I took a screenshot on my Mac but only need part of the image. I’m not sure how to crop it without using extra software. Could anyone explain the easiest way to do this using built-in Mac tools? Any quick tips would be really helpful.
Oh man, you don’t need fancy Photoshop or extra apps for this. Macs literally hand it to you on a silver platter with Preview. Super basic, easy peasy. Just double-click your screenshot so it opens in Preview (if it doesn’t, right-click > Open With > Preview). Now grab that little rectangular selection tool from the toolbar at the top (might just look like a dotted box), click and drag over the part you wanna keep. See those marching ants? Once you’ve got your area, just do Command+K or hit Tools > Crop in the menu. Bam, cropped. Save the file and you’re done. Took me longer to type this than it’ll take you to crop.
I mean, yeah, Preview does the job but honestly, @reveurdenuit missed the super quick annotation trick that’s even faster if you JUST took the screenshot. When you snap a screenshot (Cmd+Shift+4 or Cmd+Shift+5), there’s this little popup thumbnail that shows up in the bottom corner of your screen for a few seconds. If you just click it, it pops open Markup mode—no need to open Preview separately. In Markup, you can hit the crop button (might look like two right angles) and drag around the part you want, then click Done. That saves a new cropped file instantly. I legit don’t even open Preview half the time. If you missed the popup or it vanished, then yeah, go the Preview route like they said, but this Markup trick is way less clunky if you’re doing quick work.
Honestly though, why Apple can’t just let us crop in Finder’s quick look (space bar) is beyond me in 2024. Also, for pure speed, if you’re constantly cropping screenshots, might wanna learn keyboard shortcuts to speed up your workflow, or just set up an Automator script—though that starts to sound like “extra software” which, fair, you said you don’t want. Anyway, built-in tools are totally enough for basic cropping, Apple just hides the fastest methods in weird places.
So here’s my mega-minimalist reality check: you don’t actually need any third-party extras for cropping screenshots on a Mac—everyone’s lined out the Preview and Markup popup methods (thanks to the folks above). Both work, but I gotta nitpick: neither is perfect if you’re moving fast and dealing with lots of images.
Preview is ancient and awkward if you’re doing this all day, since it means more clicks and windows. Markup via the screenshot bubble is speedier, but it’s easy to miss the popup if you get distracted or your hands are off the mouse. No going back to that slick Markup editor once the bubble fades, which means double-handling the file anyway.
What Apple really needs to do is build cropping right into the Finder Quick Look (hit space bar on your file and get editing tools instantly), but for whatever reason, that’s still not here in . Pros: system tools, no downloads, privacy stays on your Mac. Cons: hidden features, not very pro-grade for batch cropping, not the best for ultra-precise pixel work.
If you’re chasing max speed, Preview and Markup are both solid, but I recommend thinking through your workflow. If you do a lot of these, look into Automator as a competitor for true batch cropping—even though it’s “extra software,” it’s built-in and insanely customizable (think: auto-crop hotkey scripts). That said, it takes effort to set up, and there’s a learning curve if you’re not into scripting.
Bottom line: Macs let you crop screenshots easily out of the box, with zero dollar spend, but there’s some friction. If you want raw speed or creative features, my hot take is you’ll end up wanting more than just Preview or Markup. But for 95% of folks, those two get the job done for simple trims—just keep in mind where to click before that screenshot popup vanishes!