siddharthvaddem/openscreen

OpenScreen is a free, open-source desktop application for recording your screen and turning those recordings into polished product demos or software walkthroughs. It positions itself as a simpler, zero-cost alternative to Screen Studio, a popular paid tool (around $29/month) that developers and designers use to create visually appealing screen recordings with smooth zoom effects, backgrounds, and animations. The problem it solves is that creating professional-looking screen recordings typically requires either paying for a subscription tool or accepting a result that looks raw and unpolished. OpenScreen provides the core features most people actually need, recording a specific window or the whole screen, adding zoom effects (both automatic and manual with adjustable depth), cropping video, choosing custom backgrounds (wallpapers, solid colors, gradients), adding annotations like text and arrows, trimming clips, adjusting playback speed, and exporting in various resolutions and aspect ratios, all completely free with no watermarks and no subscriptions. The app works as a standalone desktop application. You install it like any other app, grant it screen recording permission, and use a graphical timeline editor to compose your final video with zoom effects, annotations, and speed adjustments layered over the raw recording. You would use OpenScreen if you are a developer, designer, or product manager who regularly creates demo videos, tutorial walkthroughs, or feature announcements and does not want to pay a recurring subscription for a polished result. The tech stack is Electron (which enables the app to run on macOS, Windows, and Linux as a native-like application), React for the user interface, TypeScript for the code, Vite as the build tool, and PixiJS for rendering the visual effects and timeline. It is licensed under MIT.