How to remove the shadow from window screenshots in macOS

May 13, 2022

Learn how to remove the drop shadow from macOS window screenshots with a single defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow terminal command.

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I take lots of screenshots for my blog posts or courses.

I typically use cmd-shift-4 and then I press the spacebar to screenshot the whole application window.

Like this:

Browser window screenshot with default macOS drop shadow around the window frame

By default macOS adds that drop shadow which makes it look pretty nice.

If you want you can remove it using this command in the terminal:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool true ; killall SystemUIServer

Here’s the same screenshot without drop shadow:

Same browser window screenshot with the drop shadow removed showing clean edges

Add it back with:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool false ; killall SystemUIServer

Tagged: Mac · All topics

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