SHARA with OBS Studio

Record the SHARA overlay with a Display Capture#

SHARA is a Windows overlay, so there is nothing to install inside OBS. Add one source and record.

1. Install and start SHARA. It runs in the background. Press Ctrl+Win+H if the halo is not showing.
2. Add a Display Capture source in OBS Studio. Select + under Sources, then choose Display Capture.
3. Name the source. Select OK.
4. Pick the monitor you draw on. Use the Display list. OBS allows only one Display Capture per display, so add a reference to it if you need it in more than one scene.
5. Keep Show Cursor ticked. This puts the mouse pointer in the video. Select OK.
6. Draw a stroke. Hold Ctrl+Space to open the Wheel. The ink appears in the OBS preview.

OBS’s Display Capture page describes this source as capturing “your entire monitor”, and lists Show Cursor as on by default.

Display Capture, not Window Capture#

OBS’s Window Capture page says that “only the selected window will be shown, even if there are other windows in front of it”. SHARA does not live inside any app: it puts a transparent layer on top of the screen. A Window Capture of your slides, browser or editor therefore leaves the halo and ink out, and a Display Capture of that monitor carries them. The one exception is the Broadcast window, which is built to be captured as a window.

Keep the Wheel and toolbar out of the recording#

The Wheel and the docked toolbar are visible to capture by default, so they appear in a Display Capture. Your ink stays visible either way.

1. Open SHARA Settings. Use the tray icon.
2. Select the Tutor tab. It is in the Settings sidebar.
3. Select Wheel display settings. The button is at the top right of the tab.
4. Set Recording to Hidden. You still see the Wheel and toolbar. The recording does not.

Hidden asks Windows to exclude these windows from capture. Availability depends on Windows and the recorder, and if Windows refuses, SHARA switches the setting back to Visible so it never claims protection it does not have. Check it in the test below.

Record a vertical 9:16 window with Broadcast#

For Shorts, Reels and TikTok, SHARA’s Broadcast magnifier mode builds a portrait window that follows your cursor. You capture that window in OBS instead of the whole display. Broadcast is part of the Magnifier: every Pro tool is free for your first 14 days, and after that Magnifier is part of Pro (free vs Pro).

1. Open the Magnifier tab. Open SHARA Settings, then select Magnifier.
2. Choose the Broadcast card. It sits beside Magnifier, Spotlight and Live Zoom.
3. Switch it on. Press Ctrl+Win+G. A window titled SHARA Broadcast Output appears in the bottom-right corner of the monitor your cursor is on, behind your other windows, and a glowing outline on that monitor shows the area it covers.
4. Add a Window Capture source in OBS. Select + under Sources, then choose Window Capture.
5. Pick the Broadcast window. Choose SHARA Broadcast Output under Window, then select OK. Capture only this window, not the whole display.
6. Size the source in your scene. The window follows your cursor around the monitor.

• Window size. SHARA picks the tallest of 1920, 1280, 960 or 640 px that fits the monitor, at 9:16. A 1080p monitor gives 540 × 960, a 1440p monitor 720 × 1280 and a 4K monitor 1080 × 1920.
• Camera Scale. The slider (0.5× to 2.0×) changes how much of the screen the window covers without resizing the OBS source.
• Capture Hardware Cursor. A toggle in the same panel draws your real mouse pointer into the window. If you see two pointers, turn off one of the two cursor options.

We have not confirmed that the halo and ink show inside the Broadcast window on every PC. Record 10 seconds first. If they are missing, record with a Display Capture instead and crop to 9:16 in your editor.

Check it with a 10-second test recording#

1. Record a short clip. Select Start Recording in OBS, click a few buttons, draw a Pen line and open the Wheel.
2. Stop and play it back. Select Stop Recording, then open the file.
3. Check the result. The halo follows the pointer, the click flashes, the ink is there, and the Wheel and toolbar are not (if you set Recording to Hidden).

SHARA also draws while you record: see draw tools, the cursor halo and SHARA for screen recording. New to recording? The tutorial video guide walks through the whole workflow.

Questions#

More in Works with: SHARA with Teams · SHARA with Discord · SHARA with Google Meet.