Use the macOS screenshot keys

Snix can take over the screenshot keys you already know, so each capture opens straight in the Snix editor. macOS doesn’t let apps turn off its own shortcuts, so you switch three of them off once in Keyboard Settings. Snix shows you which ones and takes each over as soon as macOS lets go of it.

What the keys do in Snix

Keys	In Snix
⇧⌘3	Capture Full Screen
⇧⌘4	Capture Region. Press Space to pick a window instead.
⇧⌘5	The Capture Options toolbar

The clipboard versions, ⌃⇧⌘3 and ⌃⇧⌘4, stay with macOS.

Set it up

1. Start the setup in one of two ways:
   • When Snix offers “Take Screenshots with the Keys You Already Know”, click Set Up Shortcuts.
   • Or open Settings (⌘,) and click Use ⇧⌘3 / ⇧⌘4 / ⇧⌘5… under Shortcuts.
2. The Screenshot Shortcuts window opens with the steps and a list of the three shortcuts. Click Open Keyboard Settings.
3. In Keyboard Settings, click Keyboard Shortcuts…, then choose Screenshots in the list on the left.
4. Turn off these three:
   • Save picture of screen as a file (⇧⌘3)
   • Save picture of selected area as a file (⇧⌘4)
   • Screenshot and recording options (⇧⌘5)
5. Watch the Snix window. Each row changes from “Still on in macOS” to “Used by Snix” as Snix takes it over.
6. When all three are done, the window reads “All Set: Snix Takes Your Screenshots”. Click Done.

You can also close the window early and come back to Snix later. When Snix becomes the active app again, it checks Keyboard Settings and takes over whatever you turned off. It then tells you which keys it uses and which ones macOS still keeps.

What changes in Snix

Snix moves its own shortcuts to the macOS keys. For example, Capture Region becomes ⇧⌘4 instead of ⌃⌘5, and Capture Full Screen becomes ⇧⌘3 instead of ⌃⌘6. Settings and the Capture menu show the new keys.

Switch back to macOS

• From Snix: open Settings and click Restore Defaults under Shortcuts. Snix goes back to its own shortcuts and offers Open Keyboard Settings so you can turn the macOS shortcuts back on.
• From Keyboard Settings: turn a macOS screenshot shortcut back on. The next time Snix becomes active, it gives that key back and shows “macOS Uses These Screenshot Shortcuts Again”, listing the shortcut it uses instead. This way the two never start at the same time.

Good to know

• The offer appears at launch at most three times. After that, start the setup from Settings › Shortcuts.
• The setup button is available only while Enable global capture shortcuts is on.
• If you type ⇧⌘3, ⇧⌘4 or ⇧⌘5 into a shortcut field in Settings while macOS still uses it, Snix warns you that both would start.
• More about the capture shortcuts: Capture shortcuts and menus.