Limelight
What is a Highlight Box?
A highlight box is a drawn rectangle or outlined shape placed around a region of the screen to frame and emphasize the content inside it.
A highlight box is a visual marker, usually a bordered or shaded rectangle, drawn around a portion of the screen to call out exactly what a viewer should look at. By enclosing an element, it creates a clear boundary that separates the important content from everything around it.
A highlight box differs from a spotlight, which uses brightness and dimming rather than a hard edge, and from a magnifier, which enlarges content. It is closely related to a callout, though a callout often adds a label or arrow, while a highlight box is primarily the enclosing frame itself.
Highlight boxes fit demos, tutorials, and slide annotations where a presenter wants to box a button, field, or paragraph. Limelight, a macOS menu-bar app, lets you create this kind of emphasis freehand: its drawing tool (⌃⌥3) lets you sketch a box or shape around anything on screen, clear it with ⌃⌥C, all over any app and captured by any recorder.
Why Limelight
- ▸A drawn rectangle or shape that frames content to emphasize it
- ▸Uses a hard edge, unlike a spotlights soft glow
- ▸Related to callouts, which add labels or arrows
- ▸Limelight lets you draw a highlight box freehand via ⌃⌥3
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FAQ
- How is a highlight box different from a spotlight?
- A highlight box frames content with a drawn edge, while a spotlight emphasizes an area with brightness and dimming and no hard border.
- Can I draw a highlight box in Limelight?
- Yes. Use the freehand drawing tool with ⌃⌥3 to sketch a box around any region, then clear it with ⌃⌥C.