Glossary
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Screen recording and video terms, each defined in one sentence and then explained.
Recording
- Display scaling
- Display scaling is the Windows setting that makes text and interface elements larger on high-resolution screens without changing the screen’s resolution.
- Global hotkey
- A global hotkey is a keyboard shortcut that works no matter which app is in focus, for example to start or stop a recording.
- Region capture
- Region capture records a rectangle of the screen that you drag out, rather than a whole monitor or a window.
- Screen recorder
- A screen recorder is software that captures what is shown on a screen and saves it as a video.
- Screen recording
- A screen recording is a video of what a computer screen shows over time, usually with sound from a microphone, the computer, or both.
- Screencast
- A screencast is a screen recording made to explain or teach something, usually with narration.
- Teleprompter
- A teleprompter shows your script on screen while you record, so you can read it while appearing to speak naturally.
- Window capture
- Window capture records a single application window and nothing else on the screen.
- Windows Graphics Capture
- Windows Graphics Capture is the capture system built into Windows 10 and 11 that lets an app record a window or a monitor efficiently.
Cursor and camera
- Auto zoom
- Auto zoom is a recorder feature that zooms in on the screen automatically, usually wherever the mouse is clicked.
- Click effect
- A click effect is a short animation, such as a ripple or a pulse, drawn where the mouse was clicked so viewers can see that a click happened.
- Cursor highlight
- A cursor highlight is a visual effect round the mouse pointer, such as a halo, ring or spotlight, that makes it easier to follow.
- Cursor smoothing
- Cursor smoothing replaces the jittery path of a recorded mouse pointer with a clean, gliding one.
- Easing
- Easing is the gradual speeding up and slowing down of a movement, so it starts and stops gently instead of abruptly.
- Motion blur
- Motion blur is the streaking of anything that moves quickly across a frame, as a camera with an open shutter would record it.
- Picture in picture
- Picture in picture places a small video, usually the presenter’s webcam, over a corner of the main video.
- Zoom and pan
- Zoom and pan is moving a virtual camera over a video: zooming magnifies part of the frame, and panning slides the view across it.
Editing
- Look (style preset)
- A look is a saved set of style choices, such as background, frame, cursor and camera settings, that can be applied to any recording in one step.
- Playhead
- The playhead is the vertical line on a timeline that marks the moment currently shown in the preview.
- Rendering
- Rendering is producing the final video file from an edit: drawing every frame with its effects and encoding the result.
- Ripple edit
- A ripple edit removes or shortens part of a video and moves everything after it earlier, so no gap is left.
- Split
- To split a clip is to divide it into two at the playhead, so each part can be moved, trimmed or deleted separately.
- Timeline
- A timeline is the part of a video editor that lays the video out from left to right in time, with tracks for picture, sound and effects.
- Trim
- To trim a video is to remove time from its beginning or its end.
- Watermark
- A watermark is a logo or text placed over a video to show which tool or which person made it.
On-screen graphics
- Annotation
- An annotation is any mark added on top of a video to explain it: arrows, boxes, circles, underlines, text and badges.
- Callout
- A callout is a label attached to part of the screen, usually an outline round the region with a short piece of text, that tells viewers what to look at.
- Device frame
- A device frame is a picture of a window, browser or device drawn round a screen recording, so it appears inside a laptop, a phone or an app window.
- Dithering
- Dithering adds a very fine pattern of noise to an image so smooth gradients do not break into visible bands of colour.
- Gradient background
- A gradient background is a smooth blend of colours placed behind a screen recording.
- Keystroke overlay
- A keystroke overlay shows the keys and shortcuts being pressed as graphics on the video.
- Lower third
- A lower third is a graphic in the lower part of the frame that shows a name, a title or a topic.
- Padding
- Padding is the space between a screen recording and the edge of the video frame, where the background shows.
- Pop-out
- A pop-out lifts one part of the screen out of the recording and brings it forward, enlarged, as a floating card.
- Privacy blur
- A privacy blur hides part of a video, such as an email address or an API key, by blurring that region so it cannot be read.
- Spotlight
- A spotlight dims or blurs everything in the frame except one region, so attention goes to that region.
- Text overlay
- A text overlay is text placed on top of a video, often animated in by word or by letter.
- Title card
- A title card is a full-frame graphic with text, shown at the start of a video or between its parts.
Video basics
- 1080p
- 1080p is a video resolution of 1920 × 1080 pixels, also called Full HD.
- 4K
- 4K is a video resolution of 3840 × 2160 pixels, four times the pixels of 1080p.
- Aspect ratio
- Aspect ratio is the shape of a video frame, written as width to height: 16:9 is wide, 1:1 is square, 9:16 is vertical.
- Bitrate
- Bitrate is the amount of data a video uses per second, usually measured in megabits per second (Mbps).
- Codec
- A codec is the method used to compress video or audio into a file and decompress it for playback.
- Frame rate
- Frame rate is the number of still pictures a video shows each second, measured in frames per second (fps).
- GIF
- A GIF is an image format that can hold a short, silent, looping animation.
- H.264
- H.264 is the most widely supported video codec: nearly every browser, phone, computer and video site can play it.
- Hardware encoding
- Hardware encoding compresses video using a dedicated encoder chip in the graphics card instead of the main processor.
- HEVC
- HEVC, or H.265, is a video codec that produces files roughly half the size of H.264 at similar quality.
- Keyframe
- In video compression, a keyframe is a frame stored as a complete picture; the frames between keyframes store only what changed.
- MP4
- MP4 is a file format that holds video, audio and timing information in one file; it is the standard format for sharing video.
- Resolution
- Resolution is the number of pixels in each frame of a video, written as width × height, for example 1920 × 1080.
- Variable frame rate
- A variable frame rate video does not space its frames evenly in time; it stores a new frame only when one is available.
Audio
- Audio track
- An audio track is one stream of sound in a recording, such as the microphone or the computer’s sound, that can be adjusted separately from the others.
- Noise gate
- A noise gate silences an audio signal whenever it falls below a set volume, removing background noise between words.
- Normalization
- Normalization adjusts the volume of a recording to a consistent target level.
- System audio
- System audio is the sound the computer itself is playing, as opposed to sound picked up by a microphone.
Kinds of video
- Async video
- Async video is a recorded message, usually screen plus camera, sent in place of a live meeting so people can watch when it suits them.
- Explainer video
- An explainer video is a short video that explains what a product or an idea is and why it matters.
- Product demo video
- A product demo video shows a product in use, solving a specific problem, to help someone decide to try or buy it.
- Tutorial video
- A tutorial video teaches the viewer to do one task by showing each step.
- Walkthrough video
- A walkthrough video guides the viewer through a product, a process or a document step by step, in order.
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