As a Mac newbie I was shocked that I do not have to purchase an additional software to make screenshots of the desktop or windows.
The article „How to capture a screen shot with Mac OS X“ told me how it goes.
Screenshots as PNG files saved to your desktop
- Cmd + Shift + 3: Entire desktop
- Cmd + Shift + 4: Select area
Screenshots as PNG files copied to the clipboard
- Cmd + Ctrl + Shift + 3: Entire desktop
- Cmd + Ctrl + Shift + 4: Select area
Not the most intuitive way of doing, but it’s free and working and uses PNG instead of TIFF.