How to capture and manage screenshots on Steam

When you play video games, there's often a moment you want to keep as a memory.Whether it's a stunning landscape, an interesting bug, or an epic achievement, a photo can speak a thousand words.

That's one of the reasons Steam is so great.Take screenshots in-game with the push of a button and save them instantly.

Here's everything you need to know about taking screenshots of your games using Steam.

How to Screenshot Using Steam

Windows offers several ways to take screenshots of games, and if you're playing a game on Steam, the easiest way to take a screenshot is to press F12.A shutter sound will sound, and a notification will pop up in the lower right corner, confirming that the screenshot has been taken.

To see all the screenshots you've taken during gameplay, press Shift + Tab to open the Steam overlay, then click Screenshots (pictures icon) in the bottom menu.

After closing the game, you'll see a post-game summary in your Steam library that shows all the screenshots you took during the game.

How to manage Steam screenshots

From Steam's top menu, click View > Screenshots to open the Screenshot Manager.By default, it's sorted by most recent screenshot; use the drop-down menu to select a specific game.Select a screenshot from the left to zoom in on the main pane while viewing details like the screenshot date and file size.

Screenshots are stored locally on your computer.Through the screenshot manager, you can adjust visibility and choose to upload screenshots to the Steam community for other players to see.You can also add a caption and mark the image as a spoiler.

To select multiple screenshots, Ctrl-click each screenshot in turn, or Shift-click to highlight all screenshots in a range.You can also click "Select All".

To delete an image from your computer, click Delete (trash can icon) and delete again to confirm.

If you want to browse the original image files on your computer, click "Show on disk" (folder icon).This will open the folder on your system where the screenshots are stored.You'll find that folder paths are confusing, and each game is stored in its own confusingly named folder, so you're better off browsing local screenshots this way rather than manually browsing through File Explorer.

How to customize Steam screenshot settings

You can change the Steam screenshot shortcut, disable screenshot sound effects, and a few other settings.To do this, you can:

1. Open the Steam client.

2. Click Steam in the top menu.

3. Click Settings.

4. Click "In Game" from the left menu.

Here, you can set screenshot shortcuts and switch whether to display notifications and play sounds when taking screenshots.

If you want to save screenshots at the highest quality, enable "Save uncompressed copies of screenshots", but be aware that this will take up more disk space.To change where these uncompressed screenshots are stored, click "Change Folder".

Easily take screenshots on Steam Desktop

Capturing and managing game screenshots is a snap with Steam.This is true even if you're using Valve's excellent Steam Deck handheld, where you can press Steam + R1 to take a screenshot.This is one of the system's many handy shortcuts.