There are many occasions where it would be helpful to take a picture of whatever appears on your monitor, either to post on a help forum like this one to illustrate a problem - or perhaps to save important information from an application or website.
Thankfully, there are lots of ways to do this. The "Print Screen" button is a long standing method, however using the Windows 10 snipping tool is often a far easier solution (and one we would recommend).
Print Screen Button:
It is possible to take a screenshot by pressing the PrtScr button on a keyboard. This will capture an image of whatever appears on your screen (in its entirety) and place the image in the clipboard so that you can paste in to an application (perhaps Paint, so you can save it as a .jpg file).
If you want to copy an image of an individual Window or Application, make sure that it is the current active window (clicking on it is good enough) then press ALT + PrtScr instead.
Snipping Tool:
Windows 10 includes a screen capture tool which lets you easily save images either of the whole screen, a particular window or even a selectable area of your choice. It is then very easy to save this as an image file from within the snipping tool.
To begin, search for Snipping Tool on the start menu (either by clicking the search icon or just typing it in to the start menu) and then click it:
Once loaded, start by clicking the small arrow next to the New button - this will let you choose one of 4 capture options:
When you have clicked your option, then follow the instructions to choose your capture area. Once that is done, your image will be displayed in the snipping tool (you can re-capture it by clicking "new"). To save your image, click the Disk icon:
Thankfully, there are lots of ways to do this. The "Print Screen" button is a long standing method, however using the Windows 10 snipping tool is often a far easier solution (and one we would recommend).
Print Screen Button:
It is possible to take a screenshot by pressing the PrtScr button on a keyboard. This will capture an image of whatever appears on your screen (in its entirety) and place the image in the clipboard so that you can paste in to an application (perhaps Paint, so you can save it as a .jpg file).
If you want to copy an image of an individual Window or Application, make sure that it is the current active window (clicking on it is good enough) then press ALT + PrtScr instead.
Snipping Tool:
Windows 10 includes a screen capture tool which lets you easily save images either of the whole screen, a particular window or even a selectable area of your choice. It is then very easy to save this as an image file from within the snipping tool.
To begin, search for Snipping Tool on the start menu (either by clicking the search icon or just typing it in to the start menu) and then click it:
Once loaded, start by clicking the small arrow next to the New button - this will let you choose one of 4 capture options:
- Free-form Snip - this allows you to capture an area of any shape by manually drawing a freehand region on screen.
- Rectangular Snip - draw a rectangle on screen to capture the enclosed area.
- Window Snip - click on a window to take a screenshot of its contents.
- Full Screen Snip - capture the entire display.
When you have clicked your option, then follow the instructions to choose your capture area. Once that is done, your image will be displayed in the snipping tool (you can re-capture it by clicking "new"). To save your image, click the Disk icon:
