I’ve needed to capture a screenshot – a picture of what’s on screen – on several systems recently. Normally I hit the “Print Screen” key – sometimes marked “PrtScr” – to copy the screenshot to the clipboard for pasting into Photoshop etc.
Some of the systems I needed to take screengrabs on did not have a working Print Screen button. Here are some handy ways to take a picture of the current screen or application if you don’t have access to them.
Android 4.0+
It differs from manufacturer to manufacturer, but try the following:
- Press Power and Volume Down buttons at the same time, or
- Press Home and Volume Down buttons at the same time
If it works you might hear a shutter click and see the screen will flash. Check the notification area and your Photos section for your screenshot.
iOS 5, 6, 7 (iPhone and iPad)
- Press Power and Volume Down buttons at the same time
You should hear a shutter click and see the screen flash. Check the notification area and your Photos section for your screenshot.
Windows On-Screen Keyboard:
Click Start, RUN, type “OSK”, hit Enter. You now have a floating keyboard which has a Print Screen – sometimes labeled “PSC”, “Prt Scrn” or “Print Scrn”. Tip: create a shortcut to the OnScreenKeyboard: right click on the desktop, click New Shortcut, type “OSK”, click next twice, and there you have it. Note: you will get a picture of the keyboard in your screenshots.
More about this from Microsoft.
Windows on an Apple Keyboard
I have this issue on my MacBook Air running Windows 7 and Bootcamp – there’s no printscreen button on Apple Keyboards.
- Function (fn) – Shift – F11 works as printscreen on my MacBook Air.
- If your Apple keyboard has an F14 button, that should work as PrintScreen in Windows, I’ve heard that F13 sometimes works.
- For more information on Apple keyboards in Windows, see this article from Apple.
ScreenHunter 5 Free is a “completely free screen capture software” for you to easily take screenshots – I haven’t needed to use it but might be worth a look.
MacOSX on an Apple Keyboard
Cmd-Shift-3 on MacOS takes a screenshot and saves to the desktop as an image file, whereas Windows saves a copy to the clipboard for pasting into another program.
Lightscreen on Windows
Lightscreen is 3rd party Windows software that I found pretty cool.
Hope this helps – now it’s over to you! Is there a system you don’t know how to take a screenshot on that’s not listed here? Leave a comment and I’ll do my best to find an answer for you. If you have any other suggestions, please leave them as comments too!
Thank you for introducing ScreenHunter Free.
We have just updated the link, that ScreenHunter Free home is,
http://www.wisdom-soft.com/products/screenhunter_free.htm
If you can update your site, it’ll be great.
All the best to you,
Wisdom-soft Support
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Wisdom Software Inc.
#133, 3651 Shelbourne St.
Victoria, BC V8P 5S2
Canada
http://www.wisdom-soft.com
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Thanks AMD, found that very useful!
THANK YOU – an amazingly simple – thus brilliant – light in a sea of madness out there.
Not easy to find – you are the best!