How to take a Mac screenshot without the window shadow

Updated October 30, 2026

To capture a Mac window without its shadow, press Shift-Command-4, press Space, then hold Option while you click the window. macOS saves just the window, with no shadow and no transparent border around it. Below: the same trick in the Screenshot toolbar, a Terminal setting that turns the shadow off for every capture, and what to do with screenshots you’ve already taken.

Why window screenshots have a shadow

When you capture a single window, macOS draws the window’s drop shadow into the image. To fit the shadow, it adds a wide margin of semi-transparent and transparent pixels on every side. The result is a PNG that’s noticeably larger than the window itself.

That looks fine on a white page. It looks wrong in other places:

on a dark background, where the soft gray shadow turns into a muddy halo;
in apps and sites that flatten transparency to black or white, which leaves a thick border;
on the App Store, which rejects screenshots with an alpha channel (see App Store screenshot sizes);
in documents, where you want screenshots to line up with the text.

Method 1: Option-click for one screenshot

This is the method Apple documents in Take a screenshot on Mac. It works for one capture and changes no settings.

Open the window you want to capture.
Press Shift-Command-4. The pointer turns into crosshairs.
Press and release Space. The pointer turns into a camera, and the window under it is highlighted.
Hold Option and click the window.

The screenshot is saved to your desktop, cropped tight to the window, with its rounded corners and no shadow. To copy it to the clipboard instead of saving a file, also hold Control when you click.

The shortcut doesn’t change your Mac’s settings. The next time you capture a window without holding Option, the shadow is back.

Method 2: The Screenshot toolbar

Press Shift-Command-5 to open the Screenshot toolbar. Choose the button for capturing a selected window, then hold Option as you click the window, the same as in Method 1.

The toolbar’s Options menu is also where you set a timer, choose where screenshots are saved, and show or hide the floating thumbnail and the mouse pointer. On supported Macs with macOS Tahoe 26 or later you can also choose the capture format. The default, SDR, saves a PNG. HDR saves a HEIF file instead, which many apps and sites don’t accept, so leave it on SDR for screenshots you’ll share.

Method 3: Turn the shadow off for good

If you never want the shadow, turn it off with one setting in Terminal. Open Terminal (in Applications › Utilities) and run these two commands:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool true

killall SystemUIServer

The first command saves the setting. The second restarts the part of macOS that takes screenshots, so the change applies right away without logging out. From now on, every window capture comes out without a shadow, with no need to hold Option.

How to get the shadow back

To undo it, delete the setting and restart SystemUIServer again:

defaults delete com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow

killall SystemUIServer

You can also set it to false instead of deleting it. Either way, window captures get their shadow back.

Already took the screenshot? Crop it

If you have a window screenshot with the shadow and can’t retake it, crop the margin away:

Open the screenshot in Preview.
Drag a selection tightly around the window, inside the shadow.
Choose Tools › Crop, or press Command-K.

A rectangular crop can’t follow the window’s rounded corners, so a little shadow stays in each corner, or you cut the corners off. For a clean result, retake the screenshot with Method 1.

Shortcut summary

To capture	Press
The whole screen	`Shift`-`Command`-`3`
A selected area	`Shift`-`Command`-`4`, then drag
A window, with shadow	`Shift`-`Command`-`4`, `Space`, click
A window, without shadow	`Shift`-`Command`-`4`, `Space`, `Option`-click
Any of these, to the clipboard	Also hold `Control`
Open the Screenshot toolbar	`Shift`-`Command`-`5`

When to keep the shadow

The shadow isn’t always a problem. It makes a window look like it sits on the page, which reads well in a light blog post or a Keynote slide with a white background. What usually doesn’t work is the fixed macOS shadow on a background you didn’t plan for.

A good middle ground is to capture without the shadow, then add your own on the background you’ll actually use. That way you control its softness and direction, and its color against the background.

Frame a window screenshot in FeatureFrame

FeatureFrame is a Mac app for framing screenshots, and it handles both kinds of window capture. Drop in a capture with the macOS shadow and it recognises the window inside, crops to it and keeps the window’s rounded corners. A capture without the shadow comes in as it is. Either way, you then:

put the window on a background, such as a color, a gradient, a macOS wallpaper or your own image;
add a shadow that suits that background;
set the padding and the canvas shape, from square to 16:9;
optionally add a thin border in any color;
copy the result or export it as PNG or JPEG.

Full-screen Mac captures work too, as a plain card with smooth corners. iPhone and iPad screenshots go into real 3D device frames; browse them in the device frame library.