How to take a scrolling screenshot on Mac
The built-in macOS screenshot shortcuts only capture what is currently visible. For a long web page, chat thread, document or settings list, you are left taking several screenshots and joining them by hand. CapturePush is a free macOS app whose Scrolling Capture mode scrolls for you and stitches the result into one tall image.
What macOS Can and Can't Do on Its Own
- Shift-Command-4 and Shift-Command-5 capture a region, a window or the screen — never content that is scrolled out of view.
- Browser tricks such as exporting a page as PDF, or a browser's developer-tools full-page screenshot, only work for web pages in that browser.
- Everything else — chat apps, documents, terminals, code editors, long lists — needs a scrolling capture tool.
Scrolling Capture, Step by Step
- Click the CapturePush icon in the menu bar and choose Scrolling Capture, or press the hotkey you assigned in Preferences → Shortcuts.
- Drag a selection over the part of the window that scrolls.
- A 5-second countdown gives you time to get ready. Use Abort if you picked the wrong area.
- CapturePush scrolls the content automatically, capturing as it goes, and stops by itself when it reaches the bottom.
- Press Esc at any point to finish early and keep what has been captured so far.
The frames are stitched into a single tall image. From there it behaves like any other CapturePush screenshot: saved locally, or uploaded to your own server or S3-compatible storage with the link copied to your clipboard.
Tips for a Clean Result
- Select only the scrolling area. Leave fixed toolbars, sticky headers and sidebars outside the selection so they are not repeated down the image.
- Start at the top. Capture runs downward from wherever the content is currently scrolled.
- Leave the mouse alone while it runs. CapturePush positions the pointer over the selection to scroll it, so moving it mid-capture can interrupt the scroll.
- Very long pages are capped. Capture stops automatically after 100 frames, which keeps the output a manageable size.
Works Beyond the Browser
Because CapturePush scrolls the content the same way a mouse wheel would, it works with browsers, documents and other scrollable content rather than relying on a browser extension.
Scrolling Capture is one of several capture modes alongside area, window, full screen and timed capture, plus GIF and MP4 screen recording.