
How do I change the format of a Mac screen capture?About 6 months ago I was playing around on my iBook G4 and I found the option to change the format that Apple+Shift+4 saves in. For some odd reason I choose JPG-2000 (picture.jp2). Of course, now I can't find how to change it back! It's not hard to change the format of a screen capture / screenshot made with the native Mac OS X capture utility, but you do have to be comfortable opening up your Terminal.app and typing in a command on the command line. Y'know, the Unix underneath the snazzy graphical interface. :-) Start by going to Applications --> Utilities --> Terminal.app and launching it. You'll see something like this: ![]() At this point you want to decide which format you'd like. Here are your choices:
Pick the one you like -- I recommend PNG, which stands for progressive network graphic, as the best of both GIF and JPEG formats -- and then type in the following command exactly as shown: defaults write com.apple.screencapture type image_format
For example, if you did decide to use PNG format, you'd type: defaults write com.apple.screencapture type png
Type that in and you won't see anything change, but next time you take a screen shot (as documented here: how to get a screen capture on Mac OS X) you'll have the image saved in the format you seek.
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Mac OS X Help
(Article 7585)
Tagged: mac os x, screen capture, screen grab, screenshot Previous: How do I take a screenshot on my Mac? Next: How do I find files in Windows Vista? Subscribe!
Never miss another useful Q&A article again! Subscribe to AskDaveTaylor with Google Reader. I use this for the images I post on my blog: http://wyliemoney.blogspot.com/ Is png the best for quick images for web sites? Thanks! Posted by: wylie at September 17, 2007 11:44 AMIt doesn't work in new macs. It could only work in useless antiques computers Posted by: Grab at September 20, 2009 11:19 AMdidn't work for me Posted by: bill at December 21, 2009 3:29 AMI have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...
I do have a comment, now that you mention it!
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