How to Screenshot a Full-Screen App or Game on Mac

The challenge with full-screen captures

Full-screen mode on Mac hides the menu bar, the Dock, and every other window. It's great for focus, but it introduces a problem: the usual screenshot workflow breaks. You can't see the screenshot toolbar, you might not remember the keyboard shortcut, and some apps actively interfere with screen capture. Games are especially tricky because they often grab keyboard input, making standard shortcuts unresponsive.

The good news is that macOS keyboard shortcuts for screenshots work in almost every full-screen context. The bad news is that "almost" has some notable exceptions. Here's how to capture anything on your screen, regardless of what's running.

Built-in shortcuts that work in full-screen mode

The core macOS screenshot shortcuts work even when an app is running in full-screen mode. These are system-level key combinations that macOS intercepts before the app sees them.

Cmd+Shift+3 captures your entire screen and saves it as a file. In full-screen mode, this captures exactly what's visible — the full-screen app and nothing else. No Dock, no menu bar, no other windows bleeding through.

Cmd+Shift+4 turns your cursor into a crosshair so you can select a specific region. This works in full-screen apps, though you'll notice the crosshair appears on top of the running app. Drag to select the area you want, release, and the screenshot is saved.

Cmd+Shift+5 opens the screenshot toolbar at the bottom of the screen. In full-screen mode, the toolbar overlays the app. You can choose between full screen, window, or region capture, and also start a screen recording. This is the most flexible option because you can see your choices before committing.

To copy directly to your clipboard instead of saving a file, add Ctrl to any of these shortcuts. Ctrl+Cmd+Shift+3 copies the full screen to clipboard. Ctrl+Cmd+Shift+4 copies a selected region. This is faster when you want to paste the screenshot directly into a chat or document without managing files.

Screenshots in Mac games

Games on Mac fall into several categories, and each handles screenshots differently. The approach depends on whether the game uses macOS's windowing system or takes exclusive control of the display.

App Store and native Mac games (like those from Apple Arcade or ported with Game Porting Toolkit) generally respect standard macOS shortcuts. Cmd+Shift+3 works in the vast majority of these games. The game may briefly flicker or pause as macOS processes the capture, but you'll get a clean screenshot.

Steam games have their own screenshot system. Press F12 (the default Steam screenshot key) to capture through Steam's overlay. These screenshots are saved to Steam's screenshot folder and can be accessed through the Steam client under View > Screenshots. You can also use the standard macOS shortcuts alongside Steam's built-in capture.

Games running through CrossOver, Whisky, or Wine translate Windows APIs to macOS equivalents. macOS screenshot shortcuts usually still work because they're intercepted at the system level. However, if the game runs in an exclusive full-screen mode that bypasses macOS compositing, you may get a black screenshot. In that case, switch the game to "Windowed Fullscreen" or "Borderless Windowed" mode in its graphics settings. This keeps the game full-screen visually but uses macOS's standard compositing, which allows screenshot tools to capture normally.

Games using Metal exclusively may render directly to the display without going through the standard window server. If your screenshots come out black, the game is likely bypassing the compositing layer. The fix is the same: use borderless windowed mode if available, or use the game's built-in screenshot function.

Screenshotting presentations and slideshows

Keynote, PowerPoint, and Google Slides (in full-screen presentation mode) all support macOS screenshot shortcuts. Press Cmd+Shift+3 at any point during your presentation to capture the current slide as displayed.

One thing to watch: the floating screenshot thumbnail that appears after capture (bottom-right corner) will show up on your presentation display. If you're presenting to an audience and don't want them to see the thumbnail, disable it beforehand. Open Cmd+Shift+5, click Options, and uncheck "Show Floating Thumbnail."

For capturing every slide in a presentation, you're better off exporting directly. In Keynote, go to File > Export To > Images. In PowerPoint, File > Export and select the image format. This gives you every slide as a separate image without manually screenshotting each one.

DRM-protected apps: what you can and can't capture

Some apps deliberately block screen capture to protect copyrighted content. When you try to screenshot these apps, you'll get a black rectangle where the protected content should be.

Apps that commonly block screenshots include Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+ (during DRM-protected playback), Spotify (album art in some contexts), and certain banking and financial apps. This isn't a bug in your screenshot tool — these apps use macOS's content protection APIs to mark their windows as non-capturable.

There is no workaround that respects the app's intent, and screenshot tools (including the built-in macOS shortcuts) cannot override this protection. If you need to reference content from a protected app, take a photo of your screen with your phone as a last resort, but be mindful of the content's terms of service.

For apps that block screenshots for security reasons (like 1Password showing your vault), the blocking is intentional and protective. These apps hide sensitive data from screen capture to prevent accidental exposure in screenshots shared with others or sent to AI assistants.

Using third-party screenshot tools in full-screen mode

Third-party screenshot tools like LazyScreenshots, CleanShot X, and Shottr register global keyboard shortcuts that work across all apps, including full-screen ones. The advantage over built-in shortcuts is that you can capture, annotate, and share in one step without leaving full-screen mode.

For third-party tools to work in full-screen mode, they need Screen Recording permission in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Screen Recording. Without this permission, the tool will either fail to capture or produce blank images. See our guide to Mac screenshot permissions for setup steps.

One advantage of dedicated tools in full-screen contexts: they can capture and immediately open an annotation overlay without switching you out of full-screen mode. You annotate on top of the capture, hit a shortcut to copy it, and you're back in your app. With the built-in tools, you'd need to exit full-screen mode, find the screenshot file, open it in Preview, annotate there, and go back.

Screen recording as an alternative

Sometimes a single screenshot doesn't capture what you need. For game sequences, animation bugs, or multi-step interactions in a full-screen app, a screen recording is more effective. Press Cmd+Shift+5, select "Record Entire Screen" or "Record Selected Portion," and click Record. Click the stop button in the menu bar (or press Cmd+Ctrl+Esc) when done.

macOS saves recordings as .mov files. You can then scrub through the recording and take screenshots of specific frames using Quick Look (select the file in Finder and press Space) or by opening the video in QuickTime Player and using Edit > Trim to isolate the exact moment you need.

Troubleshooting: screenshots not working in full-screen

Black or blank screenshots. The app is either using DRM content protection or rendering outside the standard compositing pipeline. Try borderless windowed mode. If the content is DRM-protected, there's no technical fix.

Keyboard shortcuts not responding. Some games capture all keyboard input, including system shortcuts. Check the game's settings for a "screenshot" keybind. On Steam, use F12. If the game doesn't have a built-in screenshot key, try Cmd+Shift+5 first — the toolbar sometimes appears even when other shortcuts are intercepted.

Screenshots capture the wrong display. If you have multiple monitors and one is running a full-screen app, Cmd+Shift+3 captures all displays. Use Cmd+Shift+4 instead to select just the region you want, or use Cmd+Shift+5 to choose which screen to capture.

Floating thumbnail interrupts gameplay. Disable it before playing: Cmd+Shift+5 > Options > uncheck "Show Floating Thumbnail." Screenshots still save normally, you just won't see the preview animation.