The quick answer: a prompter set up in five steps
You wrote the script, pressed record and watched yourself stare at the bottom of the screen. The teleprompter scrolls your words at a speed you choose and lets you put the reading line near your camera, so your eyes stay close to the lens. It runs in the browser and your script stays on your device.
- Paste the script. Put directions in [square brackets], like [smile], and they appear dimmed.
- Check the length in the script timer (the arithmetic is below).
- Set the speed to about 130 to 140 words per minute and the text size to something you can read from your seat. Narrow the Text width to 50 to 70% and move the reading line up, close to the camera.
- Open the recorder in one window (the webcam recorder) and press Turn on camera. Open the prompter in a narrow window just under the camera and switch off Open in full screen, or it will fill the screen. Press Start recording, then Start prompter.
- Read. Space pauses, the arrow keys change speed and size, Esc exits. Trim the start and end afterwards.
How long will your script run? The arithmetic
Speaking time is words divided by words per minute. The script timer offers three paces and accepts any pace from 80 to 240 in steps of 5.
| Pace | Words per minute | Words in a 3 minute script | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Slow and deliberate | 120 | 360 | Training, complex topics, a second-language audience |
| Conversational | 150 | 450 | Vlogs, podcasts, talking-head videos |
| Fast and energetic | 180 | 540 | Ads and quick-fire Shorts |
Then leave slack. The script timer suggests aiming about 10% under the slot for pauses, retakes and ad-libs, so a 3 minute video at the conversational pace gets 450 × 0.9 = 405 words. Note that 405 words is exactly 3:00 at 135 words per minute, inside the 130 to 140 where the prompter suggests you start.
Whatever you time the script at has to be the speed you set. The same 405 words take 2:42 at 150 words per minute (405 ÷ 150 = 2.7 minutes), so pick the pace first and count words second.
To find your own pace, read a paragraph aloud for exactly one minute and paste what you got through. If that is 138 words, you speak at 138 words per minute, and a 3 minute script is 138 × 3 = 414 words. Two details the timer handles for you: text in [square brackets] is left out of the count, and $1,250 counts as one word while you will say four or more, so write numbers the way you speak them.
Text size, column width and speed
- Size. Make it big enough to read without leaning in, because viewers see you lean. The cost is fewer words on screen at once, so you see less of what is coming. Change it with the left and right arrows or the minus and plus keys.
- Speed. It is set in words per minute and converted to a scroll rate for your text size and width, so 140 stays about 140 even after you enlarge the text. Adjust live with the up and down arrows instead of racing to keep up, and pause with Space for a beat.
- Width. A narrow column keeps your eyes still. As an example, with the screen 60 cm away, a column 12 cm wide spans about 11 degrees of your gaze and a column 30 cm wide about 28. Wide text makes your eyes visibly sweep.
Suppose the column holds about six words a line. At 140 words per minute a new line arrives every 2.6 seconds (6 ÷ 140 × 60), which is slow enough to read ahead by a line and speak the one you are on.
Eye line: where the script sits relative to the lens
The closer the words are to the lens, the less your eyes visibly drop. With the text 10 cm below the lens and you 60 cm away, your gaze drops about 9.5 degrees (the arctangent of 10 ÷ 60). At 25 cm below it drops about 22.6. Those distances are examples, but the pattern holds: move the words up, not your eyes down.
| Your setup | Where the text sits | What to set |
|---|---|---|
| Laptop alone | At the top of the screen, beside the webcam | A narrow window with Open in full screen off, reading line about a quarter of the way down |
| Second monitor | Just below the camera | Full screen with F, a narrow text width |
| Beam-splitter glass | Reflected in front of the lens | Mirror text (M), and Flip upside down if the rig needs it |
| Phone or tablet as the prompter | On the device, propped just under the camera | Tap to pause, drag to move, buttons for speed and size |
Raise a laptop to eye level (a few books do it) so you are not looking down at the lens. Show my camera behind the text puts a mirrored live view under the words so you can check your framing; it is only a preview, and nothing is recorded or sent anywhere. Do not switch on mirror mode without glass, or your text reads backwards.
Record yourself while it scrolls
The webcam recorder saves MP4 (H.264 and AAC) or WebM at 720p or 1080p, with a 3-2-1 countdown and pause and resume. Its preview is mirrored so it feels natural, but the recording is not, so a sign behind you reads correctly. Watch the level meter while you talk, and face a window or a lamp.
Narrating a demo instead? Use the screen recorder and share the one window or tab you are showing. If you share the entire screen, a prompter on that screen is in the video. Setup for sound is in recording your screen with sound.
Fluffed a line? Do not stop the take. Press Space to pause the prompter, breathe, press Page Up to jump back half a screen and read the sentence again from its start. Remove the flub later with Cut out selection.
Trim the start and end
The prompter's countdown at the start, and the moment you reach to stop the recording at the end, leave dead air. Open the recording in the video trimmer (the buttons under your recording send it there) and use Keep selection. Precise starts on the exact frame you chose. Fast copies without re-encoding but may begin on an earlier keyframe, so a flinch can sneak back in. For a mistake in the middle, use Cut out selection.
Long gaps where you waited for the prompter are covered in removing pauses from talking videos. If viewers will watch on mute, captions people actually read covers the style.
What goes wrong
- You still look like you are reading. Narrow the column, move the line closer to the lens and read the script aloud once first. If you trip on a sentence twice, rewrite it shorter.
- You are racing the text. The speed is above your natural pace. Measure your own, then lower the setting.
- The text is backwards. Mirror text is on. Press M.
- The prompter appears in your recording. You shared the entire screen. Share a window or tab.
- The video runs long. You timed the script at one pace and read at another.