Code
Walk through code at a readable size
Prequel places a zoom on every burst of typing, so the line you are talking about is the line filling the frame.
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Code on a screen is small text, and small text is the worst thing to put in a video. A walkthrough recorded at native resolution and watched at half of it asks the viewer to read a diff at eight pixels of line height.
Zooming in solves it, but placing zooms on a code walkthrough by hand is miserable — the interesting moments are dense, frequent and mostly consist of you typing.
It watches the typing
Prequel treats a burst of typing as a moment worth pushing into, the same way it treats a click. Because it records keystrokes alongside the picture, the editor opens with zooms already sitting on the lines you wrote rather than on an arbitrary interval.
There is a zoom target specifically for this: whatever you are typing into. It follows the text rather than the pointer, which is the difference between a push that tracks your edit and one that wanders off to wherever the mouse happens to be.
This is the one input that needs the Accessibility permission as well as Screen Recording. Without it that signal is simply absent — click-driven zooms still work — rather than the app being broken.
Reading something that does not move
For a diff, a stack trace or a block you are talking through rather than editing, use a region zoom. You draw the area and it holds still on it. A cursor zoom over a paragraph of code moves while the viewer is reading, which is worse than not zooming at all.
Legibility, end to end
Capture runs at your display's native resolution, so a push lands on real detail rather than an upscale. Export is up to 4K, hardware H.264 or HEVC, constant frame rate.
The cursor is drawn at a size that survives a 2x zoom and leaves the frame after a few seconds of stillness, so it stops covering the line you just pointed at.
- Record your screen and cameraPick a display, a window or an area you drag out, with your camera, microphone and system audio each on their own track.
- Zooms and layout are applied automaticallyPrequel reads where you clicked and typed, then places the zooms, frames your camera and sets a background behind it.
- Edit, export and shareMove a zoom, trim a clip or fix a caption, then export one MP4 at up to 4K or send a link that plays anywhere.
Zoom and pan
Zooms that follow the action
Prequel automatically zooms in when you click or type, then softens the rest of the window so viewers know where to look. Every zoom is added to the timeline, so you can move, retime or delete it at any time.
Layouts
Switch layouts clip by clip
Choose from fourteen layouts for the same take: camera in the corner, beside the screen, split with it or hidden entirely. Use one layout for the whole video, or change it clip by clip.
Subtitles
Subtitles you can edit like text
Prequel transcribes every word on your Mac when the editor opens. Fix captions by typing in the transcript, choose a subtitle style or delete a sentence to remove it from the video.
Thisisthecheckoutweshippedlastweek
Thisisthecheckoutweshippedlastweek
Thisisthecheckoutweshippedlastweek
Thisisthecheckoutweshippedlastweek
Thisisthecheckoutweshippedlastweek
Thisisthecheckoutweshippedlastweek
Thanks so much for jumping on this call
Iwanttoshowyousomethingcool
[pause here]
we’ve been building for the past few months
Teleprompter
A teleprompter that follows your voice
Prequel hangs your script from the notch, just under the camera, and follows your voice — the word you're saying lights up as you say it. Wander off script and it waits for you; skip ahead or fall behind and it catches up within a couple of words.
Instant edit
Start with the edit already done
Prequel records where you click and type, then opens the editor with zooms already placed, a framed camera and a polished background. Spend less time building the first cut and more time fine-tuning.
- Zooms placedOn every click and every burst of typing
- Camera framedShaped, sized and set in a corner
- Background appliedPadding, radius, border and shadow
- Audio balancedMicrophone and system on separate gains
- Cursor cleaned upSmoothed, resized, hidden when it idles
The editor
Everything you would have done by hand
It opens by itself when you stop recording, on the take you just made. Nothing to import, nothing to line up.
Guide attention automatically
Prequel zooms into the part of the screen that matters: the cursor, a region you draw, or whatever you are typing into. Set the level, the speed and how much the rest of the frame blurs.
Look present without taking over the video
Your camera stays framed and out of the way: circle, squircle, rounded, wide or portrait, in any corner and any size. It is never burned into the recording, so none of it is decided while you record.
Make recordings look designed
Add a background, padding and a shadow without editing any of it by hand. Your own wallpaper by default, seven bundled presets, gradients and solids.
Cut the parts nobody needs to see
Trim the pauses yourself, slice by slice, with a waveform under every clip. Layout, background and audio can all change mid-take.
Keep the pointer out of the way
Fifteen pointer styles, resized so the cursor survives a zoom. Smoothed while it travels, and hidden after a few seconds of stillness.
Export the frame you approved
The preview and the exporter draw the same plan, so the file matches what you signed off in the editor.
Quality
Videos stay sharp at 4K
Capture and export run on your Mac's own media engine. 1080p at 60 fps records without dropping frames, and 4K is a setting you pick.
- Resolution
- Up to 4K
- Frame rate
- Up to 120 fps
- Codecs
- H.264 · HEVC
- Encoding
- Hardware, VideoToolbox
- Compositing
- Metal
- Output
- Constant frame rate MP4
Formats
Export in any frame
Turn one recording into different formats without manually reframing every element. Switch from landscape to vertical and the layout stays intact.
- Landscape 16:9
- 4K
- Vertical 9:16
- Square 1:1
- Portrait 4:5
- YouTube
- Shorts
- TikTok
- Reels
- X
Record demos worth sharing
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Curious about the internals? Read the blog
FAQ
Zooms, exports and the rest
Will a 13-inch screen recording be readable?
With a zoom on it, yes. Capture runs at your display's native resolution, so there is real detail to push into rather than an upscale — and the zooms land on what you were typing without you placing them.
How does Prequel know which line I am talking about?
It records where you type as well as where you click. A typing zoom targets the field you are actually editing, so the frame follows the caret through a file rather than sitting on a fixed rectangle you drew before you knew where you would end up.
Do I need to grant anything extra for the typing zooms?
Accessibility, in System Settings under Privacy & Security. It is what lets Prequel see which text area is focused. Without it the typing input is simply absent — clicks still drive zooms, and nothing else changes.
Can I hold a zoom steady over a diff?
Draw a region zoom. It holds still on the area you drew, which is what a diff or a stack trace needs; a cursor zoom over the same thing follows the pointer around while the viewer is trying to read.
Can I record a terminal session?
Yes — a terminal is a window like any other, and recording just that window keeps the rest of your desktop out of it. A region zoom over the output is usually better than a cursor zoom, since a terminal is read rather than clicked.
What is the best way to record a pull request review?
Record the browser window, talk through the diff, and let the region zooms hold on each hunk while you do. Cutting the parts where you were scrolling to find something is a blade cut afterwards.
What do I need to record a code walkthrough on a Mac?
An Apple Silicon Mac on macOS 14 or later and the Screen Recording permission, plus Accessibility if you want the zooms to follow what you type.