Screencasting Tools for Technical Documentation
Market overview of recommendable screen recorders for creating screencasts (software videos, screen videos)
On this page:
Commercial screencasting tools
Commercial screencasting tools particularly for macOS
Text-to-speech (TTS) engines and voices
See also: Choosing a Screencasting Tool
For information on the indicated price levels , see Price Levels.
Captivate If there’s anything like a Swiss Army knife among the authoring systems for software demos, then it’s Captivate. The program offers a scope of functions that’s by far the largest, especially with regard to quiz functions and branching scenarios. Among its strengths are flexible customization of the output, smooth translatability (XML export and reimport), and attractive results. Currently Captivate is the only screencasting tool that comes with text-to-speech voices. Price level: medium Camtasia One of the most popular screencasting tools. Camtasia supports a large number of output formats and is available for Windows and for the Mac. Price level: medium HelpXplain Very efficiently creates simple, slide-based screencasts, but also animated images, animated screenshots, sliders, and presentations. Price level: low https://www.helpandmanual.com/hx/ Description supplied by vendor: Demo Builder Lying hidden behind an uncluttered user interface are more features than you’d guess at first sight. Despite the affordable price, there are hardly any requirements that DemoBuilder doesn’t meet. Texts can be exported to Microsoft Word for translation and then be reimported. DemoBuilder is straightforward, simple, and efficient to use. Another key advantage is that it’s particularly easy to update existing demos when there is a new version of the demonstrated product. Price level: low Mimic Unlike other products listed here, Mimic focuses very specifically on the needs of technical documentation. Unique features are the possibility of using variables while working with texts, and the possibility to use individual scenes several times over, even in different projects. Only available in combination with MadCap Flare. https://www.madcapsoftware.com VideoDetailer Essentially a simplified and streamlined version of the program Demo Builder made by the same manufacturer. Price level: low datango From a series of screen captures builds screencasts, interactive tutorials, and also printed documentation. Price level: not published ActivePresenter Presentation tool to create Video interactive simulations. SCORM compatible. Price level: medium https://atomisystems.com/activepresenter/ FlashBack The built-in autoscroll function can automatically ensure that regions where interaction is happening are displayed in the center. Easy to use. Price level: low https://www.flashbackrecorder.com Wondershare DemoCreator Records and edits video presentations. Price level: low https://democreator.wondershare.com RecordCast Browser-based screencasting software. Nevertheless, according to the vendor, the created videos are edited locally and not uploaded to a server, which can be important for confidential content. Price level: low movavi Screen Capture Studio Simple screen recoding software. Also lets you edit the recorded videos to some extent. Price level: low https://www.movavi.com/screen-recorder/ ViewletBuilder ViewletBuilder was one of the first screencasting tools on the market. It’s one of the few programs that are available for Linux and Mac as well. All important features are available. Comprehensive event control. Text can be exported to XML for translation and then reimported again. Price level: medium WinCam Simple screen recorder with some basic editing features. Price level: low https://www.ntwind.com/software/wincam.html Gif Recorder Basic screencasting tool dedicated to the GIF format. Comes with a jQuery implementation to start and stop the animations and to play audio files in sync. Price level: low Reflector Wirelessly mirrors an iPad or iPhone to a PC or Mac so that you can record the screen or take screen captures. Price level: low |
ScreenFlow One of the market leaders for the Mac. Price level: low iShowU Studio Another well-known audio and video recorder for the Mac. Price level: low Screenium Screen recorder and video recorder. Price level: low https://www.syniumsoftware.com/screenium Screenflick Basic screen recording software. Price level: low |
OBS Studio Can create scenes made up of multiple sources including screen captures, images, text, webcam, and more. Price level: free (open source) Screenity Screen recorder & annotation tool for Chrome. Can make recordings of browser tabs, the desktop, any application, and the camera. Price level: free (freeware) https://github.com/alyssaxuu/screenity ScreenToGif (NEW ENTRY) Can save a short scene to animated GIF, to animated PNG, or to video. Price level: free (freeware) Wink Produces screencasts as MPEG-4 video, PDF (for printable manuals), PostScript, HTML or images. Price level: free (freeware) https://www.debugmode.com/wink/ Ezvid Screen recorder with also some basic editing features. Price level: free (freeware) LICEcap Doesn’t create full-featured screencasts but small animated screen captures (animated GIF). Price level: free (open source) https://www.cockos.com/licecap/ Debut Video Capture Records from webcam, screen, or video input device. You can also add text captions. Price level: low https://www.nchsoftware.com/capture/ Screencast-O-Matic Works from your web browser without installation. Price level: low https://screencast-o-matic.com xvidcap Basic screencasting application for Linux. Price level: free (open source) https://xvidcap.sourceforge.net recordMyDesktop Basic screencasting tool on Linux. Price level: free (open source) https://enselic.github.io/recordmydesktop/
Some free screen recorders for Andriod: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rsupport.mvagent https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hecorat.screenrecorder.free https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.blogspot.byterevapps.lollipopscreenrecorder https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tianxingjian.screenshot |
The following providers make it possible to download audio files created with a TTS engine. (Usually these providers are not the producers of the voices, but work as resellers. Therefore, many of the voices are the same with different providers). https://aivoov.com (NEW ENTRY) https://mxspeech.com (NEW ENTRY) https://blakify.com (NEW ENTRY) https://speechnow.co (NEW ENTRY) https://speechelo.com (NEW ENTRY) https://voicely.net (NEW ENTRY) https://updigital.marketing (NEW ENTRY) https://www.listnr.tech (NEW ENTRY) https://micmonster.com (NEW ENTRY) https://talking.network (NEW ENTRY) https://murf.ai (NEW ENTRY) https://play.ht (NEW ENTRY)
The following providers are producers of voices and offer them e.g. as web services to dynamically generate a voice at runtime. https://www.nuance.com/omni-channel-customer-engagement/voice-and-ivr/text-to-speech.html https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/cognitive-services/text-to-speech/ |
This page was last updated 11/2022
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