The canvas changes, the recording does not
Shape is an export decision, so one take leaves as 16:9 for YouTube and again as 9:16 for Shorts without recording the demo a second time.
Vertical video
One landscape take, reframed for a vertical feed.
A 9:16, 4:5 or 1:1 canvas that fills with your recording and follows what you are doing, so the action stays inside a frame the shape of a phone.
The problem
Your monitor is wide and the feed is tall. Drop an ordinary capture into Shorts, Reels or TikTok and it lands as a letterboxed strip across the middle of the phone, with interface text nobody can read and two black bars doing the rest.
What happens instead
macOS has no vertical recording mode and you do not need one. Record the screen as it is, then pick where the video is going: the canvas changes shape, a tall canvas fills instead of shrinking, and the framing follows the clicks and drags recorded during the take while the crop stays inside the picture you captured.
In detail
What vertical video actually does
Fills the frame, follows the work
A tall canvas fills rather than fits, and the crop follows the clicks, drags and scrolls recorded during the take — held inside the captured picture, so nothing slides off the edge.
The shapes people actually post
9:16 for Shorts, Reels and TikTok, 4:5 for the Instagram feed, 1:1 for square placements, and 3:4 or a ratio of your own when something else needs it.
Everything else comes with it
Smart Zoom, the camera bubble, the background and the cursor are all drawn into the vertical frame, so what you get is a finished video rather than a cropped one.
Specifications
The short version
- Canvases
- 9:16, 4:5, 1:1, 3:4, custom
- Destinations
- Shorts, Reels, TikTok, Instagram feed, Square
- Framing
- Fills the canvas, following the recorded interaction
- Crop
- Held inside the picture you captured
- Decided
- At export, not at record time
- File
- H.264 MP4, up to 4K at 30 or 60 FPS
FAQ
Questions about vertical video
Can I record a vertical video on a Mac?
Not as a capture mode — macOS records the screen in the shape the screen is. ReScreen does it the other way round: record the display, the window or a region you draw, then set a 9:16 canvas at export and let the framing follow what you did during the take.
Do I have to record the demo twice to post it landscape and vertical?
No. Canvas ratio and framing belong to the project, not to the recording, so the same take exports as 16:9 for YouTube and 9:16 for Shorts, Reels or TikTok. Only the export runs again.
How does it decide what stays in the vertical frame?
From the interaction recorded with the take. Clicks, drags and scrolls tell the framing where the work is happening, and the crop moves with them while staying inside the captured picture, so the part you are demonstrating stays on screen.
Keep reading
The parts that work with it
Canvas & backgrounds
Padding, rounded corners, a shadow and a background that belongs to your brand — set once, rendered at export.
Read moreExport
Up to 4K at 30 or 60 FPS, MP4 or MOV, H.264 or HEVC — plus a playable MP4 written the moment you stop.
Read moreSmart Zoom
ReScreen watches where you click, drag and scroll, then pans and zooms the way an editor would — while you are still recording.
Read moreFrom the blog
Guides that use vertical video
Record the next one properly
Install it, hit ⌥⌘R, and watch a take that would normally cost you an evening in a timeline come out finished.
macOS 13 Ventura or later · Apple Silicon and Intel