpages.
This app allows you to modify your screenshot from the moment that you press the Print Screen key. As soon as you hit the key, a transparent layer will cover the entire screen along with cropping tools. You can drag to choose the precise area of your screenshot you would like to capture. This step is quite handy and saves you from using image editing software to resize your screenshots after capturing.
Besides the easily cropping screenshots feature, Lightshot offers online photo editing tools, upload screenshots to the Lightshot website, save your screenshot as multiple image formats, instantly print your screenshot, as well as instantly search for similar images from both Google and Tineye.
Once you save your screenshot, Lightshot gives you the option to instantly email it or post it to your social media account. All of these useful features will save you a total of 2-4 steps to modify and share your screenshot, making your day that much more productive.
Lastly, the best part of Lightshot is that this is a freeware. You can download it from here.
Take A Screenshot On Windows 10 With Snagit
Developed by Techsmith, Snagit is a screenshot taker that has many top-notch features. It allows you to capture your entire screen, a region, or a window. It even allows capturing a scrolling screen, such as infinitely scrolling webpages or long chat messages.
You can use Snagit to extract the text from a screenshot and quickly paste it into another document for edits. This feature helps you easily copy text from an image without retyping all the words.
Snagit has many other handy features, including screen recorder, record webcam, record audio, animated GIF, trim video, annotation, smart move, text replace, and much more.
Snagit is a premium application, which costs $49.95 to use. However, there is a free trial that you can try before spending money on it. Once you try Snagit, we are sure it will be hard to go back to the Windows screenshot tools.
Take A Screenshot On Windows 10 With Screenpresso
Like other apps, taking screenshots with Screenpresso is straightforward with three steps: press the Print Screen key to capture a screenshot, edit it with the built-in editor, and then save it or post it online.
As soon as you hit the Print Screen key, your mouse cursor will change into a crosshair. You can drag it anywhere on your screen to select a region you would like to take the screenshot. It has a zoom lens at the right bottom of the screen to help you select the region with more accuracy.
Screenpresso can take a screenshot of a scrolling window, mouse cursor, and context menu. Besides, you can use Screenpresso to record video of your screen and create lightweight MP4 video files for easy sharing.
With a powerful built-in image editor, you can mark up your screenshots easily. Screenpresso allows you to add arrows, rectangles, ellipses, colorful speech bubbles, text boxes, callouts as well as spotlight an area, and much more. Also, you can crop, add rounded corners, torn edges, reflection, drop-shadow, and more fancy border effects to your screenshots.
All captured screenshots are saved to Workspaces automatically. This widget-like panel allows you to access your previous captures quickly, drag & drop files from Workspaces to image editing tools, email clients, other programs, and the opposite. It also has shortcuts to organize, print, copy to clipboard, as well as a toolbar to start a new capture, edit, and publish your screenshots and clips.
Screenpresso is available in both free and premium versions. You should only upgrade to the premium version if you want to use additional features or remove branding on some features. The differences between both versions are described here.
Take A Screenshot On Windows 10 With ShareX
ShareX is a free and open-source screenshot tool that has been developed for over 11 years. It allows you to take a screenshot or record any section of your screen and then quickly share it with others. ShareX also lets you upload images, text, or other files to many supported destinations you can choose from.
To get started, you can press the Print Screen key to take a screenshot of the entire screen. But this isn't the feature you should use because it doesn't differ from the Windows screenshot functions.
Instead, you can press Ctrl + Print Screen to activate the editor to take a screenshot, crop out unneeded screen space, and add elements to make the perfect picture. That way, you don't need another image editing tool to modify your screenshots.
Besides adding elements, you can also hide the information you don't want to show on a specific screenshot by blurring them out.
For example, we blurred 'oogle' as="" they="" are="" not="" very="" important="" to="" what="" we="" are="" showing="" right="">
ShareX is a powerful screenshot tool that has many handy features. If you are looking for a tool that comes with everything you need, then ShareX is the right choice. For the list of full features, visit here to find out.
Wrapping Up
All of the Windows screenshot taker tools have their own advantages and disadvantages. However, if you take screenshots frequently and want more flexibility than the built-in features, , a third-party tool is your best option.
To sum up, we have explained how to take a screenshot on Windows 10 with built-in tools as well as third-party apps like Lightshot, Snagit, Screenpresso, and ShareX.
Are these ways good enough to help you to make perfect captures? Have you selected any tool yet? Or do you know a better tool? Let us know below.
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If you’re wondering how to screenshot on PC, that’s relatively easy—tap press the Windows Print Screen button and it’s done.
But why does nothing happen? And how do you edit a screenshot?
You’ll have to open up Microsoft Paint, paste the image, and go through tabs and toolboxes to attempt to edit the way you want.
Even then, annotating images is still a pain! There is no screenshot annotatioхn tool in Windows. And if you want to share your image instantly… good luck with that. You’ll need to find an image hosting site and upload it there.
We know. It’s the worst! But it’s okay!
We are going to show you how to make a screenshot on Windows, edit and share it the fast and easy way by using one of the best free screenshot software. You’ll be able to securely and instantly share your captures privately without needing to use a complex image editor.
Sounds too good to be true? Try us!
Contents
How To Take A Screenshot On A PC (Windows 10 Or Earlier)
Here’s a video tutorial if you prefer that:
And, if you prefer a text-based guide, you’ll find it below. The process is the same for all Windows versions but here’s how to take a screenshot on windows 10:
- Press Alt+S. The screen will dim. Click and drag your mouse. Move it across your screen to capture part of the screen or the full screen.
- Press the Photo Camera to capture the selected region.
Done!!! This is how you take a screenshot on Windows 10. How to transfer imovie files between computers. No need to memorize dozens of keyboard shortcuts, e.g. With the built-in Windows functionality, you have to remember that PrtScn captures the entire screen and Alt + PrtScn captures the active window and Windows key + Print Screen takes a full screen image and saves it to your pictures and screenshots folder…
So, at this point, with ScreenRec, you have several options:
- Grab a sharing link
If you’re a first-time user, click the Link button and you’ll be asked to sign up for a free account. It’ll only take a few minutes.
Once you log in, any time you click the Link button the shareable link will be copied to your clipboard.
- Copy image to clipboard. Then paste it wherever you wish—in an email, in a Facebook message… No holds barred.
- Download image. Your screenshot will be saved to the cloud but you can also download it to your computer if you wish.
- Trash it
So, this is how to make a screenshot on PC. But we promised you’d learn how to capture and annotate screenshots.
Now, get your editing fingers ready and let’s have some fun!
How To Edit Your Screenshot
ScreenRec has the most often used screenshot editing tools and they are completely customizable—you can change the fonts, colors, outlines.
- Add a callout. Comment bubbles are like saying “Hey! Over here!” Great way to share your thoughts!
- Draw a rectangle. Sometimes, thinking INSIDE the box is a good thing. Draw a rectangle to throw a little attention at parts of the image.
- Place arrows. There’s nothing like a good old-fashioned arrow to show where to look.
- Add text. Pictures are worth a thousand words… But sometimes you need actual words.
- Move and delete annotations. Thought your edits were stuck on your image forever like with Microsoft Paint? Nope! Hover over an annotation to move it or delete it if you like. We won’t stop you.
So now you know an easy way to annotate screenshots on Windows and you’ve got your image all ready to go. Now what? Time to share it, of course! What good is screen grabbing when you have no one to share it with?
We know that’s not exactly how the phrase goes, but you get the point. Here’s how to send your screenshot via email or share it on social.
Share Your Screenshot Privately
With ScreenRec, you can share your images privately and securely with clients and co-workers. Here’s how it works.
The Private Sharing Link
When you’re done editing your screen snapshot, press the Link button and you can send it to whomever or wherever. Only those with the link can view it and each image is encrypted. Your business secrets are completely safe!
The Pictures Library
ScreenRec automatically saves screenshots to your personal account (2 gigs of free private cloud storage are included). To view screenshots you’ve taken previously, just press the Recording History button. Hover over a screenshot and you can grab the sharing link again.
How To “Edit” Screenshot Text
If you’re stuck trying to convert a screenshot to text, the solution is called Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. Don’t let that term scare you. It’s really just an image-to-text converter. All you have to do is upload your screenshot, push a button and let the OCR software do its magic.
Which OCR Program To Use?
Free OCR software | Paid OCR software |
SimpleOCR | Adobe Acrobat DC |
Boxoft Free OCR Converter | Nuance OmniPage Ultimate |
(a9t9) Free OCR app | Abbyy FineReader 14 |
Easy Screen OCR | Readiris |
Capture2Text | TopOCR |
For more information, here is a simplified list of free OCR solutions and this one for paid OCR options.
Do You Really Need To Install Screenshot Software?
Once you learn how to screenshot on PC Windows 10 or earlier (all that PrintScr stuff), there are two ways to edit and potentially annotate it. One option is to type “snipping tool” in the search bar and use the built-in Windows Snipping Tool to take a screenshot, then open MS Paint to edit it. The other option is to use a Snipping tool alternative. It’s beyond our understanding why the Windows Snipping Tool and its cousin Snip & Sketch have extras like delayed screenshot and free-form selection tool but not even the simplest annotation tools. But it is what it is.
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When To Use A Third-Party Screenshot Program
That’s easy. If you want to
- Use advanced annotation tools
- Securely backup your files to the cloud
- Share your screenshots privately (e.g. training documents, internal communications, client communication, etc.)
- Quickly and easily edit screenshots without having to deal with complex editors like GIMP.
You’d want to download a screen capture app to take care of all of this for you.
We suggest ScreenRec for the job because it can do all of the above for you, free of charge, on all version of Windows. Besides, it can do screen recording and it’s extremely easy to use--click, capture, share. Get ScreenRec here.
7 Ways You Can Take Screenshots In Windows 10 - CNET
How do you take a screenshot of the active window on PC?
To take a quick screenshot of the active window, press Alt + PrtScn. This creates a snapshot of the current window and copies it to the clipboard. You then have to open an image editing app such as MS Paint and paste the screenshot there to export it as an image file (Ctrl + V).
What is the shortcut to take a screenshot on a PC?
The shortcut to take a screenshot on PC (Windows 7, 8, 10) is PrtScn (Print Screen button) by default. This creates a snapshot of your entire screen and copies it to the clipboard. If you're using a third-party app, the hotkey depends on your software. For example, with ScreenRec, pressing Alt + S allows you to select custom screen capture area which could be the full screen or a specific part of it.