Screenshot a window without the shadow

⌘⇧4 then Space turns the cursor into a camera and captures a whole window, frame and all. The result includes a soft shadow and a generous margin of transparent pixels. In a slide deck that shadow reads as a mistake. In a blog post it pushes the image off centre.

Hold ⌥ while you click the window and macOS captures only the window contents. No shadow, no padding, no cleanup in an image editor.

The full set of screenshot keys

⌘⇧5 is where the useful settings live: save to Desktop, Documents, Clipboard, Mail, Messages or Preview, a five or ten second timer, and a toggle for the floating thumbnail. If the thumbnail in the corner keeps covering what you are trying to capture next, that toggle is the fix.

Esc cancels any capture in progress, which matters when you press ⌘⇧4 by accident during a call.

Two details worth knowing

Adding ⌃ sends the image to the clipboard without leaving a file behind. That is the fastest path into Slack, a ticket or a chat: capture, paste, done. If you later want the file too, paste into Preview and save.

Window capture works on windows that are partly off screen, but not on protected content. Video players, some banking apps and DRM pages return a blank frame by design, and no screenshot utility gets around it.

Where the files go

By default everything lands on the Desktop with names like Screenshot 2026-11-08 at 14.22.10.png. If your Desktop is already a mess, set a dedicated folder once in ⌘⇧5 > Options > Other Location. Screenshots are easy to find later and easy to delete in bulk from one place.