Did Tahoe block changing the default screenshot format to pdf?

The following certainly works on Tahoe 26.0.1 and is sufficiently generic as to have worked on several previous generations of macOS:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type pdf

leroydouglas wrote:

Turn off the floating thumbnail and compare your results.

Good catch!!!

Yes, turning off "Show floating thumbnail" does allow saving as a pdf.

Also: often, when taking a screenshot, one may need or want to do some annotations. For example, to add a rounded rectangle to draw attention to a particular part of the screenshot, like you did :-)

That is why, instead of the floating thumbnail, I prefer to set the screenshot to open directly in Preview:

Then, of course, it can be annotated and, if the user so desires, saved as a pdf (I don't, but the capability is there).

As far as I can tell, the only possible advantage of annotating from the floating thumbnail instead of in Preview is the ease of using an iPhone or iPad tactile (or pencil) interface to draw. I have no need for that, so for me Preview is best.

The default was always png. If you want pdf…

run in the Terminal: defaults write com.apple.screencapture "type" -string "pdf"

In the Finder, right click on the created PNG screenshot and from the Finder secondary menu, select Quick Actions > Create PDF. That will do the conversion. No need to learn or write a Shortcut that Apple already provides in Monterey or later.

aist-15 wrote:

Since Tahoe I can no longer capture the screen—or parts of it—directly to PDF The only option left is to use the terminal command to switch the screenshot format back to PNG or JPG. Has Apple disabled the PDF option altogether? If so, that’s a step backwards, forcing you to open each PNG in Preview and export it to PDF—a real hassle if you need to make multiple screenshots.

re: < defaults write com.apple.screencapture type pdf >

Turn off the floating thumbnail and compare your results.

Shift Command 5 >Options

Take screenshots or screen recordings on Mac - Apple Support

I did a shift+cmd+4 right after changing the screencapture format from png to pdf and it worked perfectly. Did not need to quit and relaunch the Terminal or even reboot the Mac.

That command works in the old Apple Bash (3.2.57), new Bash (5.3.3), or Zsh 5.9 shells.

aist-15 wrote:

I regularly make use of screenshots for legal documentation purposes. PDFs are easier to handle for (legal) filing and email purposes, as image attachments are often blocked or may not display correctly for recipients.

Thanks for the explanation. As noted above, if you disable the Floating Thumbnail you can capture screenshots as PDFs.

neuroanatomist wrote:

Saving as a pdf has never been a directly selectable option. "Screenshots are saved as .png files and screen recordings are saved as .mov files." From:

Take screenshots or screen recordings on Mac - Apple Support

If you used a Terminal command to alter that behavior, that may have been removed from Tahoe (Apple has done that in the past with other functionality). Only they could change it back.

To have Apple consider your feedback, submit it here:

Feedback - macOS - Apple

It used to be possible to select pdf as the screen capture format, using the already mentioned defaults command in Terminal. In fact, it was the default in the early versions of Mac OS X. The default was changed to png many years ago, though.

Luis Sequeira1 wrote:

Good catch!!!

Interesting. I've always had the Floating Thumbnail disabled so PDF screenshots always work for me. I still don't have a clue why anyone would want them. 😎

Same as aist-15 :

Tahoe 26.0.1

screencapture pdf format don't work : only sound, no screenshot picture in bottom-right, no file in screencapture location, for all shortcuts (⇧⌘3, ⇧⌘4, ⇧⌘5)

screencapture works fine, as expected, for tiff, png, jpg types

pdf screencapture type worked fine for my MacStudio, in all older macOS versions

Defaults read for screencapture :

xxxxxx ~ % defaults read com.apple.screencapture
{
    "last-analytics-stamp" = "781627045.739334";
    "last-selection" =     {
        Height = 1080;
        Width = 1920;
        X = 320;
        Y = 180;
    };
    "last-selection-display" = 0;
    location = "/Users/jmf/Desktop/Captures d'e\\U0301cran";
    type = pdf;
}

Seems to be OK…

Saving as a pdf has never been a directly selectable option. "Screenshots are saved as .png files and screen recordings are saved as .mov files." From:

Take screenshots or screen recordings on Mac - Apple Support

If you used a Terminal command to alter that behavior, that may have been removed from Tahoe (Apple has done that in the past with other functionality). Only they could change it back.

To have Apple consider your feedback, submit it here:

Feedback - macOS - Apple

No idea why it's not working for you, but in the meantime a workaround might be to build a Shortcut to convert the .png to a .pdf using Preview.

Intro to Shortcuts on Mac - Apple Support

You could then add that to your Finder contextual menus and run it with a secondary click on the screenshot.

Run a shortcut while working on your Mac - Apple Support

dialabrain wrote:

Luis Sequeira1 wrote:

Good catch!!!

Interesting. I've always had the Floating Thumbnail disabled so PDF screenshots always work for me. I still don't have a clue why anyone would want them. 😎

I don't know why people would want a pdf either, but now at least we know why it did work for some but not others :-)

FWIW, you can also change the screenshot format using Onyx. Hopefully that will work for you.