How to Remove the Shadow from Window Screenshots in macOS

Taking screenshots is an essential task when creating blog posts or courses. In macOS, the default method to capture the application window is by using cmd-shift-4 and pressing the spacebar. This creates a screenshot with a stylish drop shadow effect.

However, there may be instances where you prefer to remove the drop shadow. In such cases, you can follow these steps:

Open the Terminal application on your macOS system.
Enter the following command:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool true ; killall SystemUIServer

This command modifies the macOS settings to disable the drop shadow effect on screenshots.
Press Enter to execute the command.
After executing the command, take a new screenshot of the desired window or application.
The new screenshot will no longer include the drop shadow, appearing as a clean image.

If you wish to restore the drop shadow effect on your screenshots, simply follow these steps:

Again, open the Terminal application.
Enter the command:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool false ; killall SystemUIServer

This command reverts the macOS settings to enable the drop shadow effect.
Press Enter to execute the command.
Capture a new screenshot to observe the reintroduced drop shadow.

By using the Terminal commands mentioned above, you can conveniently remove or add the drop shadow effect to your macOS screenshots according to your preferences.

tags: [“macOS”, “screenshots”, “Terminal commands”]