iPhone screenshot tricks: 5 you may be missing

By Roman Resenchuk,

  1. Headline: 5 iPhone screenshot tricks most people miss, with the last line, people miss, in purple, on a light grey ground.
  2. Trick 1: Capture the whole page, with whole page in purple. Screenshot a page in Safari, tap it, then choose Full Page. Below, a large purple full web page icon.
  3. Trick 2: Screenshot with a back tap, with a back tap in purple. Settings, Accessibility, Touch, Back Tap. Pick Double Tap, then Screenshot. Below, a large purple icon of a finger tapping.
  4. Trick 3: Copy text from a picture, with a picture in purple. Open it in Photos, touch and hold a word, then tap Copy. Below, a large purple Aa text icon.
  5. Trick 4: Crop before you save, with you save in purple. Crop or draw with Markup right after the shot, then save. Below, a large purple crop icon.
  6. Trick 5: Find one by its words, with its words in purple. CloudShots reads the text in every screenshot, so a word finds it. Beside it, an iPhone showing a CloudShots screenshot detail with its recognized text, tags and detected dates.
  7. Download on CloudShots.app, above the rounded CloudShots app icon on a light grey ground.

These iPhone screenshot tricks save me time every week: capture a whole web page, take a shot with a back tap, copy text out of a picture, crop before you save, and find any screenshot by a word inside it with CloudShots.

I take a lot of screenshots: menus, receipts, recipes, error messages, a Wi-Fi password someone read out. Most people only press two buttons and move on. A few built-in features make the same habit faster and cleaner, and one gap is left at the end: finding the picture a week later.

CloudShots is a screenshot app for iPhone, iPad and Mac that I build in my free time. My name is Roman Res, I have been an iOS and macOS developer since 2011, and this pet project started because I wanted a better way to live with my own screenshots.

  1. Capture the whole page. Take a screenshot while a page is open in Safari, tap the preview, and choose Full Page to keep the entire page as one file instead of many.
  2. Screenshot with a back tap. In Settings, open Accessibility, then Touch, then Back Tap. Pick Double Tap, then choose Screenshot. Now two taps on the back of the phone take a shot.
  3. Copy text from a picture. Open the screenshot in Photos, touch and hold a word, then tap Copy. The text on the picture is selectable like text on a page.
  4. Crop before you save. Right after the shot, use the markup tools in the preview to crop or draw, then save. The picture you keep is only the part you meant.
  5. Find one by its words. CloudShots reads the text in every screenshot, so a word you type into its search field finds the picture.
  1. Open Settings and tap Accessibility.
  2. Tap Touch, then scroll down to Back Tap.
  3. Tap Double Tap and choose Screenshot.
  4. Tap twice on the back of your iPhone to test it.

Back Tap needs a compatible iPhone, and a thick case can make the taps harder to register, so try it with your usual case on.

Finding a screenshot by the text inside it

The first four tricks help while you take the shot. The fifth helps weeks later. CloudShots reads the text inside your screenshots on your device, so you type one word you remember, such as a dish, a name or a number, and the matching screenshots come up with the word lit inside the picture. The find text in screenshots guide walks through it, and the screenshot history page shows how the library is organised.

The text is read on your device. Your library syncs through your own private iCloud, and there are no CloudShots servers holding your screenshots. The details are on the privacy page.

Copying text and cropping both leave you with fewer, smaller screenshots, which helps when the library grows. If you want to go further, the free up screenshot space guide covers clearing what you no longer need, and sync screenshots between Mac and iPhone explains how the same library shows up on both devices.

Full Page captures pages, not every app, so it shows up where the system offers it. Selecting text on a picture depends on how readable the words are, and a blurry photo of a sign or handwriting may not work. Search in CloudShots matches readable text in the screenshot in the same way. When a screenshot has no text at all, you still find it by scrolling the feed.

How do I use these iPhone screenshot tricks together?

Take the shot with a back tap, crop it in the preview, and copy text from it in Photos when you need the words. Keep the screenshot in CloudShots and find it later by typing a word from it.

How do I take a full page screenshot on iPhone?

Take a screenshot while a web page is open in Safari, tap the preview, then choose Full Page. The whole page is saved as one picture instead of several.

How do I screenshot without pressing buttons?

Turn on Back Tap in Settings, Accessibility, Touch, Back Tap. Choose Double Tap, then Screenshot. Two taps on the back of the iPhone then take a screenshot.

Can I copy text from a screenshot on iPhone?

Yes. Open the screenshot in Photos, touch and hold a word, then tap Copy. How well it works depends on how readable the text is in the picture.

How do I find a screenshot by a word in it?

Open CloudShots, tap the search field and type a word from the picture. CloudShots reads the text on your device, and the screenshots with that word come up, with the word lit inside each one.

Download on CloudShots.app.

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