Why I Built Spotmark: A Screen Marker That Doesn't Eat Your RAM
Why I Built Spotmark: A Screen Marker That Doesn’t Eat Your RAM
Hi there, I’m the developer behind CatalystPack Studio.
Have you ever been in this situation? You’re sharing your screen via Zoom or Teams to present a plan, or explaining a complex piece of code to a colleague. You keep moving your mouse around and saying: “Look at the top right corner here…”, “This line of code, number 45…”.
And then… no one can keep track of your tiny mouse cursor. You end up struggling to describe the location with words. I’ve been quite awkward in situations like this.
That’s when I realized: We need a tool to “speak” visually right on the screen.
The frustration with existing tools
My initial idea was simple: Find a tool that can draw circles, arrows, and highlight (Spotlight) the screen.
But when I downloaded and tried the available software on the market, I ran into another pain point:
- Too heavy and eats RAM: Most new apps today are built using web technologies (like Electron). Creating a transparent window covering the entire Desktop using web tech causes CPU and RAM spikes. When I’m running an IDE (VS Code) and recording my screen, my computer starts to lag.
- High Latency: Drawing a curved line on the screen feels very “stiff” and jagged.
- Outdated UI: The lighter tools (written 10 years ago) have extremely outdated user interfaces, looking like software from the Windows 98 era.
As someone who loves minimalism and smoothness, I couldn’t accept installing a piece of software just to draw on the screen that forces my computer to sacrifice hundreds of MBs of RAM.
The birth of Spotmark: Restoring smoothness to your presentations
That’s why I started building Spotmark myself.
From the very beginning, the ultimate goal of the project was: It must be extremely lightweight, and it must never slow down the user’s computer.
Instead of using popular web/Electron-based frameworks, I decided to pivot to using Native (C++/Qt) technology. Although setting up and configuring a Native environment takes more time (especially when dealing with OS-level drawing APIs), the resulting performance is absolutely worth it.
With Spotmark, you get:
- Liquid Drawing: Pen strokes drawn over any application window with extremely high FPS and zero latency.
- Spotlight Focus: Dims the rest of the screen, leaving only a spotlight following your cursor – perfect for grabbing your audience’s attention.
- Zero-lag: Consumes very few resources. You can have dozens of Chrome tabs open and render a video, and Spotmark will still run smoothly in the background.
This is just the beginning (v0.4.5 Beta)
Currently, I’m officially releasing the Spotmark v0.4.5 Beta exclusively for Windows.
Because it’s a Native app, each operating system has its own specific technical challenges (like ARM architecture on macOS, or Wayland/X11 environments on Linux). But don’t worry, the macOS and Linux versions are actively being developed by our team and will be released soon.
Additionally, a major feature, Screen Recording, is also being polished and tested internally, promising to deliver the smoothest “Record & Draw” combo you’ve ever experienced.
Ready to upgrade your presentations?
If you’re on Windows, don’t hesitate to download the Beta and experience the difference.
Download Spotmark v0.4.5 Beta (Windows) here →
If you are using macOS or Linux, leave your Email to become one of the first Early Adopters to try it as soon as the Native versions are complete!
Developed with a focus on optimal performance. ☕