How to crop a screenshot on Mac

Open the screenshot in Preview, drag a selection over the part you want to keep and press ⌘K (Tools › Crop). Right after taking a screenshot you can also click its thumbnail and use the crop tool there. The quickest fix is often to capture less in the first place: ⇧⌘4 lets you drag over only the part you need.

Updated November 2, 2026

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Crop a screenshot in Preview

Double-click the screenshot to open it in Preview.
Drag over the part you want to keep. Handles let you adjust the edges; the size shows as you drag.
Press ⌘K, or choose Tools › Crop.
Press ⌘S to save. To keep the original, choose File › Duplicate first.

Crop right after taking it

Take the screenshot with ⇧⌘4 or ⇧⌘3 and click the thumbnail in the corner.
Click the crop tool at the top, drag the edges, then click Done.

Crop to a shape, or an exact size, with SimpleShot

SimpleShot is a free capture app for Mac. In its editor, press C for Crop and choose a shape: square 1:1, 4:5 for feeds, 16:9 for slides and videos, 9:16 for stories, or an exact width and height in pixels. Thirds help you place things, and Trim Edges removes plain borders of one colour around the content in one click. Then save as PNG, JPEG, HEIC or PDF at full size, at point size or smaller.

Crop without losing it: open the capture again from the Library and the crop and every mark can still be changed.
A finished look: Beautify puts the cropped capture on a gradient of its own colours, with padding, rounded corners and a shadow.
Private details off before you post: Hide Sensitive Data covers e-mails, phone and card numbers, IBANs and keys in one click.

Questions

How do I crop a screenshot on a Mac?

Open it in Preview, select the part to keep and press ⌘K. Or click the thumbnail right after taking it and use the crop tool.

How do I crop a screenshot to a square or 16:9?

Preview has no fixed shapes, but you can watch the size while dragging. In SimpleShot, choose 1:1, 4:5, 16:9 or 9:16 in Crop, or type an exact size.

Can I undo a crop after saving?

In Preview, File › Revert To lists older versions of the file. In SimpleShot, a capture opened again from the Library keeps its edits changeable.

How do I take a screenshot of just part of the screen?

Press ⇧⌘4 and drag over the part you want. Nothing to crop afterwards.

The right shape
for every post.