You might be familiar with how to take a screenshot in Windows or on macOS, but if you’re new to Chromebooks, you might be a little unsure about how to do it. The process isn’t drastically different, but it’s far from the same. While even the best Chromebooks don’t include a “Print screen” key, learning how to take a screenshot on a Chromebook is actually fairly simple — whether you need to grab the entire screen or just a portion.
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How to capture a screenshot on Chromebook
To take a screenshot of everything you see on your Chromebook’s screen at once, hold down the Ctrl key and press the Switch window key. The latter button is typically located in the top row, in between the Full-screen and Brightness down buttons, and looks like a rectangle followed by two lines. Once you press both keys, you will see a notification in the bottom corner of the screen alerting you that your screenshot has been saved. If you’re wondering where the screenshots go on a Chromebook, you can directly find in Chromebook’s Downloads folder.
How to copy and paste a screenshot on Chromebook
Chrome OS doesn’t save screenshots as copied images like Windows does when the Print screen button is pressed. If you’d like to simply copy a screenshot (for insertion into an image editor, for example), watch the notification that appears above the system clock. Click Copy to clipboard button, then press Ctrl+V when you want to paste it.
How do you take a cropped screenshot on Chromebook
The screenshots captured by Chrome OS are ready to share, but if you want to do a little more with them, you should familiarize yourself with Chrome’s built-in image editor. Here’s how to access it.
- Double-click your screenshot to open it in the image viewer.
- Click the pen icon in the bottom-right corner of the window to enter edit mode. Tools for cropping, rotation, and brightness adjustments will appear at the bottom of the window.
- When you’re done, simply click the pen icon again to finalize your edits.
