The 6 easy ways to take a screenshot on Surface Pro

Microsoft Surface Pro lineup is the most popular 2-in-1 tablet or laptop that does great in both worlds with an incredible performance, detachable keyboard, adjustable kickstand, best-in-class digital pen, and more. The tablet is perfect for digital artists, students, and professional users looking for a capable machine with a portable form factor.

If you recently switched from other laptops, you might experience some difficulties taking screenshots on Surface Pro, especially in tablet mode. Microsoft Surface device operated by Windows 11/10 offers a variety of methods and tools to take and edit a screenshot. Read on to find out what is the best way for you.

Table of contents

1. Using tablet buttons
2. Using Surface Type Cover
3. Using Surface Pen
4. Using Windows snipping tool
5. Using Windows snip & sketch tool
6. Using Windows keyboard shortcuts
7. FAQs

1 Using tablet buttons

This method is tricky and unique to each type of Surface Pro device you have. Here, we have instructions and illustrations for all types of Surface Pro to help you understand the steps to take a screenshot.

You can capture a screenshot on the tablet using the physical buttons without helps from a type cover or keyboard. To take a screenshot on the tablet using hardware buttons, do the following steps:

The screen will dim for a split second to let you know that a full-screen screenshot has been captured.

2 Using Surface Type Cover

If you have a Surface Type Cover attached, you can follow the traditional ways to take screenshots by using the dedicated PrtScn (Print Screen key) on the keyboard. To do so.

Option 1: Capturing all screens and storing them in the Windows Clipboard.

Option 2: Capturing the active window and storing it in the Windows Clipboard.

3 Using Surface Pen

Surface Pen functionalities are getting better functions in Windows 10. Windows 10 anniversary update introduced a new feature called Screen Sketch. This function will capture the device screen and pop up a set of tools for drawing, cropping, and others.

You can take a screenshot by using the Surface Pen with this function. To activate the screen sketch function

1. Double-click the eraser button on the top of your Surface Pen.
2. Now you can edit, crop, and save the screenshot by clicking the Save as button on the top right of the screen.

4 Using Windows snipping tool

In Windows, a built-in screenshot program called the Snipping tool has more controls and functionalities than the above methods. To open this tool:

• Open the Start menu, Cortana, or Search box, and type Snipping Tool. You can also open this tool by opening the Start menu and locating the Snipping Tool app.
• You can also open this tool by opening the Start menu and locating the Snipping Tool under the Windows Accessories folder.

When you launch the tool, you can take a screenshot in 4 ways:

• Full-screen snip – to capture an entire desktop.
• Window snip – to capture a specific program window.
• Rectangular snip – to capture an area at any size of a rectangle shape.
• Free-form snip – to capture any form you draw manually.

After you select an area you want to take a screenshot of, it will display in a new window. You can draw or highlight the screenshot before saving it. This tool also allows you to save as a JPEG, PNG, GIF, or HTML file.

5 Using Windows snip & sketch tool

In recent Windows 10 Updates, Microsoft has introduced a new modern tool called Snip & Sketch that allows you to quickly annotate screenshots, photos, and other images with your pen, touch, or mouse and save, paste, or share with other apps. To take a screenshot with this tool:

1. Open the Start menu, Cortana, or Search box, and type Snip & Sketch. You can also open this tool by opening the Start menu and locating the Snip & Sketch app.
2. When the tool launches, click New and click Snip Now.
3. Choose a capture mode from the top of your screen with three options, rectangular snip, free-form snip, and full-screen snip.
4. Select an area you want to capture.
5. The captured image will appear in a new Snip & Sketch window. At this point, you can annotate, draw, or highlight whatever you want on the screenshot.
6. Click the Save icon to save the screenshot to a file. Or click the Copy icon to copy the screenshot to the Windows clipboard so you can paste it elsewhere.

6 Using Windows keyboard shortcuts

On Windows PC, there is a quick way to activate the Snip & Sketch tool using Windows 10 shortcut keys. To do that:

1. Press and hold the Windows key & Shift key, and press and release the S key.
2. It will launch the Snip & Sketch tool with the screen clipping mode, so you can select and capture any area you want immediately.
3. Now you can annotate, draw, or highlight the screenshot within the tool.
4. Click the Save icon to save the screenshot to a file. Or click the Copy icon to copy the screenshot to the Windows clipboard so you can paste it elsewhere.

7 FAQs

Check the following frequently asked questions that might answer questions you have.

Those are the six quick and easy ways to capture a screenshot on your Surface Pro. What is your favorite one? Or do you have any other ways? Please share with us in the comment section below.