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Is there a way I can zoom in where the cursor is, while screencasting, something like this:

zooming in screencasting

I presently using kazam on Ubuntu 12.10 64-bit for screencasting. Good alternatives which allow this feature are most welcome, but should allow for audio recording as well.

P.S.:

  1. The original video here:

  2. The screencaster I require should record video and not gif, the gif above is only for explaining what I need and is light-weight for AU.

  3. I would like to have the screencaster have its own zooming ability and not application-specific zooming ability, i.e. I can zoom into Firefox using Ctrl++. However, this won't work with all applications, I would like the screencaster to have this ability in itself or a generic zooming ability.

jobin
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  • do you have wine sir? is it okay if i give you a recorder that works on windows, not linux? – Lynob Feb 11 '14 at 19:45
  • Yes, I have wine-1.5.28 installed. If it works natively on wine, its fine. But applications not tested to run on wine wouldn't be a good solution IMO. – jobin Feb 11 '14 at 19:47
  • Why can't you just do it in post production(Using an editor like KdenLive)? – Amith KK Feb 18 '14 at 05:00
  • @AmithKK: That, it seems, is a bit tedious and not a clean way, IMO. – jobin Feb 18 '14 at 08:06

3 Answers3

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One way to proceed would be to use Compiz and its Zoom Desktop plugin.

The Zoom Desktop plugin offers the ability to zoom in for an enlarged view of the screen. [..] Zoom Desktop works by causing the entire screen to zoom in, effectively giving you a more readable view of a portion of the screen.

Thus you can use compiz as a WM to zoom into portion of the screen while you're recording the screencast.

See also:

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landroni
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  • I use Unity, so would using compiz be recommeded? I have read a lot of questions related to Unity+compiz crashes. – jobin Feb 12 '14 at 16:10
  • I couldn't really say as I use Xfce. I know people use Xfce with Compiz, so you could conceivably log into Xfce while doing the screencast, and switch back to Unity when done. – landroni Feb 12 '14 at 16:14
  • Unity (complete, not the 2D) uses compiz. – MrVaykadji Feb 12 '14 at 19:47
  • @Jobin: Doesn't Unity use Compiz as an effects system? – kiri Feb 17 '14 at 11:22
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In that video, they used Camtasia studio, the best recorder I have ever used. I spent so much time trying to find recorders that are close to that recorder. Here's a discussion on how to install it on wine.

Anyway, I did not spend hour just to give that answer :)

You can use a web app, which looks great, Screencast Matic, I have java installed this way, I don't have Icedtead plugin, I do not know if it will work on OpenJDK. Just click record my desktop, it will start a Java app and follow your cursor.

There's also Simplescreenrecorder, which you can install like so

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:maarten-baert/simplescreenrecorder
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install simplescreenrecorder
# if you want to record 32-bit OpenGL applications on a 64-bit system:
sudo apt-get install simplescreenrecorder-lib:i386

You can choose to let the app follow the cursor. That app uses the codecs that you already have on your system, so you have to install the Codecs that you like.

In the picture above, Camtasia automatically zoom to where the cursor is, the other recorders do not do that, they follow your cursor, but you have to zoom, if you want to zoom you have to hold Ctrl + + or Ctrl + the middle cursor and they will zoom to where the cursor is. But at least, unlike Camtasia, they are free.

Lynob
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    Can you please elaborate on the method of installing screenr.com on Ubuntu in depth? – jobin Feb 11 '14 at 19:19
  • @Jobin screenr.com is a web app, no installation needed and about camtasia, many people say it will work perfectly on wine – Lynob Feb 11 '14 at 19:20
  • @Jobin if you're going for screenr, you do need to have java installed, not openjdk otherwise it might start complaining about icedtea – Lynob Feb 11 '14 at 19:25
  • I have both java and openjdk installed, do I need to configure firefox for using a specific one? If yes, how? – jobin Feb 11 '14 at 19:27
  • @Fischer Please, take a time and provide more information, with detailed methods and procedures in order to write an answer. As it's currently written, it would fit better on a comment rather than as an answer. Thanks! – Lucio Feb 11 '14 at 19:39
  • @Lucio thats what i am going to do – Lynob Feb 11 '14 at 19:41
  • @Fischer: How do I zoom using Screencast Matic and SimpleScreenRecorder? – jobin Feb 12 '14 at 16:31
  • @Jobin you have to use ctrl + +, I will add a video to this answer showing you how to do it and will notify you soon :) – Lynob Feb 12 '14 at 16:38
  • @Jobin I added the first demo, I'll edit my answer, to add another demo for SimpleScreenRecorder – Lynob Feb 12 '14 at 16:48
  • The video gives this error when I server not found error: http://i.stack.imgur.com/dPFqz.png even after trying multiple times. – jobin Feb 12 '14 at 16:52
  • @Jobin I will upload it elsewhere, don't worry i'll fix it :) – Lynob Feb 12 '14 at 17:07
  • @Jobin I updated my answer, and I don't think you need the tool mentioned in the other answer, just a recorder that follow the cursor will do. – Lynob Feb 12 '14 at 17:49
  • It uses the broswers zoom capability and not its own, so it would work when I try to zoom in when the cursor is on the address bar or even if I am working on the terminal(unless I use its own zoom capabilities, which coincidentally is ctrl + shift + +. Also, I won't be able to zoom when the application has no way of allowing me to zoom. Is there a way I can zoom without using application-specific zooming capability? – jobin Feb 12 '14 at 19:18
  • @Jobin I updated my answer, note that compiz doesn't seem to work on unity, if you want a really great one, I really encourage you to try the free trial camtasia studio on wine – Lynob Feb 12 '14 at 19:45
  • Thanks a lot! Using camtasia over wine did not seem to work seemlessly, had issues with dlls over installation and Screen-o-Matic and SimpleScreenRecorder, as I said, works with application-specific zooming. RecordMyDesktop, also seems to use ccsm zooming, since I didn't see any option in itself for zooming. +1 for the efforts and the research! Thanks :) – jobin Feb 18 '14 at 09:13
  • @Jobin have you tried using winebricks to install the dlls? – Lynob Feb 18 '14 at 11:48
  • @Fischer: I believe you mean using winetricks. Yes, tried installing dlls using this: http://askubuntu.com/questions/316025/installing-and-configuring-wine, but no respite, the error that props up is not helpful too. Tried googling, hardly any clues. – jobin Feb 18 '14 at 20:18
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You can achieve that with compizconfig-settings-manager and compiz-plugins-main :

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager compiz-plugins-main

Then, open CCSM (Compiz Config Settings Manager) and enable the Enhanced Zoom Desktop

You'll be able to zoom in and out like in this video. Zoom at 0:34

MrVaykadji
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