How to capture icons

Thu Jan 01 2004

I stumbled onto a really neat trick in Mac OS X just tonight: the same Command-Shift-4 keystroke you use to take screen captures of specific areas/windows on the screen can also be used to take a perfect, full-sized screenshot of any icon on the Dock. It is saved as a PDF file with a transparent background, making the icon perfect for use in Photoshop.

How to do it:

  1. Make sure the icon you want to capture is in the Dock
  2. Press Command-Shift-4 on your keyboard. The cursor should change into a crosshair.
  3. Press the spacebar. The cursor should change into a camera, and any window you hover over should turn blue.
  4. Hover your mouse over the icon you want to steal. It should turn blue.
  5. Click.

You should hear a camera-shutter sound effect. You're done. There is now a new Picture X.pdf file on your Desktop, where x is a sequential number based on however many of those you have there already.

We take this opportunity to remind all readers that stealing and misappropriating other people/companies' intellectual property is very, very bad and wrong and did we mention bad? And you should not do it. (Much.)