How to Take a Screenshot on a Chromebook: 8 Easy Ways

Taking a screenshot on a Chromebook is pretty easy, as Google makes sure users don’t get confused with too many tools. Find the best ways to take screenshots on your Chromebook below.

How to take a screenshot on a Chromebook?

Chrome OS comes with a great built-in screen capture and screen recording tool known as Screen Capture. We will use it to take screenshots. It works on any Chromebook made by HP, Acer, Lenovo, Dell, Samsung, or any other brand.

Take a full screen screenshot
Take a partial screenshot
Take a screenshot of a specific window
Keyboard shortcuts
Use the stylus to take screenshots
Power and volume on/off buttons
Take screenshots with an external keyboard
Install third-party apps from the Google Play store.

1. Take a full screen screenshot

If you want to quickly take a screenshot of the entire screen with the Screenshot tool, use these two methods:

1.1 Take a Full Screen Snapshot with the Screen Capture Toolbar

This method is useful for people who don’t want to remember keyboard shortcuts. They can access Screen Capture with a few clicks or taps.

Click the time in the lower right corner of the screen to open the Quick Settings panel and select Screenshot. If you don’t see it, click the arrow button to find it.
This will launch the screen capture toolbar.
Select the camera icon and then the full screen capture button.
You will be prompted to click to take a screenshot of the entire screen.
After clicking, a screenshot will be taken.
You will see a notification about the snapshot with a thumbnail. Depending on your version of Chrome OS, you may see Edit, Delete, and Copy to Clipboard options in a notification at the bottom right of your screen.
On Windows, when you take a screenshot, it is automatically copied to the clipboard. This is not the case in Chrome OS. You can click the “Copy to Clipboard”button after taking a screenshot and then instantly paste it into a slide, document, or chat.
Your screenshots are saved in your Downloads folder, where you can access them and edit them if necessary.

1.2 Take a screenshot with keyboard shortcuts

If you want to take full screen shots instantly and multiple times in a short amount of time, you need a shortcut key that you can press whenever you need to take a screenshot. To do this, follow these steps:

When you need to take a screenshot on the screen, press CTRL + Show windows together. The Show windows key is usually found on the top row of your Chromebook. Find the icon with a rectangle with two vertical lines next to it.
A screenshot of the entire screen will be taken and you will see a corresponding notification.
Since this method does not interrupt what you are doing, you can easily take many screenshots by simply pressing the shortcut keys when needed. This is similar to the Print Screen method on Windows computers.
Find screenshots in your Downloads folder.

2. Take a partial screenshot

Taking full screen shots is inconvenient if you need to edit and crop the screenshot later. If you want to select only the screen area for the screenshot, use this method:

Press CTRL+SHIFT+Show Windows at the same time to launch the Screenshot toolbar. Alternatively, you can also open it by clicking the time on the taskbar and choosing Screenshot.
The Chrome OS screenshot toolbar opens.
Select the camera icon, and then click the partial screenshot icon.
The screen will freeze with a dark overlay and the mouse pointer will turn into a crosshair cursor.
Click and drag the crosshair cursor to select a part of the screen.
A screenshot will be taken and you can see a notification.
To open and edit a screenshot, navigate to the Downloads folder on your Chromebook.

3. Take a screenshot of a specific window

You can take a screenshot using the partial screenshot method, but if you’re wondering, isn’t there an easier way to just take a screenshot of the active window? Yes, I have. Follow these steps:

On the taskbar, click the time to open the quick settings panel and select Screenshot. Or, press CTRL+ALT+Show Windows at the same time.
When the Screen Capture toolbar opens, select the camera icon and the window screenshot icon.
The mouse pointer will change to a camera icon. Click on any particular window to take a screenshot of that window.
After you take a screenshot, you can see a notification in the bottom right corner. Access the screenshot from there.
If you don’t see the notification, go to My Files > Downloads to find the screenshot.

4. Keyboard shortcuts

We have mentioned keyboard shortcuts for each of the three screenshot modes in previous sections. If you want a clean list of shortcuts for taking screenshots on your Chromebook, follow these steps:

Full screen screenshot: Press CTRL+Show windows at the same time. It will instantly take a screenshot of the entire screen.
Window Screenshot: Press CTRL + ALT + Show Windows at the same time to open the Screenshot toolbar with the Window Screenshot mode selected.
Partial Screenshot: Press CTRL+SHIFT+Show Windows at the same time to open the default screenshot toolbar.

5. Use the stylus to take screenshots

The touchscreen Chromebook also comes with a stylus, which is a useful tool for many. If you want to take a screenshot with a stylus, follow these steps:

5.1 Full screen screenshot

Connect the stylus to your Chromebook.
Tap the stylus icon on the taskbar.
Select “Screen Capture”from the stylus tools menu.
A screenshot of the entire screen will be taken.
You will find a notification in the lower right corner of the screen.

5.2 Partial screenshot

Press the stylus button on the taskbar.
Select Capture Area from the menu.
The screen will be frozen with a dark overlay.
Use the stylus to select an area of the screen to take a screenshot.
Once you’ve taken a screenshot, open it from a notification or navigate to your Downloads folder.

You can also check if your stylus is responsive when you open the screen capture toolbar in any other way, such as by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+Show windows or from the Quick Settings panel.

6. Power and volume on/off buttons

Chromebooks, which can also be used as tablets, have another method for taking screenshots – the physical button method.

You can take screenshots on these Chromebooks just like you would on your smartphone or any other tablet. Use the on/off and volume buttons.

Open the screen you want to capture.
Press the power button + volume down button together located on the sides of your Chromebook.
This will bring up a screenshot of the entire screen.
You can see the screenshot notification from where you can open the screenshot or edit it.

This method is useful for people who frequently use their Chromebook as a tablet without a keyboard. But if you need more options, you can still launch the Screen Capture Toolbar from the Quick Settings panel without plugging in a keyboard.

7. Take screenshots with an external keyboard

Dedicated Chromebook keys are hard to find on external keyboards. So, if you’re using a Chromebox or have connected an external keyboard to your Chromebook, you’ll be greeted with the traditional function key row at the top of the keyboard. Follow this list to execute Chromebook commands on a standard keyboard.

F1: previous page
F2: next page
F3: Refresh
F4: full screen mode
F5: Show windows
F6: decrease brightness
F7: increase brightness
F8: Mute
F9: volume down
F10: volume up

Screenshot labels will also change. Check out keyboard shortcuts for screen capture on an external keyboard:

Full-Screen Screenshot: Press CTRL+F5 to instantly take a screenshot of the entire screen.
Partial Screenshot: Press CTRL+SHIFT+F5 at the same time to open the Screen Capture toolbar with Partial Screenshot selected.

8. Install third-party apps from the Google Play store.

You can enable the Google Play Store on your Chromebook to install Android apps on it. If you have a school-issued Chromebook, you may need to ask your IT administrator to turn on the Google Play Store.

However, if you have your own Chromebook, enabling the Google Play Store is very easy.

Click the clock on the taskbar at the bottom right corner of the screen.
Open Settings by selecting the gear icon.
Select “Apps”in the sidebar.
Click the Enable button next to Google Play Store.
Read the terms of service and select “Accept”if you wish to continue.

To install screenshot apps, follow these steps:

Open the Google Play Store on your Chromebook.
Search for “screenshot app”.
Find free apps and install a few of them to test them out.

How do I change the location of screenshots on a Chromebook?

Where do screenshots go on a Chromebook?
Change default screenshot location
Manually Uploading Screenshots to Google Drive on a Chromebook
Automatically upload screenshots to Google Drive on Chromebook

1. Where do screenshots go on a Chromebook?

Once a screenshot is taken, it ends up in either the Downloads folder or the Pictures folder.

Open the file launcher in the lower left corner of the screen.
Select Files. If you don’t see files, select search, type “files”and run it.
In the left pane, under My Files, select Downloads or Pictures.
There you will find your screenshots.
If capturing a video, go to My File > Video.

2. Change the default location of screenshots

On a Chromebook, a lot of new stuff goes straight into the Downloads folder. If you have a lot of data in your Downloads folder, you might find it hard to find screenshots there.

Also, if your Chromebook’s internal storage is full, you can choose external storage for screenshots and downloads. Follow these steps to change the location of screenshots in Chrome OS:

In the lower right corner of the taskbar, click the clock.
Select the settings icon (gear icon).
On the settings page, select “Advanced”in the sidebar.
Scroll down to find the Downloads section.
Next to Location, click the Change button.
Select a new folder or external storage.
After saving, your screenshots and downloads will be saved in the selected folder.

3. Manually upload screenshots to Google Drive on your Chromebook.

For users who only need to save or upload a few screenshots to Google Drive, this manual method is useful. Follow below:

After taking the desired screenshots, click the Launcher button on the taskbar.
Select Files.
In the My Files section, select Downloads.
Select the screenshot you want to upload to Google Drive. If there are multiple screenshots, hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard and click the screenshots to select them.
Now click the share button to open the sharing menu.
Select “Save to Disk”from the menu.

4. Automatically Upload Screenshots to Google Drive on Chromebook

If you need a method by which all future screenshots and uploads will go to your Google Drive, find the correct steps below:

Click on the clock in the lower right corner of the screen to open the quick settings panel.
Select the Settings icon.
Scroll down the page and click “Advanced”.
Find the Downloads section.
Click the “Change”button next to “Location”to change the download location.
Select “Google Drive”and, if necessary, create a folder on it.
Your screenshots will now be saved to Google Drive so you can access them later from another device.

How to edit, copy and share screenshots on Chromebook?

Edit screenshots
Copy and paste screenshots
Share screenshots

1. Edit screenshots

For editing screenshots and other images, Chrome OS has an editing app with basic tools for writing text, markup, resizing, and cropping images.

When you take a screenshot, it shows the screenshot notification thumbnail. Click the Change button. Or go to My Files > Downloads and double-click an image to open it with the built-in image editor.
Edit the file and save it.
For advanced editing options, open Google Photos in your browser.

2. Copy and paste screenshots

If you don’t need to edit a screenshot, you can instantly copy and paste it into a chat or document.

After taking a screenshot, click “Copy to Clipboard”on the notification thumbnail in the lower right corner of the screen.
You can also go to My Files > Downloads, select a screenshot, and press CTRL+C at the same time to copy the screenshot to your clipboard.
Open a document or chat and press CTRL+V at the same time to paste a screenshot.

You can also follow these steps after editing and saving the screenshot.

3. Share screenshots

Another way to share is to use the Share button in My Files.

Go to My files > Downloads.
Click the screenshot to display the file options at the top of the window.
Click the Share button and choose any platform you want to share the screenshot on.
If you can’t find the one you want, copy the image and paste it into your desired document or web interface.

Conclusion

Taking screenshots on a Chromebook is a cakewalk. Just open the screen capture tool, select the screenshot mode and take a screenshot.