How to quickly copy screenshots to clipboard on Mac

On macOS and popular operating systems, the data you’ve copied is stored in a special area called the clipboard. You can take advantage of a few simple shortcut tricks to copy screenshots directly to the clipboard on your Mac, then paste them in any possible location on your OS. Operating – including third-party apps and iMessage – with ease. Proceed as follows.

(Note: If you have Universal Clipboard enabled, you can even paste screenshots from your Mac onto your iPhone or iPad (without having to use AirDrop).

When you take a screenshot, just hold down the Control key. Example: If you want to take a screenshot of a part of the Mac interface, first use the key combination Command + Shift + 4 to access the “screenshot” mode.

Then, press and hold the Cntl key while you select the part of the screen you want to capture.

The screenshot you just took is immediately listed in the system clipboard clipboard. Now, you can share this photo with another person through any of the messaging or sharing apps available on your Mac, including Messages (as shown below).

Click select a conversation and use the shortcut Cmd + V to paste the screenshot into the text box. Press the Enter key to send the image.

Besides, you can also open screenshots in Preview to perform additional editing operations. Open the Preview app and from the “File” section of the menu bar, select the “New From Clipboard” option. Alternatively, you can also use the shortcut Cmd + N if desired.

The screenshot will show up in the new Preview window. Here, you can do things like crop, annotate or edit it any way you want.