What Is a Screenshot?

Of the many different commands you can perform on your computer or mobile device, the screenshot is one of the simplest yet useful ones. A screenshot is an image of what you see on your display at the time you take a screen capture.

Interestingly, there are unofficial rules surrounding screenshots. There are unwritten ethics that people ought to follow when taking screenshots.

But what is a screenshot exactly? Is it only a digital image? What are the different uses of a screenshot?

Continue reading below for the answers.

What Is a Screenshot?

What is a screenshot? As we mentioned earlier, it is a digital image that shows what is on a display screen the moment you take a screenshot. It lets you capture what is on your computer or mobile device display down to the smallest details.

Moreover, you can save these screenshots and access them at a later time. Alternatively, you can share the screenshot immediately after capturing an image. You can share it via social media or other apps like Facebook Messenger and Viber, among others.

People take screenshots for different reasons. Screenshots help you archive what happened in the past. They can also serve as evidence whenever you want to prove something.

You can also take screenshots as future reference. This is helpful whenever you see something important or interesting while browsing and you do not want to forget it later in the day.

There are many ways to take a screenshot. The steps differ depending on the device you are using.

How to Take One on Your Android Device

There were over 2.5 billion active Android users in 2019. With so many people using Android smartphones and tablets, not everyone knows how to take screenshots from their devices, at least during the first few days after acquiring their units.

Furthermore, not all Android phones have the same steps as for taking screenshots. When you snapshot your screen on a Samsung device, the steps may differ when doing the same thing on an Oppo phone.

So how do you take a screenshot on your Android device? Let’s start with the Samsung mobile phone. For the Galaxy S20 flagship models, taking a screenshot involves only two buttons.

Press the power button and one of the volume buttons together to take a screenshot. No need for any long presses. As long as you hit the two buttons simultaneously, it should translate into a screengrab.

For Oppo A9 (2020) smartphone owners, you have three ways to capture a screenshot. The first is the power button + volume key combination. This is the same method as with Samsung smartphones.

The second is the three-finger swipe. Simply swipe down the screen using three fingers to capture a screenshot. Lastly, you can install a third-party app via Google Play.

For Google phones, you can press and hold the power button for three seconds. Wait for a set of icons to appear and choose the “Screenshot” option.

How to Screenshot on Mac

Switching over to computers, you can also take screenshots on your Mac. Capturing screenshots on Mac involves certain keyboard commands.

To snap a shot of your whole screen, hit Command, Shift, and 3 on your keyboard together. Alternatively, you can press that combination with the Control key simultaneously. Not only will this method capture a screenshot, but it will also save the image to your clipboard.

If you wish to only capture a selected area of the screen, press Command + Shift + 4 simultaneously. Your pointer will become a crosshair that you can click and drag on the area you wish to capture.

To save the screenshot, release the mouse button. This will automatically save the image to your desktop.

In case you want to take a screenshot of a single window, press Command + Shift + 4 all at the same time. This will turn your pointer into a crosshair. Thereafter, hit the Spacebar on your keyboard to turn the pointer into a camera icon.

From there, hover the icon over the windows. The icon will highlight the windows in blue. Pick the window that you wish to capture and click on it to take a screenshot.

This also saves the image to your desktop automatically. However, this method will capture more than the window. It will also screen grab your Dock, desktop, and menu bar.

Via Mac Apps

Your Mac computer also has a couple of apps that you can use to take screenshots. First, you can use your Mac’s Preview. To use this method, open Preview and press Shift + Command + 3.

Click the window that you wish to capture.

Alternatively, you can press Shift + Command + 4 + the Spacebar. This is the step if you let you take a screenshot of a particular area by clicking and dragging your mouse.

If you need to rotate the image, look for the rectangle icon with a curved arrow. You will find this icon at the top of Preview. Hit the icon to rotate the image to your desired position.

If you need to adjust the size, head on to Tools, and select “Adjust Size.” This is also the option to use when adjusting the resolution of your images.

Last but not least, you can use the Grab application. You will find this on your Mac’s dock. Type “Grab” on the Finder folder then select “Applications.”

Launch the Grab app and head on to the top navigation bar. From there, select “Capture” to open a dropdown menu. Select the type of window you want to capture then choose from “Portion,” Selected,” “Window,” or “Entire Screen.”

Learn More About Commands and Functions

Now that you know the answer to the question “what is a screenshot,” you can use the feature anytime with ease and precision. But taking screenshots is only one of the many tricks you can learn about your phone or computer.

Expand your tech knowledge by checking our other articles and blog posts. We discuss different topics on computers and gadgets that you can use for various purposes.