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.
Apple Silicon · macOS 14+ · one email when the first build is ready
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.
Automatic
It arrives already directed
A raw screen recording is flat — one distance from the viewer for the whole take, with the thing that matters too small to see. Prequel watches where you click and type while it records, and opens the editor with that pass already made.
- 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 in post
It opens by itself when you stop recording, on the take you just made. Nothing to import, nothing to line up.
Zooms that follow the work
Push in on the cursor, a region or whatever you are typing into. Level, speed, tilt and yaw, with progressive blur falling away from the focus.
A camera you frame afterwards
Circle, squircle, rounded or wide, in any corner and any size. The webcam is never burned into the recording, so none of it is decided while you record.
Backgrounds worth shipping
Your own wallpaper by default, seven bundled presets, gradients and solids. Padding, radius, border and shadow on top.
Cuts on a real timeline
Trim the dead air, slice by slice, with a waveform under every clip and a playhead that scrubs. Layout, background and audio can all change mid-take.
A cursor that behaves
Four pointer styles, resized to survive a zoom, and gone from the frame after a few seconds of stillness rather than parked over your work.
What you see is what exports
The preview and the exporter draw the same plan, so the file is the frame you approved — not a close approximation of it.
Quality
Exports that hold up
A video that looks produced is worth nothing if the file is soft. Capture and export run on your Mac's own media engine — hardware H.264 or HEVC, composited in Metal — so 1080p60 records without dropping frames and 4K is a setting rather than a compromise.
- 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
One MP4, shaped for wherever it is going
Switch a recording from landscape to vertical and the look holds — the framing is stored in proportions, not pixels, so nothing slides off the frame on the way.
- Landscape 16:9
- 4K
- Vertical 9:16
- Square 1:1
- Portrait 4:5
- YouTube
- Shorts
- TikTok
- Reels
- X
Be there for the first build
Prequel is in development. Leave an address and we will send it the day it is worth installing.
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.