Turn your script into a note
Paste or write your narration in Lucid Notes. Short lines read better on a prompter than dense paragraphs — break your script accordingly.
Recording & creators
How to record video on a Mac with a teleprompter
Fluffed takes usually are not a memory problem — they are a logistics problem: the script is in the wrong place, or it is on screen and about to end up in your recording. On a Mac you can fix both with software, no rig, once you match the prompter to the kind of recording you are making.
Free on the Mac App Store · macOS 14+
What is the best way to use a teleprompter for Mac recordings?
First decide what is being recorded: your camera, or your screen. For to-camera video — YouTube intros, course talking heads, social clips — the camera records you, not your display, so an on-screen prompter can never appear in the footage. Float a transparent script window as close to the lens as possible (Lucid Notes’ teleprompter auto-scrolls with line highlighting) and read while looking near the camera.
For screen recordings — tutorials, demos, walkthroughs — the screen itself is the footage, and an ordinary prompter window would be captured in every frame. That is the case for Lucid Notes’ notch teleprompter mode: pinned beside the MacBook camera and excluded from macOS screen capture, it lets you narrate from a script that never shows up in QuickTime or other on-device recordings. Nothing to crop, blur, or re-shoot.
Set up your recording prompter
Match the prompter to the recording
Recording your camera? Float the transparent prompter directly under the webcam. Recording your screen? Switch to notch teleprompter mode so the script stays out of the capture.
Dial in speed before the take
Read one paragraph out loud against the auto-scroll and adjust until it matches your natural pace. Line highlighting keeps your place if you ad-lib mid-take.
Record a 15-second test
Check the test clip: is your eyeline near the lens, and is the script absent from the screen capture? Fix it now, not after a 20-minute take.
Camera recordings vs screen recordings
This distinction does all the work, so it is worth being precise. A camera recording captures light hitting your webcam or camera — what is on your display is irrelevant to the footage, except for how it moves your eyes. Any on-screen prompter is fine; the only goal is putting the words as close to the lens as possible.
A screen recording captures the display buffer. Everything visible is in the shot, and an always-on-top script is the first thing viewers will notice. Here you either narrate without notes, keep pausing the recording, or use a window the capture pipeline skips — which is exactly what the notch prompter’s macOS screen-capture exclusion does. It also stays out of screenshots, which keeps your tutorial stills clean.
Recording both at once
Course lessons often record screen and camera simultaneously — a screen capture plus a webcam bubble. The notch prompter handles this combination well: it is excluded from the screen capture, and the webcam records your face, not your display. Position matters even more here, because your face is in the corner of the frame at all times; the notch placement keeps your reading eyeline pointed at the camera instead of drifting to a side monitor.
What about editing?
The best edit is the one you skip. A prompter that never enters the footage means no cropping the frame to cut a script out, no blurring a corner of a tutorial, and no re-recording because take three was perfect except for the visible notes. Recording tools that use macOS’s standard screen-capture pipeline — QuickTime and the built-in Screenshot toolbar among them — respect the exclusion, so what you saw in your test clip is what you get in the final one.
Screen-capture exclusion applies to notch teleprompter mode only, and to on-device capture: screen recordings, screenshots, and screen shares made on your Mac. The full-size teleprompter window is an ordinary window and will appear in screen recordings. A physical camera pointed at your display still sees the screen — but a prompter on your display is never in your webcam footage either way.
Free on the Mac App Store
Nail the take. Skip the edit.
Download Lucid Notes free — auto-scrolling teleprompter included, with a notch mode that stays out of screen recordings.
Frequently asked questions
Will the teleprompter appear in my QuickTime screen recording?
Not in notch teleprompter mode — macOS excludes it from on-device screen capture, so QuickTime recordings never contain it. The full-size teleprompter window is an ordinary window and would be captured, so use notch mode for screen recordings.
Will the teleprompter show up in my webcam video?
No. A camera records you, not your display. Any on-screen prompter is invisible to camera footage — the only trace is your eye movement, which is why the prompter should sit as close to the lens as possible.
Does the exclusion work with third-party recording apps?
The exclusion happens at the macOS screen-capture level, so tools built on the system’s standard capture frameworks respect it. Behavior can vary with third-party recorders — run a 15-second test with your specific tool before a long take.
Can I adjust the scroll speed mid-recording?
Yes — auto-scroll speed is adjustable, and line highlighting marks your current line, which makes it easy to recover after an ad-lib or a pause without hunting through the script.
Is the teleprompter free to use?
Teleprompter mode is included in Lucid Notes’ free tier, along with the transparent floating window and up to 5 notes. Free download on the Mac App Store; macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later.