Taking screenshots is the best way to share with your colleagues, IT support staff who can help you fix a problem on your computer or share on social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,…
macOS systems will save screenshots as PNG files by default. This is good if you want the image to have high quality, but the disadvantage is that PNG screenshots files often be big in size.
Although you may open the png file by using Preview app, or the third-party image editor, there is still the command line which will help you to save a screenshot as the image format you want.
How to change the Default Filetype from PNG to JPG
Just open Terminal from Spotlight or LauchPad, then type or paste the following command below and then press Return button.
Changing the Filetype from PNG to JPG
defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg; killall SystemUIServer
Changing the Filetype from PNG to GIF
defaults write com.apple.screencapture type gif; killall SystemUIServer
Changing the Filetype from PNG to TIFF
defaults write com.apple.screencapture type tiff; killall SystemUIServer
Changing the Filetype from PNG to PDF
defaults write com.apple.screencapture type PDF; killall SystemUIServer
Back to PNG
To set it all back to PNG, quickly place ‘png’ at the end there.
defaults write com.apple.screencapture type png; killall SystemUIServer
How to Take a Screenshot on macOS
For a detailed guide, check out our guide to taking screenshots on Mac. If you’ve found this post helpful, let us know by sharing it with your friends or colleagues or leaving a comment here.
