Automatic zoom for Mac screen recordings that you can edit afterward
Turn on Auto-zoom on clicks and Qreata builds zooms from the clicks you made while recording, so a small button fills enough of the frame to read. Each zoom stays editable in the project, and you can add your own where there was no click.
7-day trial · $49 once · no subscription · Apple Silicon · macOS 14+The short answer
Qreata is a Mac screen recorder that zooms on the clicks you made during the recording once you turn on Auto-zoom on clicks; the setting is off by default. You can also add a zoom by hand anywhere, and every zoom stays editable: start, duration (0.5–10 seconds), scale (1.2–4×), easing and focus point, or delete it. Zoom is part of the $49 one-time license and the 7-day trial.
Use auto zoom when
The interface is bigger than the player your viewers watch in.
- You record on a large display and the video is watched in a small embedded player or on a phone.
- The targets are small: toggles, checkboxes, menu items, table cells.
- You don’t want to place every zoom by hand.
- You want to overrule the automation where it gets in the way.
It won’t help when
Zooming is the wrong move, or you need something a zoom can’t show.
- You want the keys you pressed shown on screen. Qreata has no keystroke display; a shortcut step can get a manual zoom, not a key label.
- The capture is too low in detail to read. Zoom enlarges pixels; it doesn’t add them.
- The viewer needs the whole screen, as in a side-by-side comparison.
- You need 60 fps or cursor smoothing. Qreata records at 30 fps and doesn’t smooth cursor movement.
How does automatic zoom work in Qreata?
The setting is called Auto-zoom on clicks, and it is off by default. Turned on, it builds zooms from the clicks you made during the recording: click a small toggle in a settings page and the zoom goes to that toggle, at the moment you clicked it. For clicks to be placed precisely, Qreata needs the macOS Accessibility permission.
A zoom doesn’t need a click. Add zoom places one by hand, which covers a step done with a keyboard shortcut or a result that appears on its own.
Every zoom is editable, automatic or manual: its start, its duration from 0.5 to 10 seconds, its scale from 1.2× to 4×, its easing and its focus point. You can also delete it. Zooms belong to the project, and the screen track underneath is still the full recording, so deleting a zoom brings the full view back.
Example: a 3-minute settings tutorial with nine clicks
You record a 3-minute tutorial on changing notification settings and click nine times along the way. Here is how the zoom pass goes: five automatic zooms kept, four deleted, one added by hand.
- Record at your normal pace with Auto-zoom on clicks turned on and the Accessibility permission granted. Don’t slow down for the zoom; it works from the clicks.
- Open the recording in the editor and play it once at the size viewers will see, not full screen on your monitor.
- Delete the zoom on the opening click at 0:05. The viewer needs the whole layout before any close-up.
- Keep the zooms on small targets: the menu item at 0:20, the toggle at 0:40, the dropdown at 1:15. If the toggle label is still small, raise that zoom’s scale; it goes up to 4×.
- Delete the zoom at 1:50, where you compare two panels and both have to stay visible.
- Thin the cluster at 2:10–2:13. Three clicks in three seconds make three zooms; keep one, stretch its duration to cover all three clicks, and delete two.
- At 2:30 you press a keyboard shortcut and a confirmation appears with no click. Use Add zoom, set the focus point on the confirmation and give it 3 seconds.
- Keep the zoom on Save at 2:50, set background, padding and corner radius, and export the MP4.
When to keep an automatic zoom and when to remove it
A zoom earns its place when the viewer could not read the target without it. Use this as the rule of thumb on the editing pass:
| Moment | Zoom | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Click on a small toggle or checkbox | Keep | The target is unreadable at player size |
| Click into a form field before typing | Keep | Viewers need to read the value |
| Comparing two panels | Remove | Both sides must stay visible |
| Three clicks within three seconds | Keep one | Rapid zoom changes are hard to follow |
| Keyboard shortcut with a small result | Add by hand | No click, so no automatic zoom |
| First click that opens the screen | Remove | The viewer needs the whole layout first |
Will zoomed sections look sharp?
A zoomed section shows a smaller part of the captured screen at a larger size, so it can only be as sharp as the pixels that were captured. At 2× the frame shows a quarter of the captured area; at the 4× maximum, a sixteenth. Qreata records and exports at 720p, 1080p or 4K, as H.264 MP4, so a higher recording quality leaves more pixels for the close-up.
The test takes 10 minutes in the trial: record 2 minutes of your densest screen, a table or a settings page, keep the zooms, export, and play the file at the width of your help article and on a phone. If the labels read at both sizes, the setup works for you.
What auto zoom doesn’t do
Automatic zooms come from clicks, so a step you perform with a keyboard shortcut gets none until you add one by hand. Qreata doesn’t display the keys you pressed, and it doesn’t smooth cursor movement. A zoom is also not a privacy tool: don’t count on it to keep sensitive data out of frame. Use the Blur tool in the editor, or Blur · select elements while you record.
Recording and export are 30 fps; there is no 60 fps. After a Replace Take, replay the retaken range and check the zooms there, since you clicked again in that range.
Questions worth asking
Does Qreata zoom in automatically when I click?
Yes, once you turn on Auto-zoom on clicks, which is off by default. Qreata then creates zooms from the real clicks in your recording; it needs the macOS Accessibility permission to place them precisely.
Can I edit or remove the automatic zooms?
Yes. Each zoom has an editable start, duration (0.5–10 seconds), scale (1.2–4×), easing and focus point, and you can delete any zoom before you export.
Can I add a zoom where I didn’t click?
Yes. Add zoom places a zoom by hand at any point, with the same settings as an automatic one. Use it for keyboard shortcuts and results that appear without a click.
Are the zooms burned into the recording?
No. They are stored in the project on top of the full screen recording. They become part of the picture only in the MP4 you export.
Can zoom make a blurry screen recording sharp?
No. Zoom enlarges what was captured. Check the exported video at the size your viewers will watch it.
Is auto zoom a paid add-on?
No. It is part of the app. The Personal license is $49 once for 3 Macs, and the 7-day trial includes every feature.