How to export a screen recording with a transparent background

A screen recording with a transparent background is a video whose pixels outside your app window carry no colour at all, so you can lay it over your own footage, a brand background or a slide in a video editor. It needs two things most recorders skip: a background you can switch off, and a video format that stores transparency (an alpha channel).

Why most screen recordings can't be transparent

The formats people post, MP4 with H.264 and most WebM files, have no alpha channel. Export a "transparent" recording to them and the empty area comes out black. That is also why a browser-based recorder can't do it: the video encoders built into browsers reject transparency outright, so a browser can only give you a transparent still image.

The two formats that keep transparency

• MOV with ProRes 4444. The editing standard. Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve and After Effects all read its alpha channel. Files are large, roughly 2 to 3 GB per minute at 1080p, because ProRes keeps quality for editing rather than for streaming.
• WebM with VP9 alpha. Small enough for the web. Chrome, Edge and Firefox play it transparent, and OBS uses it as a transparent media source. Most desktop editors ignore WebM transparency, so use MOV for editing.

How to do it in Girato

1. Record in the Girato desktop app (Windows or Mac).
2. In Look, set the background to None. The preview shows a checkerboard where the transparency will be.
3. In Export, pick MOV · ProRes 4444 for an editor or WebM · VP9 for the web, then export. Your zooms, tilt, cursor effects and titles stay in the clip; your mic, music and sounds are included.
4. Drop the file on a track above your footage. Nothing else to key out.

Transparent video is part of Girato Pro in the desktop app. In the browser version the background exports on black, and a still frame (the camera button) still saves as a transparent PNG.

When it is worth it

• Branded explainers, where the product floats over your own animated background.
• Talking-head videos, with the app window placed beside the presenter.
• Live streams, playing a pre-recorded demo over the scene in OBS.
• Slides and docs, where a clean cut-out looks better than a boxed video.