Limelight
What Is Cursor Spotlight?
Cursor spotlight is a soft glowing circle rendered around the mouse cursor during screen recording, ensuring viewers can always find and follow the presenter's pointer across the screen.
Cursor spotlight is a visual overlay — usually a semi-transparent radial gradient or a soft-edged circle — that is centered on the cursor and moves with it in real time throughout the recording. Its purpose is to solve a common viewer problem: on a large, dense screen, the mouse cursor is a tiny 16×16 pixel icon that can be genuinely difficult to locate, especially when the presenter moves it quickly or the recording is viewed on a small display. The spotlight makes the cursor's position unmistakable without obscuring the content underneath.
The effect should be tuned to be noticeable but not distracting. A spotlight that is too bright or too large competes with the content it is supposed to highlight. Best practice is a soft-edged circle in a warm, slightly desaturated color — amber, gold, or off-white — at roughly 80–120 px diameter and 40–60% opacity. This makes the cursor findable at a glance without burning a ring of light into the viewer's attention. Some implementations also add a subtle pulse animation on click events to further reinforce mouse interaction without requiring a separate click indicator layer.
In Limelight, cursor spotlight is activated with the shortcut ⌃⌥1 and renders as part of the recorded video frame rather than as a composited overlay in a player. This means the spotlight is permanently baked into the output — it looks identical whether the video is embedded in Notion, uploaded to Loom, or played in VLC. Pro users can adjust the spotlight color and size from preferences. Combined with auto-zoom, the cursor spotlight creates a layered attention system: zoom brings the viewer to the right region of the screen, while the spotlight pinpoints the exact cursor position within that region.
Why Limelight
- ▸Makes the cursor findable at a glance on large, dense screens without obscuring content.
- ▸Best results use a soft-edged, semi-transparent circle at 80–120 px and 40–60% opacity.
- ▸Limelight activates cursor spotlight with ⌃⌥1 and bakes it into the exported video frame.
- ▸Works alongside auto-zoom as a layered attention system — zoom for region, spotlight for exact cursor location.
Cursor spotlight free · from $2.99/mo or $34 lifetime · macOS 14+
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free to start, then go Pro from $2.99/mo or a $34 one-time lifetime license. macOS 14+, notarized by Apple.
FAQ
- How do I turn on cursor spotlight in Limelight?
- Press ⌃⌥1 (Control-Option-1) during a recording session to toggle cursor spotlight on or off. You can also set it as the default in Limelight's preferences so it is always active.
- Can I change the color and size of the cursor spotlight?
- Yes. Limelight Pro lets you adjust the spotlight color, diameter, and opacity in preferences so it matches your recording style or brand palette.
- Will cursor spotlight show up if I screen-share the video in a meeting?
- The cursor spotlight in a finished Limelight recording is baked into the video file, so it will appear during playback in any meeting platform, browser, or media player — no special viewer required.