Wow. Context is everything. It's been the same 3-key shortcut since 1984, so I never have to think about it. The command-shift-number pattern was used for a good handful of common system-wide functions on the classic Mac OS, so it was just a matter of remembering which digit corresponded to which action. They were basically function keys, since the original keyboards didn't have physical function keys.

I'm in the same boat. I've used both Macs and PCs for years and I find the Mac's shortcuts to be easier to remember and, overall, more useful than the PC's. PrintScreen to capture the whole desktop is nice and easy, but anything outside of that is a pain in the ass. I love that Cmd+Shift+4 lets me select an area of the screen with 1 hand. I'd be hard-pressed to remember, much less find, if Windows has suddenly added that capability and, even if it did, you'd have to use 1 hand for modifiers and one hand for PrintScreen. Macs have always had it so it's muscle memory now. If Windows added it, it was recent and requires 2 hands.

Most of the time on Windows you want full screen (PrtScrn) or a single window (Alt+PrtScrn). Windows definitely wins here vs Apple's Cmd+Shift+3 and Cmd+Shift+4, with the additional modifier to copy to clipboard instead of save to desktop.

On the other hand, Apple's accent input (old style, not the new style that stops key repetition grrr) is vastly superior than alt codes. Yeish.

Windows has had the Snipping Tool since Windows Vista. Print screen is obsolete though it still does work. Snipping Tool is really great, you can even make a free form snip.

Any combination of modifier keys excluding the 'menu' key will combine with PrtScn with one hand under Windows - all the modifier keys are available on the same side of the keyboard as PrtScn on a standard keyboard.

Mac OS X has always shipped with a screenshot utility called "Grab".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grab_%28software%29

Ha you're right, thankyou! In my defence, the first Google hit for OSX screenshot is this Apple page [0] that doesn't even mention that utility - and "screenshot" in Spotlight doesn't suggest Grab. It's in the "Other" folder of Launchpad which I don't think I've ever opened.

But really, thanks - this is really helpful :)

It really depends on the person and their setup I think. I personally love OS X key combos because they’re commonly tied to phonetics (Command-Q for quit vs. Alt-F4 for instance).

Low reliance on Fkeys is also great for two reasons: 1) It makes it easier to use keyboards with Fkey rows (like my beloved HHKB) 2) It frees up an entire row of keys for me to use without worry of overriding system shortcuts — for instance, I have F1 assigned to Spotlight, F2 assigned to a drop-down terminal, F3 assigned to quick open in Xcode, F4 assigned to search documentation in Dash, etc etc.