OpenScreen is a lightweight, open-source screen recording tool designed as a free alternative to paid solutions like Screen Studio. It targets users who need basic but polished screen recordings for product demos, tutorials, or walkthroughs without recurring fees or watermarks. Built with Electron, React, and TypeScript, it provides essential editing features like zooms, annotations, cropping, and background customization—all in a simple interface. While it doesn’t replicate all advanced features of commercial tools, it delivers reliable core functionality for individuals and teams seeking control over their screen recordings without vendor lock-in.
This project is explicitly licensed under MIT, allowing free personal and commercial use. It’s in active beta, with known bugs but a clear focus on simplicity and transparency. Users are encouraged to contribute or report issues, making it ideal for those who value open-source principles and want to avoid subscription traps.
What You Get
- Screen recording with selective capture - Record your entire screen or specific applications, giving you control over what appears in the final video.
- Manual zooms with customizable depth - Add precise zoom effects at any point in the recording, with adjustable levels of magnification for emphasis.
- Video cropping - Hide unwanted portions of the screen by cropping the recording area post-capture.
- Custom backgrounds - Choose from wallpapers, solid colors, gradients, or upload your own image as the recording background.
- Motion blur for smooth transitions - Apply motion blur to pan and zoom effects to enhance visual fluidity in recordings.
- Annotations (text, arrows, images) - Overlay text labels, arrows, or custom images to highlight key elements during playback.
- Clip trimming - Remove unwanted sections from the beginning or end of your recording before exporting.
- Multiple export resolutions and aspect ratios - Export videos in various formats optimized for different platforms like YouTube, Twitter, or presentations.
Common Use Cases
- Building product demos for SaaS startups - Creating clean, professional walkthroughs of web apps without paying for Screen Studio or Camtasia.
- Developing tutorial videos for internal training - Recording UI flows with annotations and zooms to help new team members learn complex systems.
- Problem: Need a watermark-free recorder for client presentations → Solution: OpenScreen - Avoids licensing fees and watermarks while still offering zoom, crop, and annotation tools needed for polished client-facing content.
- Team workflows for remote developers - Engineers and UX designers recording bug reproductions or feature demos to share across Slack or Notion without relying on cloud-based tools.
Under The Hood
This project is a desktop video editing application built with modern web technologies, combining Electron for cross-platform deployment and React for a responsive UI. It emphasizes modular architecture and media processing capabilities, offering a structured approach to video editing workflows through component-based design and system-level integration.
Architecture
The application follows a monolithic structure with distinct layers for desktop functionality and frontend components, ensuring clear separation between the Electron main process, preload scripts, and React-based UI.
- The architecture is organized into well-defined layers: Electron main process, preload scripts, and React frontend with modular components
- UI elements are built using a reusable component pattern, incorporating shared primitives such as buttons and dialogs
- Video editing logic is encapsulated in dedicated modules responsible for encoding, decoding, and rendering operations
- Component communication is handled through React state management and Electron IPC for seamless inter-process interaction
Tech Stack
Built with TypeScript and React, the project leverages modern development tools and a rich ecosystem of UI and media libraries to support its video editing features.
- The tech stack centers on TypeScript, React, and Vite for fast development and building, with Electron for cross-platform desktop packaging
- Key libraries include Pixi.js for graphics rendering, mediabunny and mp4box for video processing, and Radix UI for accessible UI components
- Development tools encompass Vite, Electron Builder, Tailwind CSS, and PostCSS for styling and build automation
- Testing is powered by Vitest, ESLint, and TypeScript to ensure code quality, type safety, and maintainable test suites
Code Quality
The project demonstrates solid code practices with consistent TypeScript usage and a comprehensive testing strategy that covers core export and encoding logic.
- Testing is extensive, particularly in critical areas such as media export and frame handling, with a strong emphasis on unit and integration tests
- Error handling is systematically applied across modules using try/catch blocks to manage asynchronous operations and user interactions
- Code consistency is maintained through established patterns and clear component structures, though some technical debt remains in long-term sustainability
- Linting and type safety are configured to support clean, maintainable code with minimal duplication and consistent naming conventions
What Makes It Unique
This project stands out by integrating real-time recording controls and cross-platform media handling within a modular UI framework, offering a unique blend of Electron-native features and React-based flexibility.
- The application uniquely combines Electron’s native API access with a React UI layer that supports dynamic window types and custom rendering logic
- Video export and frame handling are managed through class-based exporters, offering a structured solution to complex media processing challenges
- It enables deep system integration while maintaining a modular, extensible architecture for future feature additions and customization
- The approach to real-time recording controls and media handling distinguishes it from generic desktop video editing tools in its technical implementation