There are several keyboard combinations that can be used to take screenshots in Mac OS X.
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Different versions of Mac OS X have different formats for screenshots.
In Mac OS X 10.4, the default screenshot format can be changed, by opening Terminal (located at /Applications/Utilities/Terminal) and typing in:
defaults write com.apple.screencapture type image_format
killall SystemUIServer
Where image_format is one of jpg, tiff, pdf, png, bmp or pict (among others). The second line can be omitted, however if it is you will need to log out and in again for the changes to take effect.
Instead of using the keyboard shortcuts above, screenshots can be taken by using the Grab application included with Mac OS X. It is located at /Applications/Utilities/Grab.
In Mac OS X 10.4, the Preview application can also be used to take screenshots, by using the Grab submenu in the File menu.
The screencapture command in the Terminal can also be used to capture screenshots, and is useful for scripts. Here is an example.
screencapture -iW ~/Desktop/screen.jpg
There are a huge number of third party applications that can be used to take screenshots. Several popular ones are listed below:
Snapz Pro X is very popular and can even record movies. It has a large range of features, and is shareware.
SnapNDrag is also popular and offers several features in addition to those offered by the default screen capture tools. With SnapNDrag, users take a screenshot, then drag it to their destination. SnapNDrag is freeware, but also has a pro version.
Screen Mimic is shareware that can be used to record animations of your desktop to .swf files for tutorials, software demonstrations, etc.