Ask HN: What is a good way to screenshot a perfect square?

1 points by andrewfromx 2y ago ↗ HN

This happens to me all the time, I command+shift+4 to get a crosshair cursor on mac and then I can draw any shape I want. But trying to get a perfect 50x50 or 100x100 is very hard. I end up with 52x49 or 101x103. I know there is snagit from techsmith but is there anything free that does this?

3 comments

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Someone 2y ago ↗

Adjusting the screenshot area by dragging the center at a side helps quite a bit, as it allows you to adjust the width without risking also adjusting the height (or vice versa)

The CLI also is an option for some use cases. See man screencapture.

andrewfromx 2y ago ↗

oh it's command+shift+5!!! wow that's great thank you!

interbased 2y ago ↗

You can make the screenshot square bigger than you need it to be, then click on the screenshot when it appears in the bottom right. Click the edit button at the top, then click the crop icon. Hold shift and drag the corner.