Chromebook screenshot shortcuts and the keys behind them

Chromebook keyboards replace several familiar keys, which is why Windows and Mac instructions don't map cleanly onto them.

Updated 15 September 2026

What's different about a Chromebook keyboard#

Four changes from a standard laptop layout matter here:

• No Print Screen key. Nothing occupies that role.
• No Caps Lock. A Search or Launcher key sits there instead. Alt+Search toggles caps lock when you need it.
• No dedicated function row. The top row is browser and system controls: back, forward, reload, full screen, Show windows, brightness, volume.
• Show windows in the fifth or sixth position, printed as a rectangle with two lines.

The full shortcut list#

That last one is the most useful thing on this page. It draws your actual keyboard on screen and highlights what every key does when you hold a modifier. Hold Ctrl while it's open and the screenshot keys light up. It reflects your specific model, so it's more reliable than any written guide.

Using an external keyboard#

Plug in a USB or Bluetooth Windows keyboard and ChromeOS maps the row for you, much as macOS remaps a Windows keyboard:

• Show windows becomes F5
• Full screen becomes F4
• Search / Launcher becomes the Windows logo key
• Print Screen still does nothing

So Ctrl+F5 takes a full-screen capture, and Ctrl+Shift+F5 opens the toolbar.

On keyboards where the top row defaults to media controls, hold Fn as well. Keyboards with their own Fn lock make this permanent.

Remapping keys#

Settings › Device › Keyboard lets you reassign Search, Ctrl, Alt, Esc and Backspace. The same row of keys drives screen recording as well as stills. The capture shortcut itself can't be changed, but remapping the modifiers underneath it gets you part of the way — assigning Search to Ctrl gives you a screenshot shortcut you can hit with one hand.

There's also a Treat top-row keys as function keys toggle, which swaps the whole row's default. If you enable it, the screenshot shortcuts need Fn held down.

Tablets and detachables#

With no physical keyboard attached:

• Power+Volume down for a full-screen capture.
• Quick settings › Screen capture for everything else, including region select with your finger.

Drawing a region with a fingertip is imprecise. A stylus, on models that support one, is much better — and on some devices the stylus menu has its own capture button that captures and opens the image for annotation in one step.

With the key located, the three ChromeOS capture methods are straightforward.