Limelight
What is an Interactive Whiteboard?
An interactive whiteboard is a touch- or pen-controlled surface or app for drawing, writing, and arranging content collaboratively in real time.
An interactive whiteboard is a shared canvas that responds to touch, pen, or mouse input. It can be a physical large-format touchscreen mounted in a classroom or boardroom, or a software canvas that participants edit together over the internet. Users sketch, type, drop images, and move objects, and everyone sees the changes live.
An interactive whiteboard differs from a passive whiteboard or a slide, which present fixed content, and from a simple annotation overlay, which draws on top of existing apps rather than offering its own infinite canvas. The defining traits are interactivity and, often, multi-user collaboration.
In teaching, presenting, and remote meetings, interactive whiteboards support brainstorming and explanation where ideas evolve in front of the group. They are full applications or hardware systems. Limelight is narrower and complementary: a macOS overlay that lets you draw (⌃⌥3) and place text (⌃⌥5) directly on top of any app on your own screen, without a separate canvas, accounts, or collaboration features.
Why Limelight
- ▸Accepts touch, pen, or mouse input on a shared canvas
- ▸Exists as physical large-format displays and as online apps
- ▸Often supports real-time multi-user collaboration
- ▸Different from overlay annotation, which draws over existing apps
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FAQ
- Is an interactive whiteboard the same as a smart board?
- Smart board is a common name, originally a brand, for a physical interactive whiteboard display. The term now loosely covers similar touch-driven boards.
- Can Limelight replace an interactive whiteboard?
- Not fully. Limelight lets you draw and add text over your live screen on macOS, but it has no shared canvas or multi-user collaboration.