How to Take a Scrolling Screenshot on a Mac

The Limitation of Native Mac Screenshots

If you have used a Mac for any length of time, you likely know the standard screenshot shortcuts: Cmd + Shift + 3 captures the entire screen, and Cmd + Shift + 4 lets you select a specific portion.

However, these tools share a frustrating limitation: they can only capture what is currently visible on your monitor. If you need to screenshot an entire webpage, a long PDF document, or a lengthy email thread, the native tools force you to take multiple, overlapping screenshots and piece them together manually. While iPhones and Android devices have built-in scrolling screenshot features, macOS surprisingly lacks this functionality natively.

Fortunately, there are simple and free workarounds to capture full-page scrolling screenshots on your Mac.

Method 1: Use Firefox or Edge for Webpages

If the content you want to capture is a webpage, the easiest method is to use a browser that has a built-in scrolling screenshot tool. While Apple’s Safari does not have this feature, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge do.

Using Mozilla Firefox:

1. Open the webpage you want to capture in Firefox.
2. Right-click anywhere on the blank background of the page.
3. Select Take Screenshot from the context menu.
4. In the top right corner of the window, click the Save full page button.
5. Firefox will capture the entire length of the page. You can then click Download to save it as a PNG file to your Mac, or click Copy to paste it directly into a document or message.

Using Microsoft Edge:

1. Open the webpage in Edge.
2. Press the keyboard shortcut Cmd + Shift + S to open the Web Capture tool.
3. Click on Capture full page.
4. A preview window will open showing the entire scrolling screenshot. You can use the pen tool to draw on it, or click the Save icon (the floppy disk) to save it to your downloads folder.

Method 2: Use the "Print to PDF" Trick in Safari

If you prefer sticking with Safari and need to capture a whole webpage, you can use the Print to PDF trick to create a continuous document that serves the same purpose as a scrolling screenshot.

1. Open the webpage in Safari.
2. Press Cmd + P to open the print dialogue box.
3. If you only want the text and images without ads, exit the print menu, click the Reader View icon in the URL bar, and then press Cmd + P again.
4. At the bottom of the print dialogue, click the dropdown menu that says PDF.
5. Select Save as PDF.
6. Choose a save location and click Save.

This generates a clean PDF file containing the entire webpage. While it is technically a PDF and not a PNG image, it achieves the exact same goal of capturing scrolling content.

Method 3: Third-Party Apps for System-Wide Screenshots

If you need to capture scrolling content outside of a web browser—such as a long Excel spreadsheet, a Slack conversation, or a lengthy PDF—you will need to install a third-party application.

The most popular and reliable free tool for this is Shottr. It is a lightweight, highly optimized screenshot app built specifically for macOS.

1. Download and install Shottr from its official website.
2. Once the app is running in your menu bar, open the document or app you want to capture.
3. Click the Shottr icon in your menu bar and select Scrolling Screenshot (or use its customizable keyboard shortcut).
4. Select the area you want to capture. Shottr will automatically scroll down the page and stitch the images together perfectly.
5. The captured image will open in the Shottr editor, where you can crop, annotate, or save it to your Mac.

By using one of these three methods, you can easily bypass macOS limitations and capture long-form content in a single, high-quality image.