How to take a screenshot of the screen on a computer (laptop)

Tags: windows
Published: 2021-10-25 12:41:02

In his life, any computer user may be faced with the need to take a screenshot, which is also called a screenshot or a screen (from the English word screenshot). Also, on our site there is an article that describes in detail how to record video from a computer screen . 

There can be many reasons - you need to show someone a specific example, technical support asks to show a screen of their program error ... Below we will consider several ways of how you can take a screenshot of a computer (or laptop) screen using standard computer tools, and also using various free software.

<b>Using the Print Screen Key</b>

On any computer, you can easily take a screenshot (screenshot) of the screen, without using any programs. To do this, just press the "Print screen" ("PrtSc") button on the keyboard, and then press the insert button in any graphics editor (Paint, Photoshop) or office application (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).

If you are using a laptop or a shortened keyboard, then you may need to press the "Fn + Print screen" key combination to perform the screenshot action.

<b>Also Read:</b> <a href="https://wethegeek.com/11-best-free-screen-recorder-software-for-windows-2017/">Best screen recorder for PC</a>

Let's take a look at this method using the Paint program as an example :
Let's say you've opened a browser window and you want to take a screenshot. Press the "Print screen" key .

To take a screenshot of only the active window, you can use the "Alt + Print screen" key combination.

Press the Start button , type Paint there in the search - find the application of the same name in the results, and launch it. It is also possible to start this editor by first pressing the Win + R keys , then typing the following command in the " Run " line -mspaint

In the Paint editor, right-click on a blank white sheet, and select the " Paste " context menu item , or you can press the same "Paste" button in the menu located at the top of the program.
Now it remains to save this picture - to do this, just click on the "File - Save" button.

We save the picture under the right name, in the right place and in the right format. It is recommended to save screenshots in JPG and PNG formats, but not BMP.

<b>Using the Scissors program</b>

Starting with Windows Vista, an application called Scissors has appeared in the standard set of programs, which allows you to take a screenshot and save it by pressing a couple of buttons. This can be done as follows:

Find the "Scissors" application in the Start menu.

In the "Scissors" program, click on the "Create" button.

After that, the screen will fade slightly, and the mouse cursor will turn into a cross-shaped sight. If you hold down the left mouse button and start pulling it to one of the sides, an area will appear highlighted in red - as soon as you release the mouse, the selected area will be captured by the Scissors program as a screenshot.

The program will show the captured area of ​​the screen.

Now it remains to decide what to do with the captured image. You can save it by clicking the "Save Fragment" button (in the form of a floppy disk), or if the resulting screenshot does not suit you, you can try again (the "Create" button).

In addition to these programs, there are still many, but the ones listed above are the simplest for ordinary computer users. If you have any comments regarding the article, or questions, you can always leave them in the comments below.