Crisp & Clear Screen Recordings

The following items can impact video quality. Adjust these settings to produce high video quality:

• Recording Dimensions: The resolution of your recording. If you record full screen, the recording dimensions are the same as the resolution of your monitor.
• Project Settings: The dimensions of your canvas in Camtasia Editor and the frame rate.
• Export Settings: The options you choose when exporting your video, including the resolution of your video.

Recording Dimensions

One way to get a crisp, clear screen recording is to display your screen video at its original recording resolution, which avoids any scaling.

If you know the desired dimensions for your final video, enter these dimensions into the Width and Height fields in Camtasia Recorder for your source editing. See Build Your First Video.

Scaling stretches or shrinks a screen recording to display it at a different resolution than the original recording. Scaling decreases quality and causes videos to appear blurry or distorted. See Scaling Tips to learn when scaling is necessary or how to use scaling to your advantage.

Project Settings

Camtasia Editor sets the canvas dimensions based on the first recording added to the timeline or the horizontal or vertical look selected in Camtasia Rev. Adjust the canvas dimensions and the projects frame rate in the Project Settings, and learn how to create and delete proxy videos.

Canvas Dimensions

Once you have a recording, set the canvas dimensions to the same as your recording dimensions in the Project Settings. For the best results, set the canvas dimensions to the same aspect ratio as your recording dimensions.

1. Select the Magnification dropdown > Project Settings.
   
2. The Project Settings dialog appears.
   • To select a standard video resolution, click Canvas Dimensions (Windows) or Dimensions (Mac) and select a preset.
     
   • To enter custom width and height, click Canvas Dimensions and select Custom. Enter dimensions (in pixels) into Width and Height fields.
     
     Note: Click the lock icon to enable or disable the aspect ratio lock.
3. Click Apply.

Editing Frame Rate

Frame rates typically vary throughout a video. Record, edit, and share videos at the same frame rate to maintain video quality.

1. Right-click (Windows) or Control+click (Mac) the media in the Media Bin and select Details to view the actual media frame rate.
   
2. Select the Magnification dropdown > Project Settings > Frame Rate dropdown to change the editing frame rate.
   
3. Click Apply.

Proxy Videos

Proxy videos are lower-resolution files that allow for faster editing in Camtasia. Proxy videos may appear lower quality in Camtasia Editor, but do not affect the resolution or quality of the final exported video. To edit proxy video settings:

• Select File > Preferences (Windows) or Camtasia > Settings (Mac) > Advanced tab > Proxy Videos to set how Camtasia Editor handles large, high-resolution videos during editing.
  
  • If you no longer need the proxy videos created while proxy video settings were enabled, select Delete All Proxy Videos.
• To manage proxy videos in the Media Bin:
  • To create a proxy video, right-click the video in the Media Bin and select Proxy Video > Create Proxy Video. When a proxy video has been created, a yellow dot appears in the Media Bin.
    
  • To delete the proxy video, right-click on the video and select Proxy Video > Delete Proxy Video.

To learn more, see FAQ: Proxy Videos.

Export Settings

Match the dimensions or aspect ratio in recording, editing, and exporting your video to maintain video quality. Complete the following to export a video with the current project (editing) dimensions:

Scaling Tips

Sometimes You Can’t Avoid Scaling

Sometimes it’s not possible to match your recording and project dimensions. For example:

• If you record a screen that is bigger or smaller than the resolution of the video you want to create.
• Your monitor doesn’t fit a standard 16:9 aspect ratio.

In these situations scaling the recording is unavoidable, but you can use scaling to your advantage.

How We Use Scaling to Our Advantage

For our tutorial videos, we record on a monitor that is twice the resolution of our project dimensions. The screen recording will be displayed at half its original resolution and will have some quality loss. This is fine for us, because we spend most of our time zoomed in and focused on specific parts of the user interface, which is where we want to see the highest quality.

To get the highest quality and most detail, we zoom to the original resolution of the recording, or 100% scale. To show something on an adjacent part of the screen, we pan over and remain at 100% scale.

To learn about zooming in Camtasia Editor, see Zoom in to Focus Attention.

Follow the 100% Rule

When in doubt, keep your screen recording at 100% scale. This displays it at the highest quality possible.

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