Screen Recordings - Do you make sure your browser is easy to view?

Most developers like to set up their screen efficiently – often that means small fonts, visible bookmark bars and a huge amount of browser tabs and taskbar items. While this is great for efficiency, it is not very good for recordings or presentations, and the clutter should be removed.

1. Before recording

• Removing unnecessary tabs - Open the tab in its own window
• Avoiding small fonts - Zoom in to 125% by holding Ctrl and scrolling up on the mouse wheel. If you're using a 4K or large monitor, consider zooming further or increasing your display scale to 175% or 200% instead of the recommended 150%
• Hiding the bookmark bar
  • Windows shortcut: Ctrl + Shift + b
  • Mac shortcut: Cmd + Shift + b

❌ Figure: Bad example - A lot of whitespace on the sides while sharing the screen

✅ Figure: Good example - Browser zoomed in at 125% and no whitespace on the sides

When demonstrating specific UI elements, code snippets, or small checkboxes, keeping the 100% full screen makes it hard for viewers to see the details, especially on mobile devices. You should guide the viewer's focus using one of the following two methods:

2. During recording

• Zoom in on a section of interest, follow the established guide on using tools like ZoomIt or built-in OS features to spotlight your cursor - rules/screen-recording-spotlight.
• This saves massive post-production time.

3. After recording

• If the raw recording is pinned at full screen, the editor must manually create focal points in the timeline.