3 ways to take a screenshot without the shadow on Mac

1. Using selection
Shift
+ Control
+ 4
+ Space
, now you can drag the cursor and select the specific are that you want to take the screenshot.
2. Using command screencapture in the terminal
On OS X we can open the terminal and use the command screencapture
to take screenshots the command has several options and there are 2 in specific that make it work:
- -o in window capture mode, do not capture the shadow of the window
- -w only allow window selection mode
screencapture -ow ~/Desktop/free-shadow.png
After this, you only need to click on the windows to take the screenshot.
Is possible see all the option using the command screencapture -h
or use man screencapture
to read the manual:
usage: screencapture [-icMPmwsWxSCUtoa] [files]
-c force screen capture to go to the clipboard
-b capture Touch Bar - non-interactive modes only
-C capture the cursor as well as the screen. only in non-interactive modes
-d display errors to the user graphically
-i capture screen interactively, by selection or window
control key - causes screen shot to go to clipboard
space key - toggle between mouse selection and
window selection modes
escape key - cancels interactive screen shot
-m only capture the main monitor, undefined if -i is set
-M screen capture output will go to a new Mail message
-o in window capture mode, do not capture the shadow of the window
-P screen capture output will open in Preview
-I screen capture output will in a new Messages message
-s only allow mouse selection mode
-S in window capture mode, capture the screen not the window
-t<format> image format to create, default is png (other options include pdf, jpg, tiff and other formats)
-T<seconds> Take the picture after a delay of <seconds>, default is 5
-w only allow window selection mode
-W start interaction in window selection mode
-x do not play sounds
-a do not include windows attached to selected windows
-r do not add dpi meta data to image
-l<windowid> capture this windowsid
-R<x,y,w,h> capture screen rect
-B<bundleid> screen capture output will open in app with bundleidBS
files where to save the screen capture, 1 file per screen
3. Change default option to take screenshots
This command disables the shadows in screenshots by default after that you can use Shift
+ Command
+ 4
and the screenshot will be free of shadows:
defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool TRUE
For the changes to take effect is necessary restart or restart the UIServer with this command:
killall SystemUIServer
And if you want the shadows back, is possible using this command:
defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool FALSE; killall SystemUIServer
Remember you need to restart your computer or restart the UIServer, for the changes to take effect .