A new elementary-style screencasting tool is seeking wider testing.
Eidete, which is in heavy development, makes use of elementary project technologies like Granite and Contractor. The result is an application that’s simple, featured and a snap to use.
Amongst Eidete’s features are: –
- Record whole screen or part of screen
- Choose which monitor to record
- Show key presses on screen
- GStramer backend
- Uses .WebM format
- Options to save video as file, send in e-mail, burn to disc or upload to Videobin
Like Kazam, and GNOME-Shell’s built in screenrecording tool, Eidete uses GStreamer as its backend. This means that whilst captures with Eidete are of an acceptable quality they suffer from the same lag and dropped-frames of Kazam-recorded videos.
Resulting files are saved in the ‘WebM’ format. Quality of the screencapture is slightly lower than that outputted by ffmpeg-based tools (such as RecordMyDesktop), but the result is a file that’s web-friendly.
Design
The current look of the application is not representative of what the ‘finished’ release will look like. Various details of the design are still being tweaked, but as you can see in the mock-up below, the intention is to create something minimal and easy-to-use.
I’m also told that many design features, such as a better key view, proper pause icons, etc., are yet to be implemented – so be sure to keep this in mind when trying Eidete out.
In Development
The biggest caveat to be aware of being jumping head-first into installing is that Eidete is in development. So expect it to be buggier than a 5 day expedition through the Amazon whilst coated in an ant’s favourite food.
With the disclaimers done with let’s move on to how you go about installing the app.
A Daily Builds PPA for Eidete provides packages for Ubuntu 11.10 and 12.04. This is a standalone PPA that contains everything you’ll need to use the application.
Anyone wishing to help translate the application can do so @ translations.launchpad.net/eidete
Bugs should be reported @ bugs.launchpad.net/eidete
Thanks to shnatsel