How To Take A Screenshot On A Chromebook

Taking a screenshot is a great way of sharing images on your screen with someone else. Whether you want to use it to confirm a bank transaction, show someone a program, saving silly snippets of conversations, and so on, screenshots are a good way of going about doing just that.

If you’ve used a Windows PC in the past, then chances are you might already be familiar with the process (if not you can check out our guide here), but trying to capture a screenshot on a Chromebook might be a different story, and here’s how you go about doing just that.

Taking a screenshot

Using the keyboard

Full screenshot

  1. Locate the Window Switch key which should be at the top row of your keyboard
  2. Press Ctrl + Windows Switch key
  3. A notification will popup and the bottom corner of your screen to let you know the screenshot has been taken

Partial screenshot

  1. Locate the Window Switch key which should be at the top row of your keyboard
  2. Press Ctrl + Shift + Windows Switch key
  3. Your cursor will be replaced with a crosshair
  4. Click and drag over the part of the screen you want to capture
  5. Release your mouse button to take the screenshot
  6. A notification will popup and the bottom corner of your screen to let you know the screenshot has been taken

Using an external keyboard

If you prefer using an external keyboard with your Chromebook and it doesn’t have the same icons displayed as the built-in keyboard, not to worry. The steps will be the same as above, just replace the Windows Switch key with the F5 button.

Using side buttons

One of the nifty features about the Chromebook is that it can double up as a tablet just by flipping the screen around. Unfortunately, this means that using your keyboard to capture screenshots just got a bit trickier, but not to worry because it is just as simple.

  1. Locate the power and volume down buttons on your Chromebook
  2. Press both buttons at the same time to take a screenshot

We should note that using this method means that you will be capturing the screen in its entirety, whereas using the keyboard means you have the option of just select part of the screen you want to capture. This is not a big deal as we’ll show you later how to edit your screenshots.

Using the Pixelbook Pen

If you bought the optional Pixelbook Pen stylus, you can use it to capture screenshots, and in some instances it might actually be better as it will give you more precise control over the area you want captured. It can also be used in tablet mode.

  1. At the bottom right of the screen, select Pen
  2. Select Capture Screen if you want to capture the entire screen;
  3. Or select Capture Region if you want a partial screenshot
  4. Touch the pen to the screen and drag it across the area you want to capture
  5. Lift the pen and the screenshot will be saved

Using third-party extensions

While the default screen capture mode in Chrome OS does a pretty good job at capturing screenshots, there are third-party extensions that you can use for a more enhanced experience, such as being able to edit screenshots directly after they’re taken, uploading them to the web and sharing immediately, assigning custom hotkeys, screen recordings, and more.

These are some of the third-party extensions we think might be worth checking out:

Where to find your screenshots

  1. By default Chrome OS will save your screenshots to your Downloads folder
  2. It will have a filename that says “Screenshot” followed by the date and time that the screenshot was taken

This is where you can find all screenshots that have been taken to date, but if you have quite a few screenshots saved over the years, it can get a bit messy. To quickly access the latest screenshot, simply tap on the notification that appears when the screenshot has been taken and it will open the folder and highlight the file.

How to edit your screenshots

  1. Open the Downloads folder on your Chromebook
  2. Locate the screenshot you want to edit and double-click it
  3. Tap the pen icon on the screen to enter editing mode
  4. You will be able to choose from a variety of tools to edit the image, such as cropping, rotating, and adjusting its brightness
  5. Tap the pen icon again when you’re done and the changes will be saved

Note that this will overwrite the existing screenshot, so if you still want to retain a copy of the original screenshot, you will need to manually make a copy of the screenshot file before editing it.

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