If you want to take a screenshot of a YouTube video on your Windows 11/10 PC, read this post. While watching a YouTube video, you may sometimes wish to capture some interesting or informative frame that you may refer to later or share with your friends via social apps. Though YouTube itself doesn’t provide an option for taking screenshots due to copyright violation, you may use other methods to take YouTube screenshots as long as you take the owner’s permission to use them.
How to screenshot a YouTube video on PC
In this post, we will discuss three different methods of taking screenshots of YouTube videos on a Windows PC. They are:
- Using Windows native screenshot tools/options.
- Using YouTube Screenshot extension.
- Using a third-party website.
Let us see these in detail.
1] Using Windows native screenshot tools/options
Here are some of the Windows built-in screen capture tools/options that you may use for taking screenshots on YouTube on a Windows 11/10 PC:
A] Prt Sc/PrtScr/PrntScrn/Print Screen key
This is the most common way of taking screenshots on a Windows computer. You may use the Prt Sc/PrtScr/PrntScrn/Print Screen key on your keyboard to capture a YouTube frame. However, since the key takes the picture of the entire desktop screen, you need to switch to the full-screen mode in YouTube before taking the screenshot. The screenshot will be copied to your clipboard which you may paste into MS Word. Then you can right-click on the image and choose the Save as Picture option to save the screenshot to the desired location on your Windows 11/10 PC.
Alternatively, you may simply press the Win+PrtScr key combination. This will automatically save the screenshot as a PNG file in the Screenshots folder within the Pictures folder on your PC.
B] Windows Snipping Tool
Windows Snipping Tool is another useful tool to easily take screenshots of your favorite YouTube videos on a Windows 11/10 PC.
Click on the Windows Search bar and type ‘snip’. Then click on the Snipping Tool app in the search results. This will launch the Snipping Tool. Alternatively, you may press the Win+Shift+S key combination on your keyboard to launch the snipping tool.
Now play the YouTube video and as it reaches the desired frame, click on the New Snip button in the Snipping Tool window. Now select the area of the frame using the rectangular selection tool. The screen capture will be shown in the Snipping Tool Editor and will also be saved as a PNG file in the Screenshots folder.
Read: Best free software to create YouTube videos
2] Using YouTube Screenshot extension
You may also use browser extensions to take YouTube screenshots on a Windows PC. Some extensions are built specifically for that purpose and you may take advantage of using them.
A] Google Chrome extension for YouTube Screenshots
Screenshot YouTube is a Google Chrome extension that allows you to take screenshots of YouTube videos. You may visit the extension’s page in the Chrome Web Store and install it in your browser. Once the extension is installed, a Screenshot button will appear at the bottom of the YouTube player, among other playback options.
To take a screenshot from a YouTube video, which is being played in your Chrome browser, simply click on this button. The screenshot will instantly be downloaded in PNG format and also copied to the clipboard for further use.
You may visit the extension’s Options page to assign a hotkey (the key ‘P’ on your keyboard) for taking screenshots or changing the format of the saved file (png/jpeg/webp). If you want, you may choose between saving the file to system or copying it to the clipboard, or keeping both the options. The extension also has extra features that lets you use keyboard shortcuts for changing the playback rate of the video.
Screenshot YouTube chrome extension is compatible with other Chromium browsers as well, such as Opera and Brave. So in case you use an alternative Chromium browser, you may not face any difficulty using this extension for taking YouTube screenshots.
B] Microsoft Edge extension for YouTube Screenshots
Screenshot YouTube is also available as an Edge browser extension and can easily be downloaded from the Edge Add-on Store. Edge also offers other similar add-ons which you may give a try if you want.
C] Mozilla Firefox extension for YouTube Screenshots
YouTube Screenshot Button is a similar add-on for Mozilla Firefox users. You may install the add-on from the Firefox Add-On Store. Just like the above add-on, it adds a Screeshot button in the YouTube player, which users can click on to take instant screenshots from a running video. By default, the screenshots are saved in the Downloads folder on a Windows 11/10 PC in JPEG format. However, you may change the format of the downloaded image to PNG or choose to copy the image to the clipboard (instead of downloading it) using the add-on’s setting options.
Read: How to take Delayed Screenshots in Windows.
3] Using a third-party website
YouTube-Screenshot is an online tool that allows you to capture screenshots from a YouTube video. Visit youtube-screenshot.com and paste the URL of the Youtube video in the Youtube Video URL or Video ID field. Then click on the Get Screenshots button next to it.
Then scroll down to the Play Video & Take Custom Screenshot section and play the video using the play/pause button. Pause the video at the desired frame and click the Take Screenshot Of This Frame button. You will be shown a custom screenshot in 1280×720 resolution.
You may click on the Download Screenshot button to save the frame on your system in JPG format or use the forward/backward buttons to move across the video and select another frame to download. The website also allows you to download video thumbnails in different qualities.
Another similar website that allows you to take a custom screenshot from any frame of a YouTube video is youtubescreenshot.com. You may also check this website for taking YouTube screenshots.
Apart from the above, you may use a good third-party screen capture tool to take high-quality YouTube screenshots.
Do not forget to take permission of the video uploader or give credit to the YouTube channel if you want to use the screenshot for online publishing.
How to extract frames from YouTube video online?
Visit youtube-screenshot.com, paste the video URL, and click on the Get Screenshots button. Scroll down to the player section and play the video. Pause it at the desired frame and click on the Take Screenshot Of This Frame button to extract the frame in jpeg format.
How do you screenshot a YouTube video without controls?
To take a screenshot of a YouTube video without controls, open the video and press Ctrl+M to hide the process bar in YouTube. You can now take a screenshot of the current frame.
Read Next: How to take a scrolling screenshot in Windows.
