Studio Mode

Studio Mode creates a local, editable Cap project. Use it when the recording needs polishing, privacy edits, branded presentation, captions, multiple clips, or a reviewed export before it is shared.

Nothing is uploaded just because you record or edit in Studio Mode. The project stays local until you choose Shareable Link from the export screen.

Record a Studio project

1. Open Cap Desktop and select Studio.
2. Choose a display, window, area, or camera-only target.
3. Select the camera, microphone, and supported system-audio options you want to capture.
4. Click Record.
5. Pause, resume, restart, or stop from the recording controls.

After you stop, Cap opens the local project in the editor and keeps it in the desktop recording library. The .cap project retains the source media and editable configuration; exporting creates a rendered output without replacing that project.

Work with clips

The clip timeline is the foundation of a Studio project. You can:

• Trim the beginning or end of a segment, split at the playhead, delete sections, and reorder clips.
• Rename clips and add another Studio capture directly from the editor.
• Import an existing Cap recording or an MP4 into the current project.
• Change an individual segment to 0.25x, 0.5x, 1x, 1.5x, 2x, 4x, or 8x speed.
• Choose whether sped-up or slowed-down audio is muted, maintains natural voice pitch, or changes pitch with the playback speed.
• Adjust microphone, system-audio, and camera offsets when a source needs manual synchronization.
• Add a crossfade or fade-through-black transition between adjacent clips and control its duration.

Undo and redo cover editor changes, so you can experiment without modifying the original capture files.

Add automatic or manual zooms

The dedicated Zoom track supports both generated and hand-authored zoom segments.

Automatic zooms

For Studio recordings that contain Cap's recorded cursor and click data, select Click to generate zoom segments to create zooms around recorded clicks. Each generated segment uses Auto mode so the focal point follows the recorded action.

Automatic generation is not available when the project does not contain the required cursor metadata. Imported MP4s, for example, do not gain click data during import.

Manual zooms

Click or drag on the Zoom track to create a segment manually. Select the segment to:

• Set the zoom amount from 1x to 4.5x.
• Switch between Auto and Manual mode when recorded cursor data is available.
• Pick the exact focal point for a manual zoom from a preview of the captured screen.
• Move the segment or resize it to control when the zoom begins and ends.

Manual zooms do not require click metadata, so they also work for imported or older footage.

Change screen and camera layouts with scenes

When the project includes camera footage, add the Scene track to change the composition for selected parts of the timeline. A scene can use:

• Default to show the normal screen-and-camera composition.
• Camera Only to make the camera the focus.
• Hide Camera to show only the screen recording.
• Split Screen to place screen and camera side by side. Portrait output stacks the panes automatically.
• Floating to show the screen and camera as separate rounded cards over the background.

Each scene has independent transition-in and transition-out durations. Split Screen and Floating scenes also let you zoom and reposition the screen and camera panes separately, either on the canvas or with the position controls.

The Scene track is unavailable when no clip in the project contains camera footage.

Mask private or important areas

Add one or more Mask tracks when part of the capture should be hidden or emphasized. Drag and resize each rectangular mask directly on the canvas, then set its duration on the timeline.

Two mask types are available:

Masks are fixed to the region you place for that segment. They do not automatically follow a moving window, field, or person, so extend or divide the mask into the timeline sections where that region remains correct.

Add text tracks

Text is a first-class timeline track, not a caption workaround. You can stack multiple text lanes for titles, callouts, labels, or steps that overlap in time.

For each text segment, you can:

• Type or edit the text directly on the canvas.
• Drag it into position and resize it with the canvas handles.
• Set the font size, weight, italic style, and color.
• Use organization brand-color swatches when they are available.
• Set a fade duration, move the segment, trim its timing, split it, or disable it without deleting it.

Generate and edit captions

The Captions tool is a beta, local transcription workflow for projects with recorded audio.

1. Choose a transcription model and language, or use automatic language detection.
2. Download the model once. Model availability depends on the computer; Intel Macs use the available Whisper models rather than Parakeet.
3. Generate captions from the project audio. The generated caption data remains stored locally in the project.
4. Correct the text and start/end timing for individual caption segments.

Caption presentation includes style presets plus controls for font, size, weight, uppercase text, foreground and background colors, background opacity, position, active-word highlighting, highlight color, animation, and fade duration.

Turn on Export with Subtitles to render captions into the video. The Transcript view can also save the edited timeline captions as SRT or WebVTT (VTT) files.

Show recorded keyboard input

The beta Keyboard track can generate on-screen keystroke segments from keyboard data recorded by Cap. It does not reconstruct keystrokes from an imported MP4.

You can control the font, size, weight, text and background colors, background opacity, screen position, fade and linger timing, and how nearby key presses are grouped. You can also choose whether to show modifier keys, special keys, or uppercase labels, then override the text and timing of individual generated segments.

Add music and other audio

Audio tracks are separate from the captured microphone and system audio. Add multiple audio lanes to layer music or other sounds over the edit.

• Preview and add tracks from Cap's built-in audio library.
• Import MP3, WAV, M4A, OGG, FLAC, or AAC files.
• Move, trim, split, rename, replace, disable, or remove an audio segment.
• Adjust a segment's volume and fade-in or fade-out.
• Separately mute the capture or adjust its microphone and system-audio volumes. Stereo microphone recordings can also select stereo, left-channel mono, or right-channel mono handling.

Style the canvas and screen

Studio Mode can reframe the raw capture without changing the source recording:

• Choose Auto, Wide (16:9), Vertical (9:16), Square (1:1), Classic (4:3), or Tall (3:4) output.
• Crop the recorded screen and reposition it on the canvas.
• Use a solid color, gradient, built-in wallpaper, or custom image as the background.
• Adjust background blur, screen padding, rounded corners and corner style, motion blur, border width/color/opacity, and shadow size/opacity/blur.
• Add no frame, a macOS or Windows window frame, browser chrome with editable URL and title, or a MacBook bezel.

This is where a single source capture can be adapted for landscape documentation, square social posts, or vertical output without recording it again.

Refine the cursor

For recordings with Cap cursor data, the editor can:

• Show or hide the cursor, change its size and tilt, or render it as Cap's circular cursor.
• Hide it after a configurable period of inactivity.
• Use recorded raw movement or smooth it with Slow, Smooth, Mellow, Fast, or custom motion settings.
• Fine-tune smooth motion with tension, friction, and mass controls.
• Render supported cursors as higher-quality SVG artwork.

Cursor-specific controls depend on cursor metadata captured by Cap; importing a finished video cannot recreate that data.

Refine the camera

When camera footage exists, you can drag it to a custom canvas position or use a preset corner/edge position. Additional controls include:

• Hide or mirror the camera.
• Apply light or heavy camera-background blur.
• Choose a square or source-shaped camera frame.
• Change camera size, rounded corners, corner style, and shadow.
• Control camera size during screen zooms or keep its original size.

For composition changes that should only apply to part of the video, use the Scene track instead of changing the project-wide camera settings.

Reuse a look with presets

Presets save editor configuration for reuse. You can create and rename presets, apply one to a project, update a preset from the current settings, and choose a default. Applying a preset preserves the current project's timeline and clips while applying the saved visual configuration.

Export or share

Open Export when the edit is ready. The available choices depend on the format:

The destination can be a local file, the clipboard, or a shareable Cap link. A shareable link requires sign-in, uses MP4, uploads the rendered video to the selected organization and its active storage provider, and does not support a transparent-background or cursor-only export.

A transparent-background export can be saved to a file or clipboard, but MP4 and shareable-link destinations are disabled because they do not support that workflow.

Instant compared with Studio

Use Instant Mode when the shortest path to a share link is the priority.