May 17, 2009
Change the Default Screen Capture Format in Mac OS
To change the default file format of screen captures taken on your mac, you have a couple of different options. The quickest of them is using the Terminal app. To change the default format, use the following command.
defaults write com.apple.screencapture type format
You can replace format with any of the following formats: png, gif, bmp, jpeg, jpeg 2000, pdf, psd, sgi, tiff, pict, or tga.
Another option, if you’re not comfortable using the terminal, is to use the excellent maintenance program, OnyX.
First, fire up OnyX, then click the Parameters button in the toolbar. About halfway down on the right side, you’ll find the Screen Capture Format control, circled in red below. Select your desired format from the popup menu, then exit OnyX.
That’s all there is to it!
