Mac snip tool: Where to find it and how to use it

Macs do, in fact, have a snipping tool. It lets you take a screenshot of your screen, but only the part you want. It’s pretty simple to use with some keyboard shortcuts, but it’s part of a bigger screenshot UI that can do a lot of neat stuff. We have a tutorial for everything linked just below. For this article, we’ll focus on just the Mac snip tool.

Read more: How to take screenshots and record your screen on Mac

How to open and use the snip tool on Mac

The snip tool is not only available quickly and easily, but there are two different ways to use it. We’ll go over both methods.

Method 1

• Press Command+Shift+5. This opens the screenshot tool.
• Drag the dotted window around the thing you want to clip.
• Hit the Capture button.
• Your screenshot will save wherever your screenshots normally save.

Method 2

• Press Command+Shift+4.
• Your Mac’s cursor will turn into two rows of numbers. That’s how you know you’ve activated the snipping tool.
• Pro tip — The two rows of numbers act as coordinates on your screen. The top number is the horizontal axis and goes up as you move the cursor right. Meanwhile, the bottom number is the vertical access and goes up as you move the cursor down. The top left corner is two zeroes.
• In any case, click and drag to form a box over the thing you want to snip.
• Once you release the click, macOS will take a screenshot of whatever is in the window.
• The screenshot will save wherever your screenshots save.

That’s it. Those are the two ways you can use the snipping tool. We prefer the Command+Shift+5 method because you have more time to resize the box. However, once you become proficient with it, the Command+Shift+4 method works just as well.

Up next: Apple MacBook Pro buying guide: Which one should you buy?

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