- In this video,
we're gonna cover step by step
how you can record the screen of your Mac
for your YouTube or your tutorial videos.
(inspirational music)
Hey it's Justin Brown here from Primal Video.
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and all the links to everything we mention in this video
you can find linked in the description below.
So let's jump into it.
Screen captures are a great way
to step your audience through a process on screen.
Teaching them how to use an app or software,
record a presentation with slides,
or even capture b-roll of product pages
or websites for your videos.
In fact screen captures are one of the easiest ways
to create b-roll,
so if you're not using them,
then you definitely should be.
In this video, we'll be covering
exactly how you can capture your screen on your Mac
with a range of options both free and paid.
Now the paid options do have some advantages,
so we'll cover off our pick first,
and then we'll follow up with a run through
of the best free options that we've found
to get you started.
So in regards to paid options for screen capture on Mac,
there's really four solutions that you've got.
Or four solid options.
The first one is one that is a relatively new option,
and is probably the cheapest paid option,
and that is using We Video.
So We Video, if you haven't heard of it,
check out our video,
we did a video recently
talking about the benefits of using We Video.
It is an online cloud-based editing solution,
meaning that you won't need to install any software
and it now supports screen capture as well.
The benefit of this is that your screen captures
are actually saved in the cloud,
so if you're gonna have team members help you edit
or put together your projects or your videos,
then We Video is a solid solution.
Not only that but the editing features
that you'll get in We Video
to edit down your screen recordings or your screen captures
are really, really powerful.
So you'll be able to do a heap of stuff in there,
and it all runs in your web browser.
So it's a pretty cool option.
Now you can pick up licenses of We Video
starting at $4.99 per month,
or there's a top plan at $7.99 per month,
but if you want a total overview of We Video,
then check out the video linked on screen now.
Option number two for screen recording on Mac
is a program called Snagit.
Now Snagit you can actually get a Windows version
and a Mac version,
so they are cross-platform,
and you can actually share your project files
between the two which is pretty cool.
So where Snagit stands out is it is
probably the no-fuss screen recording tool.
You can literally just draw out a section of your screen,
press record,
and you're underway.
But where Snagit stands out beyond the simplicity
of the screen recording itself,
is that it's actually got some really cool
annotation and markup features
to help you show your viewers of your videos
things that you wanna show them on screen.
So it's really easy to drop in arrows
and add text and to add some markup to your videos,
to help guide your viewers
through whatever you're showing them on your screen.
The other place that Snagit really stands out
is in the screenshot capability,
so taking still images from your screens,
or saving them out as JPEGs.
This is really really powerful in Snagit,
and there's a heap of tools in there to help you do that,
but in regards to creating videos,
it does it,
it does it well,
and it lets you add in arrows and markups
and things really easily,
but in regards to the editing,
that's where it sort of falls down a bit.
Option number three for screen capture on Mac
is the big brother from Snagit.
This is Camtasia.
So both of these are made by the same company,
Snagit is just the screen capture version,
whereas Camtasia is really the full editing solution
as well as the screen capturing.
So Camtasia sells for $199 so it's a big jump up in price
from the $49 price point of Snagit,
but really as I said this comes down to
the editing functionality
and the complete end-to-end solution
that you're getting here in Camtasia.
The biggest difference that you'll find
in regards to this screen capture,
or the screen recording between Snagit
and between Camtasia,
is the simultaneous recording of webcam.
So while Snagit will let you record your webcam
while you're recording your videos,
there's nowhere near as much control
to be able to pick the image up,
move it around,
scale it down,
make it a picture in picture,
to switch between the webcam
and the screen recording easily,
and to change it on the fly.
This is where Camtasia really stands out.
And it really comes down to the power that you've got
in Camtasia and the editing tools that you've got
for pulling this together after the recording has finished.
So if you're looking for a complete end-to-end solution,
and you're looking for something
that works on both Mac and PC,
and maybe you're sharing the project files between the two,
then Camtasia could be a great option.
But at that $199 price point,
it definitely doesn't make it
the best bang for buck solution,
which leads us then to option number four.
Which in my opinion is the best bang for buck solution,
and that is ScreenFlow.
Now ScreenFlow is Mac only,
but it sells for $99,
and it is the most robust,
most solid solution for screen capture
and for editing screen captures on Mac in my opinion.
So not only can you simultaneously record your webcam
and your screen as you can in Camtasia,
you can also simultaneously record
from things like your iPhone screen as well,
and additional microphones.
So the level of control and the power
that you've got in your actual screen recording is huge.
But where ScreenFlow really shines
is in the editing as well.
It is a really really solid,
really high-powered video editing solution,
especially for screen captures.
The things that you can do so easily
to add in animated text,
which you can do in Camtasia as well,
but I personally think the process of how you do it,
and the editing workflow,
and just the feature set that you get for editing
as well as screen recording,
is where ScreenFlow stands out from the rest.
Simple things like helping your viewer
follow along with what you're showing them on screen.
There's so many simple ways that you can do that,
they have features called a call out
where you can highlight different sections of your screen
really really easy,
like literally it's a couple of clicks and you've done it.
You can zoom in on sections,
you can make your cursor bigger or smaller.
When it comes to screen capture on Mac,
you really can't go past ScreenFlow,
it's definitely worth considering.
And again I'd really suggest that you grab trial versions
of these and try them for yourself,
to see which one is going to be the best for you.
All the links to the trial versions
you can find linked in the description below.
Okay so those are the paid options,
let's take a look at some of the free options.
Now these can also get really good options,
but the biggest difference is that you won't have
the editing capabilities built in.
So if you're gonna be editing your screen recordings
using other software,
then that might not be a big deal for you.
So these could be the best solutions.
Now there's two main free options here.
The first one is incredibly simple to use,
but it also has some reduced functionality.
And the next one is a bit more complex,
but it works pretty well for everything
right up to gaming videos.
So the first one is Quicktime.
Now if you're on a Mac,
which obviously you're watching this video,
you are on a Mac.
Then you've already got Quicktime installed on your system,
and it actually has a pretty powerful
screen recording functional capabilities built in.
To access these screen recording features in Quicktime,
just open up Quicktime and hit File,
New Screen Recording.
Pretty straightforward.
From there you'll be able to switch on or off,
whether you wanna have mouse clicks highlighted,
so stand out when you click something.
And when you hit record,
you'll have the ability to either
draw out the section that you wanna record of your screen,
or just click on the screen
and have the whole screen recorded.
So that's a really simple option,
and it's already installed on your computer right now.
The next option is OBS,
or Open Broadcast Software.
Now this is really live streaming software.
It's free,
works on both Mac, PC and Linux,
but it's also got screen recording capabilities
built in as well.
Once again with OBS,
you can either draw out a section of your screen to record,
or you can record the whole thing.
You've got control over the codecs and bit rates
that you're going to be recording to,
so you get some advanced functionality there.
One of the things that I really like about OBS,
and one of the things that makes it
one of the most popular options for recording gaming videos
is that it is a low-consumption program,
meaning that it's not gonna chew up all your
CPU or GPU resources.
That's why it's used for gaming,
so that they can still have all the power and performance
on their computer left for gaming,
but you can still be recording your screen at the same time.
But once again,
this is just for purely screen recording.
There's no markup,
no annotations,
no editing functionality built into OBS.
So to summarize all that up,
you're paid options are,
We Video,
which the stand out feature for that is
if you're gonna be working collaboratively in the cloud,
or you wanna edit all your videos in the cloud
using We Video.
Option number two was Snagit,
which is a solid option for screen capturing
and basic, very basic editing at the $49 price point.
Up from that is Camtasia,
which sells for $199 so it's the most expensive option.
But it is a complete end-to-end solution
with really powerful video editing built in.
And the fourth option for paid was ScreenFlow,
which in my opinion is the best all-round,
best bang for buck at $99.
So it includes all your video editing
and some really powerful options
for your screen recording as well.
Then we had the two free options,
Quicktime which is already installed on your computer,
and OBS which is free for Mac, Windows and Linux as well.
Both of those will allow you to capture full screen,
or just to draw out a section of your screen,
and just record that,
but neither of those has editing functionality built in.
So what I would highly recommend,
and I know that I've mentioned it before,
is you need to get the software
that's going to be the best
for the types of videos you're creating.
And really the only way that you can do that
is to try a few different programs
and see which one is going to be the best for your workflow.
Check out the links in the description,
to where you can grab trial versions
of the different applications,
give them a go,
and see which one works best for you.
Now if you're shooting video with your iPhone
or your Android smartphone,
then we've put together a video
that runs through the step-by-step process
that will make a big difference
in your video results fast.
Check out the videos linked on screen now,
and I'll see you soon.