How to take a full-page screenshot on iPhone

AppleInsider

It's surprisingly simple to capture a long web page in a single screenshot on your iPhone or iPad, and edit it to hold just the information you want.

When you create a screenshot on your iPhone -- or iPad, for that matter -- the image that is created initially appears to be just the portion of the web page that appears on your screen -- a literal "screen" image. However, website articles and home pages tend to be much "longer," running off-screen until you scroll down.

In fact, though, your "screenshot" taken on an iPhone also captures the entire page of the website, no matter how long it is. You have to then say that you want the full screen image, but when you do, you can also easily edit the screenshot after it is taken to trim it to any section you really want.

Taking a full-page screenshot on iPhone

To take a screenshot using your iPhone, press the upper volume button and the power button briefly at the same time. The screen will "flash" to indicate you were successful, and a small thumbnail of the visible screen content will appear in the lower-left corner, and move offscreen after a few seconds if you don't tap on it -- or if you flick it away to the left.

If you instead tap on the thumbnail, it will expand into edit mode, starting at the top of the captured page. You'll see a few standard editing tools above the image, and two choices just below the tools: "screen" and "full page."

If your intent was just to capture something on the visible screen area when you took the picture, you can tap on the "crop" tool to trim off anything you don't want, tap the "done" button, and choose where to save it. You can save it to the Photos app, the Files app, or create a Quick Note with the image in it.

You also get the option to "copy and delete," meaning to save the screenshot image to the clipboard but delete the actual screenshot, or delete the screenshot outright. The options for the "full page" image are slightly different: you can save to photos, save as a PDF to files, or copy-and-delete and just delete.

If you wanted to capture the whole page, though, just tap on the "full page" option, and you'll see a long, skinny, and very small thumbnail of the entire image to the right, while your screenshot remains on the left. Likewise, these tools are all available if you're working on your iPad.

Editing a captured full-page screenshot on an iPad

Editing your full-page screenshot

You can scroll down through the screenshot by moving the highlighted area of the thumbnail to get an idea of what, if anything, you'll want to trim. The tools at the top of the screen will let you undo or re-do your editing actions, trash the image, or send it somewhere.

When you want to save the full-page screenshot, just tap the "Done" button on the left side of the toolbar. You'll get the option to save it to Photos or save a PDF version to the Files app, where you'll be asked where in your iCloud files you want to keep it.

As with the "screenshot" option, you can use the "send" icon to email, message, AirDrop, and send to your full page screenshot to specific people, your preferred social media sites, or add to the Notes. By default, screenshots and full-page screenshots are saved as .png (portable network graphics) files, which is a lossless raster RGB format.

As with a lot of Apple features and apps, there are obscured but advanced features you can take advantage of behind the "simple" operations that most users find is all they need. For those occasions when you want to go beyond the basics, the tools to create something more impressive are there -- they just take a little more effort to find and utilize.



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cesco

For those like myself who cannot press both buttons simultaneously, there's there ever-useful  double-tap-in-back accessibility feature.

chasm

cesco said:

For those like myself who cannot press both buttons simultaneously, there's there ever-useful  double-tap-in-back accessibility feature.

Very useful to know. Thanks for sharing that.

iOS_Guy80

chasm said:

cesco said:

For those like myself who cannot press both buttons simultaneously, there's there ever-useful  double-tap-in-back accessibility feature.

Very useful to know. Thanks for sharing that.

Great and concise explanation of a sequence of steps. Once committed to memory by practicing it becomes a very useful tool. Read a similar article about this feature last year and have been employing it quite often. I save everything now as a PDF file in the Books app, rename the PDF and saving them in categories (albums) that you can create in the Book app. Of course, you can achieve the same workflow in the Files app.

bulgarianapple

Ironically this doesn’t work on the AppleInsider app. It does work in Safari though. 

Spitbath

bulgarianapple said:

Ironically this doesn’t work on the AppleInsider app. It does work in Safari though. 

Ironically the first four sentences in this article refer to "web page" two times, "website" two times, and "app" exactly zero times.

hmm888

iOS_Guy80 said:

chasm said:

cesco said:

For those like myself who cannot press both buttons simultaneously, there's there ever-useful  double-tap-in-back accessibility feature.

Very useful to know. Thanks for sharing that.

Great and concise explanation of a sequence of steps. Once committed to memory by practicing it becomes a very useful tool. Read a similar article about this feature last year and have been employing it quite often. I save everything now as a PDF file in the Books app, rename the PDF and saving them in categories (albums) that you can create in the Book app. Of course, you can achieve the same workflow in the Files app.

OK bot

hmm888

Where aee the screenshots of the steps? As usual, clickbait. 

hmm888

cesco said:

For those like myself who cannot press both buttons simultaneously, there's there ever-useful  double-tap-in-back accessibility feature.

Or just setup screenshot as an accessibility button 

cesco

hmm888 said:

cesco said:

For those like myself who cannot press both buttons simultaneously, there's there ever-useful  double-tap-in-back accessibility feature.

Or just setup screenshot as an accessibility button 

Sweet! Thanks for this. had totally forgotten about AT buttons.

bulgarianapple

Spitbath said:

bulgarianapple said:

Ironically this doesn’t work on the AppleInsider app. It does work in Safari though. 

Ironically the first four sentences in this article refer to "web page" two times, "website" two times, and "app" exactly zero times.

So you think the AppleInsider app displays something other than a web page?
Would have been much more straightforward to say that full screen snaps can be taken only in safari. 

jdw

People are complaining that a full page screenshot cannot be taken in the AppleInsider app.  I agree that is a silly limitation.  To understand why it is silly, you must ask why we even need a dedicated app for a website in the first place?  Why use an app when you can use Safari?  

The reason typically is because you could THEORETICALLY get MORE FUNCTIONALITY by using a dedicated app.  But if that's true, why then doesn't the app offer that expanded (more than Safari) functionality by way of giving us a FULL PAGE SCREENSHOT BUTTON? Right now, Safari is offering more functionality than the AppleInsider app, raising the question as to why that app even exists.  

I personally use Safari and not the AppleInsider app, so I never noticed the feature limitation before.

chasm

bulgarianapple said:

So you think the AppleInsider app displays something other than a web page?
Would have been much more straightforward to say that full screen snaps can be taken only in safari. 

That's not correct either.

Full screen snaps can be taken in any web browser that uses WebKit. Which, on iOS, is currently "all of them."

The EU will put a stop to that convenience monopoly abuse, don't you worry though.

tjones99ca

Once again, authors should do more research before publishing 'How To" articles. First of all, I have an iPhone SE with a home button which changes how I take screen shots. Second, this technique does not work all the time and you haven't talked about the limitations. I use the Google app a lot to find or display web pages and this doesn't work here. Seems it only works on 'real' browsers and that should be mentioned.

chasm

hmm888 said:

Where aee the screenshots of the steps? As usual, clickbait. 

The “screenshots” are on YOUR PHONE. As in, you **read** the instructions, then use them on **your own phone.**

Do you need a screenshot to understand that?