How to Take a Scrolling Screenshot

A scrolling screenshot captures a whole web page, chat or document in a single tall image instead of a dozen overlapping shots. Most phones offer it as one extra tap after a normal screenshot, and on a computer the browser usually does the job. Here is where the option hides on each device.

At a glance

iPhone and iPad

1. Take a normal screenshot: side button and volume up together on Face ID models, or the side or top button with the Home button on older ones.
2. Tap the thumbnail that appears in the corner before it slides away.
3. At the top of the editing screen, switch from Screen to Full Page.
4. Check the slim preview strip on the right to make sure everything is there, crop if needed, then tap Done and choose where to save it.

Full Page works in Safari, in several of Apple's own apps and in some third-party apps. The capture is often saved as a PDF in the Files app, which keeps text crisp and searchable; depending on your iOS version, saving it to Photos may be offered as well. If the Full Page tab never appears, the app you are in simply does not support it.

Android phones

The wording varies by manufacturer, but the pattern is the same: take an ordinary screenshot, usually with power and volume down together, then look at the small toolbar that pops up.

• Samsung Galaxy: tap the icon with the downward arrows. Each tap scrolls further down the page; stop when you reach the part you need.
• Google Pixel and phones with a similar Android build: tap Capture more, then drag the bottom handle down to choose how much of the page to include.
• Other brands: look for "scroll", "long screenshot" or "extended" in that toolbar, or search the Settings app for screenshot options.

If the button is missing, the app may block screenshots altogether, as some banking and streaming apps do, or the screen may not actually scroll.

Windows and Mac computers

The built-in screenshot tools on both systems grab what is visible on screen, not what sits below it. For whole web pages, turn to the browser instead.

Firefox

Right-click an empty part of the page, choose Take Screenshot, then Save full page. You can download the result or copy it straight into another app.

Microsoft Edge

Press Ctrl+Shift+S, or find the capture tool in the menu, and pick the full-page option. Edge opens the result in a small editor where you can draw on it before saving.

Chrome

Chrome tucks the feature into its developer tools, but no coding knowledge is needed:

1. Press Ctrl+Shift+I on Windows or Cmd+Option+I on a Mac to open developer tools.
2. Press Ctrl+Shift+P or Cmd+Shift+P to open the command menu.
3. Type "screenshot" and choose Capture full size screenshot.
4. The image lands in your usual downloads folder.

Safari on a Mac

There is no full-page screenshot button, but File > Export as PDF saves the entire page, which often serves the same purpose.

Tips for a clean capture

• Close cookie banners and chat bubbles first, or they may end up repeated or stuck in the middle of the image.
• Let the page load completely, including images lower down. Scrolling to the bottom once before capturing helps.
• Headers that follow you down the page can appear more than once in phone captures. Cropping fixes the worst of it.
• Very tall images get shrunk by some messaging apps until the text is unreadable. Send the PDF version, or split the capture into two parts.

When a long screenshot is the right tool

It shines for saving a recipe or set of instructions to read offline, keeping a record of an order confirmation or a conversation, sharing a whole thread with someone outside it, or giving feedback on a page layout. For pages you simply want to return to, a bookmark is lighter: see how to bookmark a website in any browser.

Keep them from piling up

Long captures are large files, and screenshots have a way of multiplying quietly in the photo library. Once a capture has done its job, delete it, and move anything worth keeping somewhere safe; our guide to backing up photos covers that part. If the phone is already short on space, the steps for freeing up storage on iPhone include clearing out old screenshots in bulk.