Chrome is a bit like wine, Google's browser keeps getting better with age. And among the little-known features of this famous browser, there is an option to How to easily take a screenshot of a YouTube video in maximum quality.
Because let's not lie to ourselves, taking a screenshot of a YouTube video has always been a pain... It's hard to get something clean, without YouTube's controls, by being on the right image... In short, even if there are well-designed extensions to simplify the task... what could be better than using a native browser feature! This feature is available on Chrome, but also on all Chromium-based browsers.
Take a screenshot of a YouTube video with Chrome
As you will see, the process is really very simple... but if you don't know the trick, it's hard to stumble upon it by chance!
- To start, meeting on YouTube and on video on which you want to take a capture
- Navigate to the image (frame) that interests you and pause (pausing is not mandatory but it helps to ensure you capture the right frame)
- You can leave the video in normal size or full screen, it doesn't matter it works the same.
- However, choose the video resolution that best suits your needs, because the capture will be made according to the chosen resolution. If you choose 144p you will have a small image (144 pixels high), if you opt for HD for example 1440p you will have a very large image (1440 pixels high).
- Made a first right click on the video which will bring up a first menu, specific to YouTube.
- Right after, when the YouTube menu is open, right click on the video a second time to bring up a Chrome-specific menu.
- In this menu, select the option Copy video frame.
The video image will then be copied to clipboard from the computer.
If you're on Windows, this is where you'll have to get a little tricky. Since it's not possible to save an image directly to the clipboard, you'll have to go through third-party software.
And the most logical option is to use paint which is normally found on each of our computers.
- So open Paint on your computer
- Press Ctrl+V to paste the contents of the clipboard into Paint
- Save your image and you're done!
If you are on macOS, the principle is quite similar, but you can go through the Preview viewer.
- Open Preview on your Mac
- Go to File and Create from clipboard
- Save your image and you're done!
And there you have it, in both cases you will get a screenshot of a YouTube video in the quality you chose for the video. It will be taken without any YouTube navigation elements. You will have the image and only the image…
For having often wanted to make screenshot of YouTube videos, I can tell you that this feature is a real game changer! Everything really becomes simpler!
By the way, if you use little-known features of Chrome or your favorite software, don't hesitate to tell us about them in the comments below! I'm sure that if they are useful to you, they will be useful to all our readers too!
Article updated on January 10, 2025 by Byothe
