The screenshot tools built into Windows and macOS don’t allow you to take a full web page. But whatever your web browser, there is a solution to do it easily.
Taking a screenshot on a computer is easy. Windows and macOS also include functions as standard allowing you to save all or part of what is displayed on the screen of a PC or Mac in the form of an image file (see our practical sheets screenshot on PC and Take a screenshot on Mac). Convenient for taking a “photo” of a manipulation or a problem in software, or of what is found on the Internet, on social networks or merchant sites for example.
But if these tools can record a specific area or a complete window, they do not offer an option to capture a complete Web page. And some are very long… To keep a Web page in the form of an image, the classic solution consists of taking several screenshots by scrolling the page, then assembling them in an image editing software. Not easy. And if this technique may be suitable for short Web pages, it should be avoided on long pages: not only is the operation tedious, but, in addition, approximate pasting risks giving a mediocre result.
Fortunately, it is no longer necessary today to perform this kind of DIY. Indeed, the main web browsers on the market (Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari) all include a solution allowing you to take a screenshot of an entire web page in one go, without even having an extension. Firefox and Edge (Chromium) have a dedicated option as standard to perform the manipulation very easily. On the other hand, with Chrome and Safari, the exercise is less intuitive since you have to go through the integrated development tools, which may put off the less adventurous.
How to Take a Screenshot of a Full Web Page with Firefox ?
Mozilla’s web browser includes a screen capture tool as standard. Very easily accessible, it has an option to take a screenshot of an entire web page at once, without having to multiply and paste fragments or install any extension.
- Open Firefox and go to the webpage you want to capture.
- Hover the mouse cursor over a text box, right-click on the page, and then in the context menu, click Take a screenshot.
- The screenshot tool integrated into Firefox is then displayed as an overlay. At the top right, click the option Capture full pageand wait a moment.
- The screenshot you have just taken is displayed in a viewing window. You can scroll the image to see it in its entirety. Click the blue button To download displayed at the top right to save it to a file.
- By default, screenshots taken in Firefox are saved in the directory Downloads from your computer.
- Then click on the arrow icon displayed at the top right of Firefox to display the download manager. To directly open the screenshot, click on it. To access the backup folder where the screenshot is saved, click the folder icon.
How to Take a Screenshot of a Full Web Page with Edge ?
The most recent version of the Microsoft Edge web browser, based on Chromium, includes an easy-to-use screen capture tool. Again, no extension is needed since Microsoft Edge has an option to save the image of a web page in its entirety.
- Open a Microsoft Edge window and go to the web page you want to save as a screenshot.
- Place the mouse pointer over a text box, right-click, and click the option web capture in the pop-up menu that appears. You can also directly use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+S.
- The screen capture tool is then activated superimposed on the page. Click on the button Full page to take a screenshot of the entire open page, and wait a moment.
- A screenshot preview of the entire web page that you can scroll is displayed. Click on the button representing a floppy disk displayed at the top right of the snipping tool to save the generated image.
- The screenshot is downloaded and the Microsoft Edge download manager pane – recognizable by the icon of an arrow pointing down – opens. Click on Open a file to directly open the capture, or click on the button representing a folder to access the directory in which the capture was saved.
How to Take a Screenshot of a Full Web Page with Chrome ?
Unlike Mozilla and Microsoft, Google has not yet provided any option to capture a full webpage screenshot in Chrome. There is a screenshot feature, but it requires using the browser’s developer tools and accessing the command menu. The operation is therefore a bit delicate, but not reserved for experts.
- Open Chrome and go to the web page you want to capture the full screenshot.
- To open Chrome’s Developer Tools, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+i on Windows or Command+Option+i on macOS. The pane that expands displays the source code of the page. Make sure you are and stay on the tab Items selected by default.
- Then use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+P (on Windows) or Command + Shift + P (on macOS) to open the Chrome commands menu.
- In the command entry field that appears, after the > sign, type the term screenshot. Several suggestions appear. Click on Capture full size screenshot (literally, Capture a full size screenshot) and wait a moment.
- The screenshot is automatically downloaded and saved to Chrome’s default download folder. You can directly open the file by clicking on its thumbnail displayed in the bar of the Chrome download manager, at the bottom of the window.
- You can also click the arrow icon and then click Show in Folder to open the folder where the image was saved.
How to Take a Screenshot of a Full Web Page with Safari ?
If iOS offers this option natively, the macOS version of Safari does not have any easy-to-access function allowing you to take a complete screenshot of a Web page. Neither does macOS’ built-in screenshot tool. The only way to achieve this action is to use the in-browser developer tools which are not enabled by default.
- To enable Safari Developers, click the menu Safari then on Preferences. You can also use the keyboard shortcut Command + , (comma).
- In the window that appears, click on the category Advancementsthen at the bottom of the window, check the option Show Develop menu in menu bar. Then close the preferences window.
- Then go to the web page you want to take a screenshot of, and use the keyboard shortcut Command+Option+i. The web inspector window opens and displays the HTML code of the page.
- At the very top of the code, locate the first HTML tag (which starts with
- The backup window Save as opens. Navigate to the backup folder, name your file with the extension .png and click the button To register.
- Your full-page screenshot file is saved to your Mac. You can open it like any image, in Preview for example, and use zoom functions to magnify areas.
