Scrolling screenshot on Mac

Step by step

1. 1

   Install the extension in Chrome

   Add GoFullScreenshot from the Chrome Web Store. It also works in Edge, Brave and other Chromium browsers on macOS.

2. 2

   Open the page and press the shortcut

   Press Option+Shift+S (⌥⇧S), or click the toolbar icon and choose Full page. If the shortcut does nothing, another extension may already use it: check chrome://extensions/shortcuts.

3. 3

   Wait for the scroll to finish

   The page scrolls itself while each section is captured and stitched at full resolution.

4. 4

   Copy, annotate or export

   Copy to the clipboard for Slack or Keynote, annotate in the built-in editor, or save as PNG, JPEG, WebP or PDF.

Scrolling screenshots on macOS, in plain terms

A scrolling screenshot means the tool moves through the page and joins every section into one image. On iPhone and iPad that exists as Full Page in the screenshot preview. On macOS it does not: Screenshot.app, Preview and the keyboard shortcuts all work at screen level. The browser is the only part of the Mac that knows how tall the document really is, which is why the capture has to start there. In Chrome that takes one shortcut, and the stitched result opens in a new tab where you can annotate, crop and export it.

Why the macOS shortcuts are not enough

Cmd+Shift+3 captures the display and Cmd+Shift+4 captures a region you drag. Both work at screen level, so a 12,000 pixel article still comes out as one screenful. Preview and Screenshot.app cannot scroll a webpage either. The scroll and stitch step has to happen inside the browser, which is exactly what a full page screenshot extension does.

Frequently asked questions

Does Cmd+Shift+4 take a full page screenshot?

No. Cmd+Shift+3 and Cmd+Shift+4 capture the screen or a selected region, so you only get the part of the page that is visible. Capturing the entire scrolling page needs a browser-side tool that scrolls and stitches.

How do I take a scrolling screenshot on a Mac?

macOS itself cannot scroll a page while capturing, so the scrolling has to happen in the browser. Open the page in Chrome, press Option+Shift+S, and GoFullScreenshot scrolls the page, captures each section and stitches them into one tall image at Retina resolution.

Does Cmd+Shift+5 do a scrolling capture?

No. Cmd+Shift+5 opens the macOS Screenshot toolbar for the screen, a window or a selection, and can record video, but it never scrolls a document. Everything below the fold is still missing.

What is the shortcut on macOS?

GoFullScreenshot suggests Option+Shift+S (⌥⇧S) for Full page and Option+Shift+V (⌥⇧V) for Visible area; on Windows these are Alt+Shift+S and Alt+Shift+V. Chrome assigns them when the keys are free. Select area usually has no key, so set one on chrome://extensions/shortcuts, where you can also change the others.

Does it work in Safari?

No. It is a Chromium extension, so it runs in Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc and similar browsers on macOS.

Does the screenshot keep Retina resolution?

Yes. The capture uses the page's own device pixel ratio, so text stays sharp on Retina displays.

Is anything uploaded to a server?

No. Capture, stitching, editing and export all run locally in your browser. the extension has no backend and no analytics.

Also useful: the scrolling screenshot guide for Chrome. On Windows instead? Read the Windows guide or the general Chrome guide.