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Glossary and articles
The words that come up when you record a screen, each defined on its own page, and the short pieces that did not belong on the blog. Filter by kind or by topic.
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- ArticleRecordingEditing
How to make a screen recording look high quality
The most upvoted screen recording question we found on Reddit this year is why a 4K capture still looks soft. Six settings decide it, settled before the edit: pixel size, window size, zooms, frame rate, a frame, and the export.
- ArticleExport and formats
How to reduce the size of a screen recording on a Mac
An hour from the built-in Mac recorder is about 13 GB, according to the people asking. We measured a real take at every size and codec Prequel exports: the raw file was 61 MB a minute and the 1080p export was 2. Four settings and a chart.
- ArticleAudio and cameraRecording
How to record a Zoom or Google Meet call on a Mac with both sides' audio
QuickTime records your microphone and none of what the other person said. Three routes to a recording with both sides: the meeting's own recorder, a screen recorder that captures system audio, and local recording for a podcast. Say you are recording first.
- ArticleRecordingEditing
How to record training videos for software that changes every release
One task per video, the window rather than the desktop, a zoom where a callout would go, captions on, one saved look for the whole library, and the takes kept so a release means re-recording one video. Built from three r/instructionaldesign threads.
- ArticleEditingRecording
How long does it take to make a product demo video, and how to make it faster
About an hour of work per minute of video, when it is recorded and edited by hand: a product manager on Reddit timed four hours for a four-minute demo. Here is where the time goes, stage by stage, and how a shorter video, one long take and an automatic first pass cut most of it.
- ArticleRecordingExport and formats
Why your screen recording looks blurry, and how to fix it
Soft text in a screen recording comes from one of four places: the capture size, the export size, the bitrate, or the upload. Here is how to tell which, and what to change.
- ArticleRecordingAudio and camera
Before you press record: a screen recording checklist
Nine things to check in the minute before a screen recording, so the take you get is the one you send. Notifications, the desktop, the window, the audio, the camera and the grants.
Glossary
- GlossaryEditingSharing
Aspect ratio
The proportion of a video's width to its height. 16:9 is landscape and the default for screens; 9:16 is vertical and what Shorts, Reels and TikTok want.
- GlossaryExport and formats
Bitrate
How much data a video spends per second of playback, measured in megabits per second. It is the main control over file size and picture quality.
- GlossaryCaptions
Captions and subtitles
Words on the frame that show what is being said. Subtitles carry the dialogue; captions also describe the sounds. In screen recording the two words are used for the same thing.
- GlossaryExport and formats
Codec
The method used to compress video into a file and decompress it for playback. H.264 and HEVC are the two you meet when recording a screen.
- GlossaryRecordingExport and formats
Frame rate
The number of still pictures a video shows each second, written as fps. Screen recordings are usually made at 30 or 60.
- GlossaryAudio and cameraEditing
Picture-in-picture
A camera feed drawn as a small window over a screen recording, so the viewer sees the presenter and the screen at the same time.
- GlossaryRecordingExport and formats
Resolution
The size of a video's picture in pixels, width by height. 1080p is 1920 by 1080; 4K is 3840 by 2160.
- GlossaryRecording
Retina and HiDPI
A display that draws each point of the interface with four physical pixels, so text is sharp. A screen recording of one is twice the width and height it looks.
- GlossaryRecording
Screen Recording permission
The macOS grant an app needs before it can see the contents of your screen. Without it a recorder captures the wallpaper and nothing on top of it.
- GlossaryRecording
Screencast
A recording of a computer screen with narration, made to show somebody how something works. The word predates screen recording as a category and still means the same thing.
- GlossarySharing
Share link
A URL that plays a recording in the browser, sent instead of the file. The viewer needs nothing installed and the sender can take it down later.
- GlossaryAudio and cameraRecording
System audio
The sound the Mac itself plays, from any app, captured as part of a screen recording. macOS records it only through the screen capture API, and not every recorder asks.
- GlossaryEditing
Zoom and pan
Pushing the picture in on part of the screen, then moving it to follow the action, so a viewer sees what the presenter is doing without squinting at a full screen.