How to read a script while looking at the camera on a MacBook

To read a script and still look at the camera, the words have to sit as close to the lens as you can get them. On a MacBook the camera is in the middle of the top edge of the screen, in the notch on the ones that have it. Read from a window halfway down the screen and your eyes drop; read from just under the notch and they barely move.

A notch teleprompter does exactly that. In Koi 2.0, open the notch's Tools, pick Teleprompter, paste your script and press Start: it rolls right under the camera, following your voice as you read.

We make Koi, so read this with that in mind. The tips here work with any app, or with none.

• Make a narrow window. Paste your script into Notes or TextEdit, make the text big, and drag a thin window right up under the camera.
• Use short lines. Five or six words a line keeps your eyes in one spot instead of sweeping left to right.
• Sit back a little. The further you are from the screen, the less a small eye movement shows.
• Use bullet points, not sentences, for anything you know well. You'll glance down less and sound less read.
• Record a ten second test and watch it. You'll see straight away where your eyes go.

The catch with a window: you scroll it yourself, and if you share your screen on a call, everyone sees it. That's where a teleprompter app earns its place.

1. Hover the notch at the top of your screen, open Koi's Tools and pick Teleprompter.
2. Paste or type your script. Koi keeps the last one you used.
3. Pick how it's paced: following your voice, or a steady speed from 60 to 260 words a minute.
4. Press Start. The notch grows down into a black panel under the camera, with soft fades top and bottom and the line you're on brightest.
5. Read. Space pauses, the arrows or your trackpad go back and on, + and − change the speed (or the text size while it follows your voice), and Esc ends it.

Following your voice, Koi hears you on the Mac and keeps your line at the reading spot. Speed up, slow down or stop to think, and it waits; a skipped sentence or a word said twice doesn't throw it. Nothing heard is kept, and neither the sound nor the script leaves your Mac. On a Mac without a notch, Koi draws a small one of its own at the top of the screen, under the camera all the same.

Under the pointer, or while it's paused, a small strip shows play or pause, the speed, the text size, mirror (for a teleprompter glass) and close. While it's on, the notch is hidden from screen capture, so apps like Zoom, Meet and Teams leave it out of what they share or record.

• Write the way you speak. Read your script out loud once and fix every line that trips you.
• Mark the pauses with a line break, not a comma.
• Let the voice follow set the pace, so you're never chasing the text or waiting for it.
• Smile on the first line. It changes how the rest sounds.
• Do one take for the words and one for the energy. Keep the second.

The same setup works for a pitch on Zoom, a YouTube video, a course, or a presentation you'd rather not forget halfway through. For calls, see how to use a teleprompter on Zoom without anyone seeing. For videos, see how to use a teleprompter for YouTube on a Mac.

Koi has no free plan and no free trial: Pro is $20 a month, or $7 for a first week, and Lifetime is paid once. If you only need a teleprompter, there are free ones in the best teleprompter apps for Mac.