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How to Capture Screenshots as JPG on macOS

How to Capture Screenshots as JPG on macOS

Capturing screenshots on a Mac is a common task, often accomplished by using the key combination cmd-shift-4. However, if you have recently upgraded to a higher-resolution display, such as the Studio Display with 5K resolution, you may notice that the size of the screenshots has become quite large.

By default, macOS saves screenshots in the PNG format, which can result in file sizes as large as 10MB, depending on the contents of the screenshot. To address this issue and reduce the file size of your screenshots, you can change the format to JPG.

To change the screenshot format to JPG, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Terminal application on your Mac.

  2. Enter the following command in the Terminal:

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defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg

  1. Press Enter to execute the command.

  2. Next, enter the following command in the Terminal:

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killall SystemUIServer
  1. Press Enter to execute the command. This will restart the SystemUIServer, which is responsible for handling the user interface elements, including the screenshot feature.

From now on, when you capture screenshots using the cmd-shift-4 key combination, macOS will save them in the JPG format. This format is more lightweight compared to PNG, resulting in smaller file sizes without compromising too much on image quality.

By following these steps, you can optimize the file size of your screenshots and free up storage space on your Mac.

Tags: screenshots, macOS, file format, optimization