Capturing screenshot on Chromebook is pretty easy as Google makes sure that it doesn’t confuse users with too many tools. Find the best ways to take screenshots on your Chromebook below.
How To Take a Screenshot on Chromebook?
Chrome OS comes with an excellent built-in tool for capturing screenshots and screen recordings known as Screen Capture. We’ll use it to take screenshots. It works on any Chromebook whether it’s manufactured by HP, Acer, Lenovo, Dell, Samsung, or any other brand.
- Take a Full-Screen Screenshot
- Capture a Partial Screenshot
- Take a Screenshot of a Specific Window
- Keyboard Shortcut Keys
- Use a Stylus to Take Screenshots
- Power ON/Off and Volume Buttons
- Take Screenshots with an External Keyboard
- Install Third-Party Apps from Google Play Store
1. Take a Full-Screen Screenshot
If you want to quickly take a screenshot of your entire screen with the Screen Capture tool, use these two techniques:
1.1 Take a Full Screen Through the Screen Capture Toolbar
This method is useful for people who don’t want to remember shortcut keys. They can access Screen Capture with a few clicks or taps.
- Click the time at the bottom right corner of the screen to open the Quick Settings panel and choose ‘Screen Capture’. If you don’t see it, click the arrow button to find it.
- It’ll launch the Screen Capture toolbar.
- Select the camera icon and then the full-screen screenshot button.
- You’ll get a prompt to click to take a screenshot of the entire screen.
- Once you click, the screenshot will be taken.
- You’ll see a notification of the snapshot with its thumbnail. Depending on your Chrome OS version, you may see ‘Edit, ‘Delete’, and ‘Copy to clipboard’ options on the notification at the bottom right of the screen.
- On Windows, when you take a screenshot, it’s automatically copied to your clipboard. On Chrome OS, it doesn’t. You can click the ‘Copy to clipboard’ button after taking a screenshot and then instantly paste it to a slide, document, or chat.
- Your screenshots are saved in the Downloads folder where you can access them and edit them if needed.
1.2 Capture a Screenshot with the Shortcut Keys
If you want to take full-screen snapshots instantly and multiple times in a short amount of time, you need a keyboard shortcut key that you can press whenever you need to capture a screenshot. For this, use these steps:
- When on the screen you need to take a screenshot of, press the CTRL + Show windows keys together. The Show windows key is usually in the top row of your Chromebook. Look for an icon that has a rectangle with two vertical lines next to it.
- A screenshot of your entire screen will be captured and you’ll see a notification for it.
- As this method doesn’t interrupt what you’re doing, you can easily take a lot of screenshots by just pressing the shortcut keys whenever needed. It’s similar to the Print Screen method on Windows computers.
- Find the screenshots in the Downloads folder.
2. Capture a Partial Screenshot
Taking snapshots of the full screen isn’t convenient if you have to edit and crop the screenshot later. If you only want to select an area of the screen for a screenshot, use this method:
- Press the CTRL + SHIFT + Show windows keys at once to launch the Screen Capture toolbar. Alternatively, you can also open it by clicking the time on the taskbar and choosing ‘Screen Capture’.
- It’ll launch the Chrome OS screenshot toolbar.
- Select the camera icon and then click the partial screenshot icon.
- The screen will be frozen with a dark overlay and your mouse pointer will turn into a crosshair cursor.
- Click and drag the crosshair cursor to select a portion of the screen.
- The screenshot will be taken and you may see a notification.
- To open and edit the screenshot, go to the Downloads folder of your Chromebook.
3. Take a Screenshot of a Specific Window
You can take a screenshot of anything with the partial screenshot method, but if you’re wondering isn’t there an easier way to just screenshot an active window? Yes, there is. Follow these steps:
- On your taskbar, click the time to open the Quick Settings panel and choose ‘Screen Capture’. Or press the CTRL + ALT + Show windows keys together.
- When the Screen Capture toolbar launches, select the camera icon and the window screenshot icon.
- Your mouse pointer will change into a camera icon. Click on any specific window to capture a screenshot of that window.
- After taking the screenshot, you may see a notification at the bottom right corner. Access your screenshot from there.
- If you don’t see any notification, go to My Files > Downloads to find your screenshot.
4. Keyboard Shortcut Keys
We have mentioned the shortcut keys for each of the three screenshot modes in the above sections. If you want a clean list of the shortcuts for taking screenshots on your Chromebook, follow the below:
- Full-screen screenshot: Press the CTRL + Show windows keys together. It will instantly take a screenshot of your entire screen.
- Window screenshot: Press the CTRL + ALT + Show windows keys at once to open the Screen Capture toolbar with the Window Screenshot mode selected.
- Partial Screenshot: Press the CTRL + SHIFT + Show windows key together to open the default screenshot toolbar.
5. Use a Stylus to Take Screenshots
Chromebooks with touchscreen also come with Stylus which is a useful tool for many. If you want to take a screenshot with your stylus pen, follow the below steps:
5.1 Full-Screen Screenshot
- Connect your stylus with the Chromebook.
- Tap the stylus pen icon on the taskbar.
- Choose ‘Capture Screen’ from the Stylus tools menu.
- A screenshot of your entire screen will be taken.
- You’ll find a notification at the bottom right of the screen.
5.2 Partial Screenshot
- Tap the stylus pen button on the taskbar.
- From the menu, pick ‘Capture region’.
- The screen will be frozen with a dark overlay.
- Use your stylus to select an area of the screen for taking a screenshot.
- Once the screenshot is taken, open it from the notification or go to the Downloads folder.
You can also check if your stylus responds when you bring the screen capture toolbar from any other method such as by pressing the CTRL + SHIFT + Show windows keys or from the Quick Settings panel.
6. Power ON/Off and Volume Buttons
Chromebooks that can also be used as tablets have another method of taking screenshots – the physical button method.
You can take screenshots on these Chromebooks just as you would on your smartphone or any other tablet. Use the on/off and volume buttons.
- Open up the screen you want to take a snapshot of.
- Press the Power button + Volume Down button together located at the sides of the Chromebook tablet.
- It’ll trigger a screenshot of the entire screen.
- You may see a notification of the screenshot from where you can open the screenshot or edit it.
This method is helpful for people who frequently use their Chromebook as a tablet without a keyboard. But if you want more options, you can still launch the screen capture toolbar from the Quick Settings panel without having to attach a keyboard.
7. Take Screenshots with an External Keyboard
Dedicated Chromebook keys are hard to find on external keyboards. So, if you’re using Chromebox or connected an external keyboard to your Chromebook, you’ll be greeted with the traditional function keys row at the top of the keyboard. Follow this list to perform Chromebook commands on a standard keyboard.
- F1: Previous page
- F2: Next page
- F3: Refresh
- F4: Full-screen
- F5: Show windows
- F6: Decrease brightness
- F7: Increase brightness
- F8: Mute
- F9: Decrease volume
- F10: Increase volume
The screenshot shortcuts will change as well. Familiarize yourself with screen capture shortcuts on an external keyboard:
- Full-screen screenshot: Press the CTRL + F5 keys to instantly take a screenshot of the whole screen.
- Partial screenshot: Press the CTRL + SHIFT + F5 keys at once to launch the screen capture toolbar with the partial screenshot mode selected.
8. Install Third-Party Apps from Google Play Store
You can enable Google Play Store on your Chromebook to install Android apps on it. If you have a school-issued Chromebook, you may have to ask your IT administrator to enable Google Play Store.
However, if you have your own Chromebook, turning on Google Play Store is simple.
- Click the clock on the taskbar at the bottom right corner of the screen.
- Open Settings by selecting the cogwheel icon.
- Pick ‘Apps’ from the side pane.
- Click the ‘Turn on’ button next to Google Play Store.
- Read the terms of service and choose ‘Accept’ if you want to continue.
To install screenshots apps, use these steps:
- Open Google Play Store on your Chromebook.
- Search ‘screenshot app’.
- Find free apps and install a few of them to check them out.
How To Change the Location of Screenshots on Chromebook?
- Where Do Screenshots Go on a Chromebook?
- Change the Default Location of Screenshots
- Manually Upload Screenshots to Google Drive on a Chromebook
- Automatically Upload Screenshots to Google Drive on a Chromebook
1. Where Do Screenshots Go on a Chromebook?
Once a screenshot is taken, it either goes to the Downloads folder or the Images folder.
- Open the File Launcher at the bottom left corner of the screen
- Choose ‘Files’. If you don’t see files, select search, type ‘files’, and launch it.
- In the left pane, under ‘My Files’, select ‘Downloads’ or ‘Images’.
- You’ll find your screenshots there.
- In case of video captures, go to My File > Videos.
2. Change the Default Location of Screenshots
On Chromebooks, many new things go straight to the Downloads folder. If you have a lot of data in the Downloads folder, it may become hard to find your screenshots there.
Moreover, if your Chromebook’s internal storage is full, you might want to choose external storage for screenshots and downloads. Use these steps to change the location of screenshots on Chrome OS:
- At the bottom right corner of the taskbar, click the clock.
- Select the settings icon (cogwheel icon).
- On the Settings page, select ‘Advanced’ from the side panel.
- Scroll down to find the ‘Downloads’ section.
- Next to ‘Location’, choose the ‘Change’ button.
- Select a new folder or external storage.
- Once saved, your screenshots and downloads will be saved to the selected folder.
3. Manually Upload Screenshots to Google Drive on a Chromebook
For users, who only need to save or upload a few screenshots on Google Drive, this manual method is useful. Follow below:
- After taking the desired screenshots, click the Launcher button on the taskbar.
- Pick ‘Files’.
- Under ‘My Files’, choose ‘Downloads’.
- Select the screenshot you want to upload to Google Drive. If there are multiple screenshots, hold down the CTRL key on the keyboard and click the screenshots to select them.
- Now, press the share button to open the sharing menu.
- Choose ‘Save to Drive’ from the menu.
4. Automatically Upload Screenshots to Google Drive on a Chromebook
If you need a method through which all future screenshots and downloads go to your Google Drive, find the correct steps below:
- Click the clock at the bottom right corner of the screen to open the Quick Settings panel.
- Select the Settings icon.
- Scroll the page down and click ‘Advanced’.
- Find the ‘Downloads’ section.
- Click the ‘Change’ button next to ‘Location’ to change the location of downloads.
- Choose ‘Google Drive’ and create a folder on it if needed.
- Now your screenshots will be saved to Google Drive so you can access them later from another device as well.
- Edit Screenshots
- Copy and Paste Screenshots
- Share Screenshots
1. Edit Screenshots
To edit screenshots and other images, Chrome OS has an editing app with basic tools for writing text, marking up, resizing, and cropping images.
- When you take a screen, it shows a notification thumbnail of the snapshot. Click the ‘Edit’ button. Or Go to My Files > Downloads and double-click the image to open it with the built-in image editor.
- Edit the file and save it.
- For advanced editing options, open Google Photos on your browser.
2. Copy and Paste Screenshots
If you don’t need to edit a screenshot, you can instantly copy and paste it to a chat or document.
- After taking a screenshot, click the ‘Copy to clipboard’ from the notification thumbnail on the bottom right of the screen.
- You can also go to My Files > Downloads, select the screenshot, and press the CTRL + C keys together to copy the screenshot to the clipboard.
- Open the document or chat and press the CTRL + V keys together to paste the screenshot.
You can also perform these steps after editing and saving a screenshot.
Another method of sharing is by using the Share button in My Files.
- Go to My Files > Downloads.
- Click the screenshot to have the file options appear at the top of the window.
- Select the Share button and choose any platform to share the screenshot on.
- If you can’t find the right option, copy the image and paste it to the desired document or web interface.
Conclusion
Taking screenshots on a Chromebook is a cakewalk. Simply open the screen capture tool, select the screenshot mode, and capture a screenshot.