How to Take Screenshots and Which Format to Save Them In: Steps for PC and Phone

How to capture on each OS, and shortcuts for a selected area

Capturing just the area you need from the start is faster and gives a smaller file than capturing the whole screen and cropping. Learn one selected-area shortcut and everything afterwards gets quicker.

• On a Mac, press the space bar after Command + Shift + 4 to capture a single window. It fits neatly with a shadow, which is handy for documents.
• With the Windows Snipping Tool, you can open the editor from the notification after capturing and draw arrows or boxes on the spot.
• On phones, tapping the thumbnail that appears at the bottom left or top right after capturing lets you crop and annotate before saving.
• For moving content, a screen recording can communicate better than many still screenshots. It's especially effective for sharing steps.

PNG is the default for screenshots; JPEG for mostly photos

In many environments, screenshots are saved as PNG by default. That makes sense: screens are full of text, icons and sharp-edged shapes, and PNG doesn't degrade images like these.

When in doubt, decide by whether the image contains text. If it contains text, use PNG; if it's mostly a photo, JPEG. JPEG uses lossy compression, so fine noise appears around the outlines of text, and the smaller the text, the harder it is to read.

What to check before sending

A screenshot captures the screen exactly as it is, so things besides what you meant to show get captured too. People often notice only after sending, and sometimes it can't be undone. Before sharing, check the following places.

• Notifications and banners at the top of the screen: is a message body or sender name visible?
• Browser tab titles and the address bar: other pages you have open, or internal URLs, may be readable.
• The bookmarks bar: names of internal admin screens may be listed right there.
• File lists and folder names: places that often contain client or project names.
• Email addresses, names, phone numbers and employee numbers.
• App headers that display your name or account name.

To hide something, use a solid fill. Mosaic and blur effects are less safe than they look: with regular shapes like text, a weak blur can sometimes be guessed. Covering it completely with solid black or white is the reliable method.

When the file is too large to send

Screenshots taken on high-resolution displays have more pixels than their apparent size suggests and can reach several MB as PNG. If they hit email or chat limits, try the following in order.

1. 1

   Crop to just the area you need

   The most effective step, with no loss of quality. Narrowing it to just the window you want to show, rather than the whole screen, cuts the size dramatically.

2. 2

   Change the format

   If a mostly-photo screenshot was saved as PNG, converting it to JPEG or WebP alone cuts the size a lot. With the Image Format Converter, you can convert in the browser and download straight away.

3. 3

   Lower the quality gradually

   When converting to JPEG or WebP, lower the quality step by step from 90 and stop once you reach the target size. Quality loss is more noticeable in images with text, so it's safer not to go too low.

4. 4

   Send fewer images

   If you're showing steps, drawing arrows on the key 1-2 screenshots reduces both file size and the recipient's effort compared with sending many similar screens.

What to check when screenshots fail or come out black

When a screenshot doesn't save, or part of it comes out black, it's almost always by design rather than a fault.

The first two are protection features, not something to work around by changing settings. If you want to share the content, use the official share or export features rather than the screen. To make captured images lighter, see How to Reduce Image File Size; to change the format for wherever you're submitting, see PNG vs JPEG vs WebP.

FAQ

Should screenshots be saved as PNG or JPEG?

PNG if they show text, tables or app interfaces. JPEG uses lossy compression, so noise appears around text outlines and small text becomes hard to read. Conversely, if photos or video captures fill most of the screen, JPEG or WebP can cut the file size a lot with hardly any visible loss. Most operating systems default to PNG because screens usually contain text.

How do I make a screenshot file smaller?

Cropping helps most first: narrowing it to the window you need reduces size without losing quality. If it's still large, convert the format: if a mostly-photo image was saved as PNG, switching to JPEG or WebP alone cuts it dramatically. When adjusting quality, lower it from 90 step by step and stop once you reach your target. Lowering it too much on images with text makes them hard to read.

Why do screenshots come out black in some apps?

Because capturing the picture is deliberately restricted for copyright protection or security. It happens with video streaming playback screens, banking and payment apps, and some business systems. It's not a device fault, so there's no need to change settings to make it work. If you want to share the content, use the official share or export features the service provides.

Is a mosaic enough to hide personal information?

Covering it completely with solid black or white is more reliable. With a weak mosaic or blur, the original text can sometimes be guessed. Also, some apps save a crop as a display setting that can be restored to the original area later. To be sure the parts you don't want shown are gone, export the edited image as a separate file or convert and re-save it.