The Complete Guide to Cropping Screenshots on Your Mac

As a Mac user, you probably take screenshots regularly to save information, capture something funny or interesting, or share what‘s on your screen with others. In fact, a 2021 survey found that people are taking more screenshots than ever, with nearly half of respondents capturing their screen at least once per week.

But sometimes you don‘t need the whole screen – just a key section. That‘s where cropping comes in. Cropping a screenshot removes the unnecessary parts so you can focus attention on what matters.

The good news is that macOS offers several quick and easy ways to crop screenshots, no Photoshop skills needed. In this guide, we‘ll walk through three simple methods:

1. Cropping while taking a screenshot using keyboard shortcuts
2. Using the Preview app to crop a screenshot after taking it
3. Cropping in the Photos app

We‘ll cover the steps for each method, including helpful screenshots. You‘ll also get tips on changing your Mac‘s default screenshot settings and discover some handy third-party screenshot tools. Let‘s get started!

Method 1: Crop While Taking Your Screenshot with a Keyboard Shortcut

The quickest way to crop a screenshot is to do it before you even take the shot. You‘re probably familiar with the basic Mac screenshot shortcuts already:

• Command + Shift + 3 captures the entire screen
• Command + Shift + 4 lets you select a portion of the screen
• Command + Shift + 5 opens the Screenshot app for recording video and setting timers

To crop while screenshotting, use Command + Shift + 4. Your cursor will turn into a crosshair. Click and drag to draw a box around the section you want to capture, then release.

The screenshot will be saved to your desktop (or wherever you‘ve set as the default location – more on that later). The filename will start with "Screen Shot" followed by the date and time.

This method is perfect when you know exactly what part of the screen you need to capture. It saves you the step of cropping the image after the fact. Just be careful not to accidentally start dragging from the corner of the selection area, which will snap the area to a fixed 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio.

One downside is that you can‘t fine-tune the crop after taking the screenshot this way. If you don‘t get the perfect framing on the first try, you‘ll have to delete it and try again.

Method 2: Cropping a Screenshot in the Preview App

What if you already took a full screenshot and now you want to trim it down? The simplest built-in way is to use your Mac‘s Preview app.

Preview is the default image viewer on macOS, so it automatically opens whenever you double-click an image file, including screenshots. It has view powerful editing tools hidden in its understated interface.

Here‘s how to crop in Preview:

1. Open your screenshot in Preview (double-click the file on your desktop)
2. Click the markup icon (pen in a circle) in the top right to reveal the editing toolbar
3. Select the Rectangular Selection tool (dotted rectangle icon)
4. Click and drag on your image to draw a box around the area you want to keep
5. Double-click inside the selection or press Command + K to crop
6. Save your cropped image with File > Save or Command + S

The Rectangular Selection tool gives you more control over your crop compared to the screenshot shortcut method. You can adjust the size and position of the selection area before committing to the crop.

Preview also has other useful editing tools worth exploring, like Adjust Color for fixing exposure issues and the text and shape tools for annotating your screenshots. Just click and hold the icon next to the Rectangular Selection tool to see all the markup options.

One nice feature of Preview is that it‘s non-destructive – it won‘t overwrite your original screenshot unless you specifically tell it to. So you can always go back to the uncropped version if needed.

The main limitation of using Preview is that it can only crop one screenshot at a time. If you have a batch of images that all need the same crop, using the Photos app might be faster. Speaking of which…

Method 3: Cropping Screenshots in the Photos App

Starting with macOS Mojave, Photos isn‘t just for organizing your personal snapshots – it also has an easy-to-use toolkit for editing images, including screenshots.

Follow these steps to crop a screenshot in Photos:

1. Open the Photos app (in your Applications folder or using Command + Space to search)
2. Drag your screenshot into the Photos window to import it
3. Double-click the screenshot in your Photos library to open it
4. Click the Edit button in the top right
5. Select the Crop tool in the top center (square icon with arrows)
6. Drag the edges and corners of the crop box to set your desired framing
7. Optionally, select an aspect ratio preset from the right sidebar
8. Click Done in the top right to apply the crop

The crop tool in Photos offers more preset aspect ratios than Preview, like Square, 9:16 (perfect for Instagram stories), and 21:9 ultrawide. You can also rotate the image while cropping by moving the dial in the right sidebar.

Photos also includes other potentially useful adjustments for getting the most out of your screenshots, like Retouch (for removing sensitive info), Markup (for adding annotations), and Adjust (for fixing color and contrast issues).

If you‘ve used the iOS Photos app to edit pictures on your iPhone or iPad, you‘ll be right at home cropping screenshots in the Mac version. The interface is very similar.

One thing to keep in mind is that Photos only lets you crop screenshots that have been imported into your Photos library. So it‘s not quite as quick as Preview for a one-off edit. But if you already use Photos to organize your images, it‘s a capable tool.

Bonus Tips: Change Your Screenshot Defaults and Discover Useful Apps

Want to speed up your Mac screenshot workflow even more? Here are a few extra tips.

Change macOS Screenshot Defaults

By default, your Mac saves screenshots as PNG files on your desktop. But you can customize the default format and save location.

To change the default format to JPG (smaller file size) or TIFF (higher quality), open the Terminal app and type:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg

Replace "jpg" with "tiff" if you prefer that format. Then enter this command to apply the change:

killall SystemUIServer

To change where screenshots are saved, type:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location /path/to/folder

Replace "/path/to/folder" with the actual path where you want to save screenshots, like "/Users/yourname/Documents/Screenshots". Use the killall command again to apply.

Quickly Open Screenshots in Preview or Photos

If you always want to crop or edit your screenshots right away, you can skip the desktop and open screenshots directly in Preview or Photos. Just press Command + Control + Shift + 3 (for full screen) or Command + Control + Shift + 4 (for selection).

In Preview, you can also open the most recent screenshot from the File > New from Clipboard menu. Or press Command + N to create a new image from whatever you last copied.

Try Third-Party Screenshot Tools

If you take a lot of screenshots and find yourself cropping them frequently, it might be worth investing in a more powerful screenshot tool. Popular options include:

• Jing: Free screenshot and screen recording tool from the makers of Snagit
• Lightshot: Simple screenshot tool with quick annotation and sharing ($1.99)
• Skitch: Evernote‘s free screenshot annotation and markup tool
• Monosnap: Free screenshot tool with built-in cropping, blurring, and cloud uploading

These apps offer features like preset custom capture areas, built-in editing tools, instant sharing, and cloud sync. Take some time to explore your options and find the tool that best fits your screenshot needs.

Conclusion

We‘ve covered three easy ways to crop screenshots on your Mac:

1. Using the Command + Shift + 4 keyboard shortcut to select an area while taking the screenshot
2. Cropping in Preview, your Mac‘s default image viewer
3. Using the Photos app, which offers slightly more advanced editing tools

You also learned some bonus tips for customizing your Mac‘s default screenshot settings and found some powerful third-party alternatives to the built-in tools.

With the right method and a bit of practice, you‘ll be cropping screenshots to perfection in no time. Just remember the golden rule of cropping: frame your subject deliberately and remove anything that doesn‘t add to your message. Happy cropping!