TuringShot Complete Feature Guide

TuringShot is a macOS live screen effects app designed for situations where what happens on screen is the explanation — tutorials, lectures, presentations, demos, screen sharing, and product videos. Here's every feature, explained.

1Live Screen Zoom

Real-time screen magnification. Hold a shortcut key and scroll to zoom in instantly. The zoomed view follows your mouse and works across all apps. What you see on screen is exactly what gets recorded — no post-editing.

• Sensitivity: Low / Normal / High / Very High
• Max Scale: 2.0x / 2.5x / 3.0x / 4.0x
• Smooth Transition animation
• Sampling: Smooth / Crisp / Sharp / Sharper / Sharpest (default) / Custom (0.00–1.00 slider)
• Wheel Step: 9 levels from Standard to Insane
• Multi-display support with auto screen switching
• Completely free — all zoom settings included

2Focus Highlight

Spotlight the area around your cursor. The rest of the screen dims, making it instantly clear where viewers should look. One focus box — adjustable size and shape.

• Size: Small / Medium / Large / X-Large / XX-Large
• Shape: Rectangle or Circle
• Background Dim: Low (35%) / Medium (55%) / High (75%)
• Border Softness: Sharp / Medium / Soft

3Impact Animation

When focus and zoom activate, a directional slide-in + pulse animation plays. It makes the transition feel intentional rather than abrupt — like a well-edited video, but happening live.

• Strength: Weak / Medium / Strong
• Smooth mouse tracking with easeOutQuart easing
• Works together with Focus Highlight

4Magnifier Lens

A separate feature from Focus Highlight. Locally magnifies just the cursor center area like a real magnifying glass — magnification gradually fades toward the edges. Can be used alone or combined with Focus.

• Lens Strength: Low / Medium / High
• Lens Gloss: Off / Low / Medium / High (glass sheen effect)
• When used with Focus: auto-follows Focus Size
• When standalone: independent Lens Size control

5Screen Drawing

Draw directly on screen while explaining. Designed for quick draw-and-erase flow during recording — mark a UI area, draw an arrow, circle a button, then clear and continue.

• Modes: Freehand / Line / Rectangle / Circle
• Line Smoothing (Freehand): Off / Low / Medium / High
• Line Width: 2px to 12px (5 levels)
• Color: Unlimited custom colors
• Clear all: Ctrl+X (works in any mode)
• Drawings persist while zoomed and appear in recordings

6On-Screen Text Memo

Floating text windows you can place anywhere on screen. Create with a shortcut (default Ctrl+Q), type your text, and it stays until you close it. You can create multiple memo windows simultaneously.

7Memo Styling

Each memo is fully customizable:

• Font: Any Mac-installed font, with bold option
• Font Size: 18pt to 96pt (9 presets)
• Text Color: Custom color picker
• Background Color: Custom color picker
• Background Opacity: 0% to 100% — at 0%, a subtle drag bar remains so you can still reposition

8Auto-Expanding Memo Window

As you type, the memo window automatically expands:

• Width: expands toward screen edge
• Height: grows with new lines
• When it hits the limit: switches to internal scroll

9Memo Font Hotkeys

While typing in a memo, resize the font instantly without opening settings:

• Ctrl+= to increase font size
• Ctrl+- to decrease font size
• Changes apply in real time while you type

10Launch at Login

Toggle from the menu bar or Settings. When enabled, TuringShot starts automatically when macOS boots — always ready in your menu bar without manual launch.

11Onboarding & Guide

First-time users see a quick onboarding popup covering core features. The in-app Guide tab is always available with usage tips, new feature highlights, and settings paths. Updated with every release so you never miss a new capability.

Recommended Workflow

TuringShot works with any screen recorder — OBS, QuickTime, Zoom, Google Meet, Teams. The effects are real screen overlays, so any app that captures your screen will capture TuringShot's effects exactly as displayed.