Thanks to a little known shortcut, you can easily capture a clean screenshot of your Mac's Dock without wallpaper, including translucency in PNG alpha channel, no need to trim. Here's how to do it.
The secret: a simple shortcut
Whenever you want to capture a screenshot of your Dock (and only its Dock), presione Shift + Command + 4, and then press the space bar on your keyboard. This puts the screenshot tool in window and menu capture mode.
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After pressing the space bar, the mouse cursor will turn into a camera icon. Hover over your Dock. When you see the Dock is highlighted, click the left mouse button.
When you click, you will hear the sound effect of the screenshot. A clean image of your Dock in PNG format will be saved to your preferred save location (the desk, default).
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Alternatively, you can run Screenshot app (or press Shift + Command + 5), and then choose the button “Capture selected window” (looks like a little window icon) in the screenshot toolbar that appears.
After clicking, hover the mouse pointer over the Dock and click the left mouse button to capture a screenshot of the Dock.
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What you get
When I open the screenshot for a closer look, you might notice that the PNG file includes a translucent alpha channel area for a shadow around the Dock and the Dock itself, depending on the operating system you are using.
On macOS 10.15 Catalina or earlier, the dock itself will be pure opaque white. But on macOS 11.0 the later, the Dock will look translucent when viewed in a photo editing application. Either way, you won't see any trace of the desktop background behind it, which is very useful.
Now that you have the screenshot file from the Dock, you can edit or share it the way you would regularly share a photo. Have fun!
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