Software Recording -- Font on Screen too Small

Dec 08, 2015

I am trying to create a training course on how to use a computer software product.  The font on the recorded screen shots is too small to read.  I am recording at full screen .  Is there a way to make the resulting screen shots larger?

16 Replies
Joe Waddington

I'm guessing it has to do with screen resolution vs storyline resolution.

If you have SL2 set to the default resolution of 720x540 (or 720x405 for wide screen), then your course screen, in general is pretty small. Your monitor display at full screen is at least 1280x1024 or higher. So your trying to put a big screen into a small screen. Its going to shrink it to make it fit.

You might be able to mitigate it by ensuring that your course displays in full screen mode. The other way may be to increase the resolution of your Storyline course. We use 960x720 and 960x540 as our standard resolutions. Warning: changing the resolution on a course you've been working  on may cause items on your slides to shift and move, and you'll have to spend some time putting things back in their right places.

Christie Pollick

Hi, Sandra -- It appears as though your attachment did not come through to the thread, as you replied via email. I wanted to mention that you could use the ADD ATTACHMENT button here in the thread to browse/upload your file, or if this is urgent (as I will not be able to review your file until first thing tomorrow), you are welcome to submit a case with our Support Engineers using this form. :)

Christie Pollick

Hi, Sandra -- When you mention that you would like to get rid of the Menu option, you are referring to the Menu on the lefthand side of the screen when you preview or publish, correct?

If you would like to remove that so the screenrecording appears a bit larger, you just need to click the PLAYER button as highlighted in the ribbon below, and then uncheck the box for MENU under the Player tabs section. Please let me know if that helps! 

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Sandra,

There is not a story size setting that is "full screen" but determine as you set here within the story size. The full size recording you've done is determined to be full sized based on your overall screen resolution. As far as making your Storyline course look full screen, you may also want to look at changing the player and browser settings as detailed here to allow it to scale within the browser.

Sandra Kearney

Thanks.  I have read the information and watched tutorials.  I have not found anyway to make a recording of a full screen of a software program to be readable.  The only way I got the recording of the software program to be valuable was to only record about 1/4 of the screen at a time.  Am I giving up too quickly or is this a common issue and people have to focus on the portion of the software that they are "discussing" at that time in the course?  Are there other tricks like a 3rd party tool like snag-it that people use to capture the full screen?

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Sandra,

It really depends on the set up and what you're trying to record. If you're recording a very detailed screen/image it may be difficult to see all the elements clearly as some scaling and image compression will occur as a part of Storyline. 

I'll defer to the community in regards to 3rd party tools that they use, and what other experience or ideas they have. 

Sandra Kearney

Thanks.  The software program I'm trying to train is very detailed.  I would love to be able to use Storyline to develop the training, but I am struggling to get a readable full view of the software's screen image into the Storyline.  If anyone knows the best settings to get a full size detailed screen captured into Storyline in a clear and readable way, I'd really appreciate that information.  So far focusing on only 1/4 of the screen resulted in a useable image.

Joe Waddington

Hi Sandra -

Here are a couple things that i think may help.

1 - Change your course settings to display in full screen.

  • Click Player in the toolbar
  • Click Other
  • For Browser size - choose re-size browser to fill screen
  • For Player size - choose Scale Player to fill browser window.

This will make it so that when you publish your course, it will fill the entire computer screen.

Other Player options

2 - increase the story size

WARNING - doing this may cause objects in your course to shift and move around. Save before doing, in case you hate it when its done :)

  • Click the Design tab at the top of the toolbar
  • Click Story size

Since you are recording a wide screen, you probably want your storyline course in widescreen also. It will mitigate the white bars that are at the top and bottom of your screen recording. 

  • If you want to keep the white bars, and minimize the shifting and moving that may happen, leave it on 4:3, and set width to 960 and height to 720. Set it to Scale to fit
  • If you want to mitigate the white bars, but may have to do some cleaning afterwards, set it to 16:9, width 960, height 540, scale to fit

Story size

I've found that with my software simulations, these two settings work better, and it gives me a little more real estate on the screen to play with.

This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.