macOS command-line tools you might not know about

Surprised pngpaste isn't mentioned (in the article nor the comments).

If you take a screen shot (command + shift + 4) or partial screen shot (command + shift + control + 4) you can save it directly to an image file with:

pngpaste filename.png

Both commands you listed take a partial screenshot. The first one saves it to the desktop and the second one (with control) to the clipboard.

command shift 4 already saves a file, maybe you were thinking about command + shift + control + 3?

Oops, you're right. I meant command + shift + control + 3 (full screen to clipboard) and command + shift + control + 4 (partial screen to clipboard).

`pngpaste` doesn’t ship with macOS. All the tools in the article do.

IIRC Cmd+shift+4 by default stores to a file, but it is easily changeable in settings. Mine has been set to store to clipboard since a long time ago (since i mostly ever take them to send to someone in chat or to insert into my own notes, for which clipboard is exactly what i need).

To change it: open Screenshot app (either cmd+shift+5 or from the app launcher), click Options in the center bar, and set "Save to" to "clipboard". Now, all screenshots in the future will be going by default to clipboard. You can also pick many other destinations for saving, including any arbitrary directory or many other apps (e.g., mail, preview, etc.).

After some googling TIL, apparently if you use Ctrl key modifier with any screenshot shortcuts (cmd+shift+3/4), it will store to clipboard regardless of your setting. Kinda nifty for those who switch between storing to file/clipboard all the time.

You can also right-click the screenshot thumbnail to save to clipboard or some other location on a one-off basis.

I configured the screenshot to file to automatically save them to ~/Desktop/screenshots instead of ~/Desktop using the Screenshot app to avoid cluttering the desktop. See https://www.hellotech.com/guide/for/how-to-change-where-scre...

You can also use shift-cmd-5 to frame the page and then cmd-c to copy the screenshot - regardless of the screenshot app settings.