Screenflow: Finally Screencasting done right

For the past couple of years I have been dabbling in the art of screencasting. I think that providing video tutorials for my software can be much more helpful to my users than producing standard web page documentation. However, I have struggled to find any good solutions. Prior to my discovery of screenflow, I had experimented with Snapz Pro X, iShowU, VLC, and many other forgettable solutions. The best of this bunch was iShowU, but it is so far behind Screenflow that it almost isn’t even worth comparison. I’m still bitter towards Snapz Pro X because of how difficult it seems to be to uninstall (and the pop-up box every 10 minutes asking me to purchase the software is a real pain).

So why is screenflow so much better?

1. I can’t figure out how it works so well. You can play high definition video on your mac and record it with screenflow without losing any apparent quality. It just works. This enables me to more easily take a clip of two from a DVD or streaming video source to include into my works without jumping through any hoops.

2. No more file size/video quality trade-offs. When recording it doesn’t have a zillion configuration options. You just press “record” and it works. What’s more it doesn’t seem to bog down the computer like all the other solutions did. You can start it recording and not even notice that it is running.

3. Integrated webcam and keynote. I have been longing for good solution in this realm for a long time. Screenflow will automatically record from your web cam while you perform your screencast. In post production it is easy to alternate between the webcam and the screen, and you can even do picture-in-picture. The keynote feature is really cool too, as it is a common requirement to have a sort of running keynote presentation along with the screencast.

4. Effects and post production. It has all the toys I need for polishing the screencast when i’m done. Zooming in on windows, highlighting sections of the screen, dimming out irrelevant portions of the screen, etc…

I give this software a 10 out of 10. It is the very first of its kind to get it all right.