How to take a scrolling screenshot on Windows & Mac

A scrolling (full-page) screenshot captures an entire page — even the parts below the fold — as one tall image. Built-in tools like Snipping Tool can't do it. Snow Shot can, on Windows and macOS, for free.

When you need a scrolling screenshot

Long web pages and articles, chat and email threads, code files, invoices, terms-of-service evidence, bug reports where the error is at the bottom of a long form. Anywhere "the rest of the page" is part of the story, stitching five separate screenshots together by hand is the slow way.

Step by step with Snow Shot

1. Install Snow Shot. Grab the free Windows or Mac download — the portable version works too, no installation needed.
2. Open what you want to capture and scroll to the very top. Close pop-ups and cookie banners first; they would be stitched into the result.
3. Start the capture with the screenshot hotkey (F1 by default) and pick the scrolling capture mode, then drag over the area that should scroll — the content pane, not the whole window with its sidebars.
4. Let it scroll. Snow Shot scrolls the region automatically and stitches the frames. Keep hands off the mouse wheel and don't hover over the region; moving content mid-capture is what causes seams.
5. Finish and annotate. The result is one tall image in the editor: add arrows or highlights if you're sending it to someone, then copy it or save it as a file.

Tips for clean full-page captures

• Sticky headers repeat. Pages with fixed navigation bars may repeat the header in the stitch. Crop the duplicates in the annotation step, or scroll the page a little so the header settles first.
• Pause the page. Auto-playing videos, animations and lazy-loading images cause mismatched seams. Give images a second to load, and capture after the page settles.
• Very long pages have limits. For a 50-screen article, two captures (top half / bottom half) usually beat one gigantic one — the file stays shareable and readable.
• Annotate before you send. A tall screenshot with no marks is a wall. One arrow and one highlight turn it into an explanation — that's the annotation toolkit's whole job.

Scrolling screenshot FAQ

Can Windows Snipping Tool take scrolling screenshots?

No. Snipping Tool (and Snip & Sketch) capture only what's visible on screen. You need a tool with a scrolling capture mode, like Snow Shot — see also our Snipping Tool alternative comparison.

Does this work outside the browser?

Yes. Scrolling capture works on any scrollable window — documents, chat apps, file lists — not just web pages, and needs no browser extension.

What format does the long screenshot save in?

A single tall image you can copy to the clipboard or save as a file, like any other Snow Shot capture.

Need the step-by-step walkthrough? Read how to screenshot a whole web page in Chrome, Edge and Firefox.