Take a screenshot of a QuickTime movie frame?

Question

I'm trying to export a screenshot of a part of a video in QuickTime Player 10.

How can I save a freeze frame capture from a QuickTime movie?

The saved image should be only the single video frame, not including the QuickTime Player window's chrome or controls.

I can't find a screenshot menu item in the Export menu...

score 48 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 20 '23 at 21:06

48

QuickTime solution:

Pause the QuickTime video on the still frame you want as an image, then hit Edit > Copy or Cmd ⌘C.
Open the Preview app and select File > New from Clipboard or Cmd ⌘N.

edited Mar 20 '23 at 21:06

pkamb

answered Mar 23 '20 at 18:33

Christoph

Odd that that works, but it does! – marktristan Jul 13 '20 at 09:25
Works for me on macOS Sierra (10.12.6) – Uwe Schmelzer May 27 '21 at 12:39
1

Wow, unexpected but still working in macOS Ventura 13.0.1 – Alessandro Muzzi Nov 17 '22 at 18:54
Genius! You can even paste (Cmd+V) the image directly into Canva or other image applications you're working with. – anaotha Jan 22 '23 at 18:00
This doesn't appear to work anymore in macOS Monterey (12.5) – nageeb Mar 20 '23 at 17:25
1

definitely still working in latest Monterey :) – Christoph Mar 20 '23 at 21:10
6

Unfortunately didn't work on Ventura 13.3.1 – mdikici Apr 21 '23 at 12:47
I never had issues with this pre-Ventura, but Ventura 13.4: it sometimes works... You might have to play/pause, scrub around a bit before it will let you cmd+C. I don't know what the magic combination is but just try to play around with it a bit and it should eventually let you copy the frame. Weird. – Matt Popovich Jun 21 '23 at 16:03
I had to play/pause to get it to work – PJM Design Sep 26 '23 at 16:19

score 8 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 21 '23 at 18:47

8

If you can't get this to work in your version of QuickTime you'll need another tool.

VLC [Freeware] can snapshot either on the fly or when paused with Opt ⌥ Cmd ⌘ S & generally runs rings round Quicktime as a player.

Note, because of its popularity, there are scam sites primed for unsuspecting prey.
VLC's domain is videolan.org

edited Mar 21 '23 at 18:47

pkamb

answered May 18 '18 at 17:53

Tetsujin

2 Answers2