How to take and annotate screenshots on Windows 10

Sometimes the easiest way to make a copy of something is to take a snapshot of your screen. While you can already capture your screen using your keyboard’s PrtScn button, you can now press Windows logo key + Shift + S to open the new modern snipping experience (also called the snipping bar), then drag the cursor over the area you want to capture.

Here are some common ways to take and annotate screenshots in Snip & Sketch on Windows 10.

Take a screenshot

Option 1: Using the Snip & Sketch app

Press the Start button and enter Snip & Sketch in the search field.

Press the New button to start snipping with the snipping bar.

The snipping bar allows you to capture the following types of snips:

Rectangular snip. Drag the cursor around an object to form a rectangle.

Free-form snip. Draw a free-form shape around an object.

Full-screen snip. Capture the entire screen.

Once you snip an area of your screen — the snipped image is added to your clipboard and you can paste it immediately in another app. A screen prompt will also allow you to annotate, save or share it using the Snip & Sketch app.

Option 2: With the Print Screen key

While the PrtScn key already captures your full screen and sends it to your clipboard, opening the snipping bar provides you with more snipping tools you can use for precise snipping. For better control of your screen capturing options, you can opt to have your PrtScn key open the new snipping bar instead of having to type Windows logo key + Shift + S.

To turn on the new snipping feature keyboard shortcut Select Start > Settings > Ease of Access > Keyboard

Option 3: With the Window logo key + Shift + S shortcut

Pressing the S key + Windows logo + Shift keys down initiates the snipping bar at any time.

Annotate snips with Snip & Sketch

Opening images for editing with Snip & Sketch

To open an image from Snip & Sketch, select Open File or drag and drop an image from apps like File Explorer or Photos in the Snip & Sketch window.

Annotating images with Snip & Sketch

Snip & Sketch provides a few tools for annotating images, namely pen, pencil and highlighter. Once you click a tool to select it, you can click it again to change its color or thickness.

The tools work better with a pen device, but they can also be used with mouse or touch if you select the Touch Writing button icon.

Use the Eraser tool to remove specific strokes or click it twice to get the option to erase all ink.

Use the ruler or protractor tools and draw straight lines or arches.

Press the ruler/protractor button again to hide the ruler/protractor

Reside or rotate the ruler/protractor by using two finger touch gestures (if the Touch Writing button is selected) or with the mouse wheel.

Use the crop tool to crop the annotated image.

To undo cropping, select the crop tool again and press Cancel to restore the image to its full original area.

Panning the view

Some of the images you annotate might be larger than the size of the Snip & Sketch window. You can use the scroll bars to pan the view, but you can also pan the view with touch input (if the Touch Writing button is not selected) or by dragging with your mouse button while holding the Ctrl key down.

Zoom in and out of screenshots to make them easier to mark up using the magnifying glass icon. You can also zoom in and out of screenshots by pressing the Ctrl key down and tapping the + or — buttons.

Sharing and saving snips

Snip & Sketch copies the annotated snip to your clipboard when you open it and every time you make edits. Snip & Sketch allows you to save the annotated image to a file, share it or open with another app, or print it on paper or to a pdf file.

Using keyboard in Snip & Sketch

While annotating is best done using a pen or mouse — Snip & Sketch provides a lot of keyboard shortcuts you can use. Access keys are activated if you press and hold the Alt key.

How to Take Screenshots in Windows 10

It’s a basic task, but you’d be surprised at how many options you have for taking screenshots in Windows 10—and they’ve gotten even better.

As a software reviewer at PCMag, snapping screenshots is something I need to do many times each day. There’s no better way of showing readers how a program actually looks in operation. I mostly review Windows 10 software, so I’m familiar with the various ways to capture screens on that operating system. Nearly every computer user occasionally needs to take a screenshot, if only to share what they’re seeing on the screen with a colleague or external business.

It’s astonishing how long it has taken to perfect this simple capability. Windows has had screen-printing capabilities since the first PCs in the 1980s (their text-based option differed from today’s raster screenshots). Even as recently as last year’s Windows spring update added new screenshot functionality. As a result, taking a screenshot on the latest Windows 10 version is more flexible and powerful than ever.

Below, I’ll go through the several ways to capture the PC screen so that you can choose which works best for you.

Use Shift-Windows Key-S and Snip & Sketch

After many years of using Snagit (see below), this has become my primary screenshot method. Hit the Shift-Windows Key-S keyboard combo, and you have a choice of shooting the full screen, a rectangular selection, a freehand selection, or an individual program window. An alternative way to invoke Snip & Sketch is via the Action Center’s Screen snip button.

After hitting this keyboard shortcut, you momentarily see a small thumbnail panel notification at lower right that says Snip Saved to Clipboard. Tap this to open the Snip & Sketch window. In this, you can mark up the image with a pen, pencil, highlighter, eraser, ruler, and cropping tool. Then you can save the image to a folder of your choice, or share it using the standard Windows Share menu. That lets you send the image to Instagram, Messenger, Mail, or any other app that accepts the file type. It also lets you send it to a nearby PC with Nearby Sharing enabled.

A couple things I wish Snip & Sketch had are text overlay and basic shapes, including the ever-useful arrow. If you only want to use this tool, you can go into Windows’ Settings app and choose Ease of Access > Keyboard and choose Use the PrtSc Button to Open Screen Snipping. Note that this requires restarting Windows.

Use the Print Screen Key With Clipboard

This is the longtime classic method of screenshotting in Windows 10. It’s especially useful for shooting apps that change appearance when you hit a keyboard combination. Often a menu will collapse as soon as you tap a shift key. Hitting the Print Screen or PrtSc key copies the entire screen to the Clipboard; adding Alt together with Print Screen copies the active window rectangle only.

You do need to take extra steps to open and save your image in an app that deals with images, such as Paint, Paint 3D, or even Photoshop (unless you take advantage of the next tip). Simply paste with Ctrl-V when you’re in a new document in one of those apps, and then you can go to town with editing, and finally, save the image to the folder of your choice.

Use Print Screen Key With OneDrive

This is one of the best things ever to hit screenshots in Windows, having arrived in 2015. As with the plain old Print Screen key, you can save the entire screen or the active window with Print Screen or Alt-Print Screen, respectively. But after you go to OneDrive’s Settings panel and choose Automatically Save Screenshots / Capture to OneDrive from the Backup tab, you’re saved from having to open an imaging app, pasting from the clipboard, and then saving the file. Hit Print Screen, and you’ve got an image file saved, all in one step.

Windows’ Action Center (the slide-out panel on the right side of the screen) notifies you that your shot was saved, and you can click on the notification to take you right to the folder where it’s saved. If you use this method a lot, you’ll probably want more cloud storage than just the free 5GB. An Office 365 account (starting at $6.99 per month) gets you 1TB, as well as all the famous productivity applications.

Use the Windows Key-Print Screen Shortcut

This method was introduced with Windows 8 but it still works in Windows 10. It’s simpler than most of the other methods in this story, and on tablets like the Surface Pro, you invoke this functionality by pressing Volume Down and Power button at the same time. This or Windows Key-Print Screen key combo will momentarily darken the screen to show you it worked, and instantly save a PNG image file to your Pictures > Screenshots folder.

Alt-Windows Key-Print Screen saves just the active window, but, interestingly, this uses the Windows Game Bar (see next slide) functionality, saving your screenshot to your Videos/Captures folder. Both of these methods are good if you want instant saving without having to bother with the Clipboard or OneDrive cloud storage.

Use the Windows Game Bar

Windows Key-G opens the Game bar, which includes an icon looking like a camera in its Broadcast & capture section. Tap that, and your screenshot is saved (somewhat counterintuitively) to the Videos/Captures folder under your main user folder.

Use the Snipping Tool

Snipping Tool remains in Windows 10, though it’s been superseded by Snip & Sketch. If you’re clinging to Windows 7, you won’t have the option to use Snip & Sketch (detailed above), so Snipping Tool is for you. To use this, you’ll need to actually run the utility; typing «snipping» in the Windows search box at lower left and tapping Snipping Tool gets you started.

Like Snip & Sketch, Snipping Tool lets you capture free-from or rectangular selections or the full window or full screen. You can time-delay a screenshot, as well, from one to five seconds. It also lets you mark up your image with a pen or highlighter. Snip & Sketch (as noted above) does all that and adds cropping, a ruler, and a pencil.

Use Snagit

Snagit still has at least one major benefit over Windows’ built-in screenshot tools: You can snap away, and all your shots remain in the utility’s repository, available at any time you might need them later. It’s the least disruptive way to shoot screens while continuing your work. After you’re ready to deal with the shots, you can browse the history and save the images you want to the folder of your choice.

Snagit also includes advanced tools like video and scrolling window screenshot tools. It offers handy image-editing and drawing tools, including brightness, arrows, text overlay, and borders. The downside? A Snagit license will set you back $49.95, but for those who need its advanced functionality, it’s worth the money.

Double-Click Your Surface Pen

If you’re on a digital-inking-capable touch-screen PC like a Surface Pro, you can take a screenshot of your full screen simply by double clicking on the back button on a Surface Pen. This opens Snip and Sketch with the full screenshot ready for annotating, editing, and sharing.

How to Take a Screenshot on Any Device

You’ll want to snap screenshots on your smartphone and other devices besides your Windows PC. Our walk-through of How to Take a Screenshot on Any Device covers the process used by all of your non-PC gadgets with screens.

How to Take Screenshot in Windows 10

Ways to Take Screenshot in Windows 10 using all the methods such as built-in tools, 3rd party utilities, and browsers.

Oftentimes when working on a computer, the most interesting question that might come to mind is How to Take Screenshot in Windows 10. The need for capturing screen events depends on person to person. Most of the time, it is useful during sharing an image from PC, presentation, education and so on. But each one of you might have a different type of screenshot requirements. Some may want to capture only the active window; whereas a few of them prefer a full-screen snap. Or if you are a game lover, then capturing the achievements with a screenshot might be a preference.

Windows 10 itself includes a wide range of built-in options that satisfy most of the screenshot requirements. However, there are multiple Windows applications, paid or free that lets you take snapshots. So in this article, you will see all the built-in tools, 3rd party apps, and also the way to take screenshots in web pages as well. Let us explore the below section to get familiar with all the methods –

Take Screenshot in Windows 10

Here is How to Take Screenshot in Windows 10 –

Using Built-in Tools in Windows 10

Windows 10 includes some of the impressive tools that lets you easily capture the screen happenings. Among them, some are certain keyboard shortcuts as well. Let us explore all of them in details –

1] Keyboard Shortcut – Print Screen – Quickest and easiest way

The simplest method to take screenshot in Windows 10 requires a tap on the PrtScn key only. After this action, Windows will capture the entire screen and will further save the same in the clipboard. Here are the steps –

1. Press Print Screen (PrtScn or Prt sc) key on the keyboard of laptop or computer.

1. It will copy the image in the clipboard and will not automatically get saved.
2. So open a tool such as Microsoft Paint, MS Word, PowerPoint, or other and press Ctrl + V to paste the screenshot.
3. Click File and choose Save as option to store the picture.

2] Windows key + Print Screen

Another easy way to take screenshot in Windows 10 is by using Windows+PrtScn. It does not require any image editor to save the snapshot. By default, it automatically stores it in the Screenshot folder.

1. Press Windows logo and PrtScn keys at a time on the keyboard.

1. It will dim the screen for a little while which indicates the successful capture of the snapshot.
2. Finally, to view the image go to File Explorer > Pictures > Screenshots.

3] Windows key + Shift +S

“Win logo+shift+S” immediately launches Snip & Sketch app on the screen. It will dim the screen briefly and the tiny menu will appear on the top of the screen. Just go ahead with the type of snip you prefer to capture.

4] Alt + Print Screen

To take screenshot of an active window, this keyboard shortcut works wonderfully. See the steps below to do the same –

1. Simply hit the key combination Alt+PrtScn.

1. This will take screenshot of the active window and the same will be copied in clipboard.
2. So, get access to any image editor like Paint and paste the picture to save in a directory.

5] Windows Logo + Volume Down (For Surface users)

This method is applicable to the users with Microsoft Surface device. Just like people take entire screen screenshot on any smartphone or tablet, here also the physical buttons will do the job.

1. Hold down the Windows Logo touch button.
2. Then hit the physical volume-down button. This available at the side of the tablet.
3. Doing this will dim the screen briefly and save the screenshot to the Pictures > Screenshots folder.

6] Screen Snip

You will get this Screen Snip option in the Action Center. This will launch the Snip & Sketch app to proceed further.

1. Hit Win logo and A on the keyboard to show up Action Center.
2. Click Expand to view all the tiles.
3. Find out and select Screen snip tile.

1. Now, select the type of screenshot and take it.

7] Snipping Tool

This is one of the oldest desktop apps in Windows 10 for taking screenshots. It provides several snipping options with a few editing tools as well.

1. Launch taskbar search box using Win+S keyboard shortcut.
2. Type in snipping in the text field and hit Enter.

1. Once the utility appears, click Mode. Choose the type of snip.
2. Otherwise, click New.
3. Select the Save as option on the top to save the screenshot in your preferred location and format.

8] Snip & Sketch

Basically, this is meant to replace the traditional Snipping Tool. As the name suggests, the main function of this tool is to modify the screenshots after you capture them. Similar to Snipping tool, it also provides four types of snip to choose from.

1. Press Windows logo key, type Snip & Sketch and then press Enter.
2. Once the app opens up, click the New button on the upper left corner. This will immediately launch a tiny box at the top of the screen.

1. Select the type of snip which includes “Rectangular”, “Freeform”, “Windows”, and “Fullscreen” respectively.
2. Simply choose the type and capture the screenshot.

9] Game Bar

1. Open Game Bar using WinLogo + G shortcut key.
2. Once the app comes into view, click the screenshot button.
3. Alternatively, while playing a game, simply use the default keyboard shortcut “Windows+Alt+PrtScn“.

Take Screenshot in Web Browsers

1] Firefox

1. Open the page whose screenshot you wish to capture.
2. Right-click somewhere on the “page” and select Take a Screenshot option.

1. Drag the area you wish to capture.
2. The browser will display 2 options – Copy and Download.
3. Click on Copy to save the image in clipboard and then use it on an image editor.
4. Or click Download to save a copy of the snapshot on the Downloads folder.

2] Chrome

1. Navigate to Chrome Web Store and search for Full Page Screen Capture extension.
2. After the page becomes visible, click Add to Chrome.
3. Upon pop-up, click on Add extension.
4. Once the installation gets over, click on the tiny camera icon of the Full Page Screen Capture.

1. Chrome will immediately capture the entire page and will further display certain options to annotate, share, edit, or save the image.

Take Screenshot Using OneNote

Microsoft Office OneNote gives you the ability to capture screenshots of web pages or other applications. All you need to do is –

1. Launch the webpage or application whose screenshot you wish to capture.
2. Then, open OneNote.
3. Click Insert on the menu bar and choose Screen clipping.

1. This will immediately minimize the OneNote app and the entire screen will be dimmed. With the help of the cursor, drag the desired area and the same will be copied in OneNote.

Note – This method is not applicable to the built-in Windows 10 OneNote app.

Take Screenshot in Windows 10 Using 3rd Party Tools

Plenty of third-party utilities are available on the Internet that lets you take snapshots. Some of the interesting tools are –

1] Lighshot

1. Download Lightshot simply from here.
2. Install and press PrintSc key.
3. Shape the screenshot by moving mouse cursor and click on Save icon.

2] ShareX

Download the Sharex application first. Install it following the guide suggested on-screen suggestions.

1. Before starting the capturing we recommend click Upload and uncheck Upload File. It is enabled by default and if you leave the option checked then the captured snaps will be itself uploaded to Imgur.

1. For determining a new location, click on After capture tasks. Find the option Save Image to File in the Drop-down menu and check it.

1. To collect the captured files in the desired folder click Application Settings => Path.

Take Screenshot in Windows 10 –

1. Now click Capture which will open a list of options.
2. On the menu, select the option accordingly need, such as

To snap overall screen – Full screen
To take screenshot with cursor visible of a decided segment – Region.
For recording the movements on system’s screen – Screen recording.

In addition a few more options

To draw the snap for only write up of a web page – Text Capture (OCR)
To snap the complete web page – Webpage capture
Record screen for Animation – Screen recording (GIF)

1. So, click on the option suitable for you.

1. Noteworthy is you can also grab screenshots using Sharex simply by pressing the Prt sc key.