4 Ways to Convert Screenshots to PDF and JPG on Mac

Mac notebooks and desktops save screenshots as PNG image files. This guide will show you various ways to convert these screenshots to PDF and JPG formats. Also, learn how to change the default file format for saving screenshots on Mac.

Before moving on, the next section provides a quick refresher highlighting different ways to take screenshots on macOS devices.

How to take a screenshot on Mac

Macs have multiple keyboard shortcuts for capturing different types of screenshots. The Touch Bar (for MacBook Pro) also has a dedicated “Screenshot” tool for the same purpose.

Method 1: Use keyboard shortcuts

push shift + instructions + 3 Take a screenshot of the entire screen at the same time.

To capture part of the screen, shift + instructions + Four Use the crosshair tool to select the area you want to capture. To move the selection, space key Drag the selection (without lifting your finger from the trackpad) to the desired area.

If your MacBook has a Touch Bar, shift + instructions + 6 Capture the touch bar screen.

touch bar screenshot

Method 2: From the Touch Bar control strip

You can also use the Touch Bar to take screenshots of your MacBook screen.Expanding control strip Tap. screenshot icon.

Expand the control strip to reveal the screenshot icon

in the Capture Selected Part section, select the area you want to capture, capture in the screenshot menu.

[選択した部分をキャプチャ]option and[キャプチャ]button

To capture your entire Mac display using the Touch Bar, capture the whole screen Select the leftmost icon, capture.

Capture the entire screen icon

There is also an option to capture the app window.choose Capture Selected Window hover over the icon camera icon Select anywhere in the app window in the app you want to screenshot.

Selected window capture icon

Edit screenshots on Mac

No matter which method you choose, your Mac will display a screenshot thumbnail in the bottom right corner of the screen.

screenshot thumbnail

Tap a thumbnail to launch a preview window where you can resize or crop the screenshot, add text and shapes, insert a signature, and share the screenshot via AirDrop, message, email, etc.

preview window

This built-in editor also allows you to convert screenshots to other file formats.

Convert screenshots on Mac

You probably already know that there are different image formats. By default, macOS saves screenshots in Portable Network Graphic (PNG) format. Images saved in this format have better quality and larger file sizes than other popular formats such as JPG and BMP.

Converting screenshots to JPEG format saves storage space on your Mac. You may also need to convert screenshots to Portable Document Format (PDF) to meet the file upload requirements of certain platforms or websites.

Luckily, the built-in macOS editor lets you convert screenshots from the default PNG format to JPEG (or JPG), TIFF, HEIC, PDF, and more.

1. Convert screenshots to PDF on Mac

Use keyboard shortcuts or the Touch Bar to capture an area of ​​your screen and follow the steps below to convert the screenshot to a PDF file.

  1. Double-click or double-tap a screenshot to open it in Preview, the macOS built-in image and PDF editor.

Alternatively, Ctrl-click the screenshot and select open with , and choose preview.

Open with Application > Preview ” class=”wp-image-14086″ /></figure> </div> <ol start=
  • select File in the menu bar Export to PDF.
    • File > Export as PDF ” class=”wp-image-14087″ /></figure> </div> <ol start=
  • Rename the file in the Save As dialog, tap the Location dropdown option to select where you want to save the file, keep.
    • "save as" dialog

    2. Convert Screenshot to JPG on Mac

    Follow the same process for rehashing screenshots to JPG on Mac. However, the macOS JPG conversion tool is a bit more advanced and allows him to select the quality of the resulting JPG file.

    1. Control-click the screenshot and Open with in the context menu, preview.
    Open with Application > Preview ” class=”wp-image-14089″ /></figure> </div> <ol start=
  • select File in the menu bar write out.
    • File > Export ” class=”wp-image-14090″ /></figure> </div> <ol start=
  • [名前を付けてエクスポート]Give the screenshot a new name/title in the dialog box,[場所]Choose where to save the file in the dialog box. Move the quality slider to the far right to convert the screenshot to “Best” JPEG quality.
    • Quality slider and save button

    3. Convert screenshots to PDF or JPG using an online file converter

    There are several online-based file conversion tools that can convert Mac screenshots to JPG images and PDF documents. Online-Convert and ZamZam are good examples of popular online tools that can convert between various file types.

    Access these platforms in your web browser, upload your screenshots, select the image or document format you want the screenshots converted to, and download the resulting file to your Mac.

    Image and document format menu

    4. Change Default File Format for Screenshots on Mac

    As mentioned above, macOS saves screenshots in PNG file format by default. (PNG) Converting screenshots to other file formats frequently can be frustrating. Permanently configuring your Mac to save screenshots in frequently used file formats can save a lot of time, energy, and storage space.

    We especially recommend changing the default format for screenshots to JPG if your Mac is running out of storage. This is because PNG files often consume more storage space than his JPG and PDF documents.

    The image below shows the file size of 3 screenshots (different formats) taken simultaneously on my test MacBook.

    File size of 3 screenshots in different formats

    PNG screenshots consumed the most storage space (3.1 MB), followed by PDF (2.7 MB) and JPG (680 KB) screenshots.

    1. go to finder >> application >> utility and double click Terminal.
    Finder > Applications > Utilities > Terminal ” class=”wp-image-14094″ /></figure> </div> <ol start=
  • type or paste Default writes com.apple.screencapture type JPG in the terminal console, come in.
    • Default writes com.apple.screencapture type JPG

    This command tells your Mac to save the screenshot file in JPG format.

    1. To save the screenshot as a PDF file, paste Default writes com.apple.screencapture type PDF in the terminal console, come in.
    Default writes com.apple.screencapture type PDF

    From now on, Mac will save screenshots in PDF file format. On macOS you can also save screen captures to other multimedia formats such as TIFF and GIF.All you need to do is paste default write com.apple.screencapture type TIFF Also Default writes a GIF of type com.apple.screencapture in a terminal window, come in.

    Default writes com.apple.screencapture type TIFF, default writes com.apple.screencapture type GIF

    These commands change the default file format for Mac screenshots to TIFF or GIF respectively.

    Paste to change the default screenshot file format to PNG. Default write com.apple.screencapture type PNG in a terminal window, come in.

    Default write com.apple.screencapture type PNG

    To check if your Mac’s screenshot format has changed, take a screenshot and check the file details.

    Right-click or Control-click the screenshot and select get info in the context menu[一般]section of[種類]Check the line.

    Get info with context menu

    If the screenshot format has not changed, rerun the appropriate command, take another screenshot, and check the image format again. If you still can’t change the screenshot file format, restart your Mac and try again.

    If you’re having trouble capturing, editing, or converting screenshots, check out this troubleshooting guide on fixing screenshot-related issues on Mac.

    Related Posts

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published.