Tell me if this sounds familiar: you need to take a screenshot of a whole web page (or, at least, more than one small part of it), so a drag-and-snap screenshot is out. You also need to capture info "below the fold" (content that's only visible after you scroll), so that's another no to your usual screenshot method.
So how can you avoid the painful task of scrolling down a page at a time, capturing one window screenshot again and again, and then cobbling it all together at the end?
Well, you could use a screenshot tool or a browser extension, but many of these won't help you with full-page screenshots (or will be just as long and painful as the first method).
Instead, try one of Google Chrome's hidden gems: the built-in, full-page screenshot tool. Here's the short version on how to use it:
With the web page open, press
Cmd+Opt+I(on Mac) orCtrl+Shift+I(on Windows).Then, press
Cmd+shift+P(on Mac) orCtrl+Shift+P(on Windows).In the search bar, immediately after the word Run >, type "screenshot".
Select Capture full size screenshot, and Chrome will automatically save a full-page screenshot to your Downloads folder.
Note: This tool works best on text-heavy pages and won't necessarily work on web apps. After testing this tool with several different web apps, I think it really just depends on the app. For example, in Google Docs, the tool will only capture the visible window, while on Zapier, it captures the entire length of the page.
How to take a full page screen capture using Chrome's built-in tool
Google has to know people are mish-mashing screenshots together, so it's a real mystery why their built-in screenshot tool is hidden. But now that you know about it, check out how simple it is to get a full-page screenshot using a few keyboard shortcuts. (These are the same instructions as above, just with some screenshots to help you visualize the process.)
With the web page open, press
Cmd+Opt+I(on Mac) orCtrl+Shift+I(on Windows).
Next, press
Cmd+shift+P(on Mac) orCtrl+Shift+P(on Windows). This will open Chrome's developer menu.
In the search bar, immediately after Run >, type "screenshot" for your command.
Select Capture full size screenshot.
You can now find your full-page screenshot in your Downloads folder.
How to screenshot a whole page with a custom size
The keyboard shortcut method is a great way to quickly get the screenshot you need, but if you want to customize the size of your screenshot, you'll have to take a few more steps to get it.
Open developer tools in Chrome using the keyboard shortcut from before:
Cmd+Opt+I(on Mac) orCtrl+Shift+I(on Windows). Or, you can do this by clicking the menu on your Chrome toolbar (⋮), then selecting More Tools > Developer Tools.
Click the device toolbar, which looks like a phone on top of a tablet (or, two rectangles overlapping), from the menu bar. This will open a responsive version of the web page.
Enter the custom width and height of your screenshot in the dimensions bar found directly above the responsive view of the web page. Alternatively, you can change the view using the dropdown menu (by default, this is set to Responsive) or by adjusting the zoom level.
Click the menu (⋮) in the dimensions bar, and select Capture full size screenshot.
Chrome will automatically download the full page. From there, you can crop your image or add some pizazz.
Want to make regular screenshots easier too? Here's how to do so on every platform. You can also check out Zappy, our free screenshot sharing tool for macOS. Or, take your customization one step further: learn how to use the Inspect Element tool to temporarily edit any webpage, so you can tailor everything perfectly for your screenshot.
Related reading:
This article was originally published in 2017. The most recent update, with contributions from Jessica Lau, was in January 2023.
