Have you taken a screenshot on your Mac and want to know how to crop it? Screenshots may include undesirable or sensitive information that Mac users may feel uncomfortable sharing with others. This is why cropping is necessary.
In this write-up, we will show you all the necessary steps on how to crop a screenshot on Mac.
How to Crop a Screenshot on a Mac
Using the Built-In screenshot cropping tool
On a Mac, the new built-in screenshot cropping tool is arguably the most effective way to do it. A floating thumbnail appears in the bottom-right corner of your screen as soon as you take a screenshot on macOS.
When you click it, the cropping tool appears as a thumbnail of your screenshot. The thumbnail will vanish and you won’t be able to utilize the tool if you don’t click on it within a short period. Sadly, there is no way to extend the period before it disappears.
To crop using this tool
- At the top-right, press the Crop icon after taking your screenshot.
- Then select the area in your screenshot you want to keep.
- Press Done when finished.
Using Preview
With macOS, the Preview application launches automatically when you double-click a picture. This program allows you to easily crop your screenshots.
To crop a screenshot using Preview;
- In Finder, double-click on an image to open the Preview app.
- Then at the top-right, select the Show Markup Toolbar.
- To select the area you wish to keep, use click and drag.
- Press Tools from the menu bar.
- Then from the drop-down menu, select Crop.
Using the Photos App
On macOS, the default tool for organizing your photographs is the Photos app. It may also be used to rapidly crop screenshots on a Mac as a simple photo editing tool.
But, before you do this, you must save your screenshot to your Mac.
- Open Photos.
- Press File, then Import.
- Then select the screenshot you want to edit.
- Press Import.
- After importing the image, double-click the image and press Edit.
- Then select the Crop button at the top.
How to Crop Using a Third-Party App
You can find a variety of third-party applications that let you edit photos by visiting the Photo & Video category in the App Store.
Among these are well-known programs like Adobe Lightroom, Polarr Photo Editor, Pixelstyle Picture Image Editor, and others. Online stores provide similar apps as well. When it comes to cropping, each independent photo-editing program behaves somewhat differently from the next.
Follow the steps below to edit screenshots using Polarr Photo Editor
- Open File.
- Select the photo you wish to edit.
- Press the crop icon on the left.
- Then select the area you wish to save.
- Press the Save Photo icon to save the image.
How to Crop with Online Tools
If you’d prefer not to download a third-party app, you may crop screenshots on a Mac using online tools like ILoveIMG, IMG2Go, etc. These web tools make it simple to crop JPG, PNG, or GIF files by specifying a rectangle in pixels.
It’s a quick way to crop screenshots, but it doesn’t allow you complete editing flexibility. For example, you cannot alter backgrounds, obscure certain parts, or emphasize important features. Recall that the tools CleanShot X, Capto, and Xnapper we previously discussed allow you to achieve that.
How to Make and Crop Screenshots Using a Touchpad
On a Mac, taking cropped screenshots is comparatively simple when using the touchpad. Because older Macs lack the features of more recent MacBook Pro models, you can only take screenshots with the Touch Bar itself. However, because Photos is pre-installed on every Mac computer, there is no need to download or install it.
How to capture a screenshot on a Mac and crop it using the touchpad is shown below:
- You can alter a screenshot by simply launching the touchpad program from the Launchpad.
- Then, turn on the Touch Bar’s Screenshot icon. A camera-shaped sign ought to appear.
- Choose the sort of screenshot you want to take by tapping the camera icon.
- Take a screenshot, edit it, then save it where you’d like by clicking the thumbnail.
Where do Screenshots go on Mac?
You can capture screenshots of your screen while using the Pictures app on a Mac. To capture a screenshot, use the Command-Shift-3 key on your keyboard. Your desktop will receive the addition of a new Screenshot.
How do I Edit a Cropped Screenshot on Mac?
You can open a cropped screenshot in an image editing application like Photoshop or GIMP to alter it. Use the editing tools to make any required edits once the image has been modified.
Open the image in Preview, then choose the “Crop” tool from the toolbar. Drag the corners of the crop box to resize it, and click and drag inside the box to move the cropped region. After you’re done, select “Done” from the toolbar.
Conclusion
You can reduce screenshots to a more useful size and concentrate on the important elements by cropping them. Regardless of the technique or tool you decide on, you ought to be capable of editing your photographs and emphasizing the main elements.