Glossary
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.
Aspect ratio is the shape of the frame: its width against its height, written as two numbers. 16:9 is a landscape rectangle, the shape of a display, a television and a YouTube player. 9:16 is the same rectangle stood on end, the shape of a phone held upright and of Shorts, Reels and TikTok. 1:1 is a square and 4:5 is a slightly tall portrait, both feed shapes.
Where the mismatch comes from
A screen is landscape, so a screen recording is landscape. The places it is posted are often not. A 16:9 recording in a 9:16 feed is a thin strip across the middle of the phone with empty space above and below, and the text in it is too small to read.
Stretching it to fit is worse. Everything in the frame is distorted, and the viewer notices before they notice anything else.
The way it is done
Keep the screen at its own proportions and change the frame around it. In a vertical frame the recording sits in the middle at full width, a background fills the space above and below, and that space is where the camera goes, larger than it would be in a corner. The recording is untouched; the composition is new.
In Prequel that is a preset in the frame bar: Vertical 9:16, YouTube Shorts, TikTok, Instagram Reels, Square and Portrait, each at the pixel size the platform wants. The layout follows the frame, because every size in it is stored as a share of the frame rather than in pixels, so the camera at a third of the height stays a third of the height when the frame turns.
Which to use
16:9 for a website, an email, a docs page and YouTube. 9:16 for Shorts, Reels and TikTok. 1:1 or 4:5 for a LinkedIn or Instagram feed post, where a taller frame takes more of the screen as it scrolls past.
Related terms
- Picture-in-pictureA camera feed drawn as a small window over a screen recording, so the viewer sees the presenter and the screen at the same time.
- Share linkA 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.
- Zoom and panPushing 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.
Questions people ask
- Can I turn a landscape screen recording into a vertical one?
- Yes. Keep the screen at its own proportions inside a vertical frame, with a background above and below and the camera in the spare space. Prequel does this with a frame preset; the screen and the camera keep their proportions and the layout moves around them.
- Which aspect ratio should a product demo be?
- 16:9 for a website, a docs page, YouTube or an email. 9:16 for Shorts, Reels and TikTok. 1:1 or 4:5 for a feed post on LinkedIn or Instagram, where a square or portrait video takes more of the screen than a landscape one.