Drox Screen Studio

The Ultimate Desktop Annotation, Live Teaching & Synchronized Screen/Microphone Recording Suite for Windows

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💡 Overview

Drox Screen Studio is an ultra-fast, modern, GPU-accelerated desktop drawing and interactive presentation studio built specifically for educators, content creators, developers, and presenters. It supercharges online meetings and lecture delivery (Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, OBS Studio, YouTube tutorials) by letting you draw directly over any slide, code editor, browser, or active window with buttery-smooth 60 FPS rendering.

Unlike standard annotation tools that lock your mouse or require clunky third-party recorders, Drox includes a native, high-performance GDI screen and microphone audio recorder with pause/resume support, custom folder selection, and one-click mouse pass-through.

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✨ Key Features

🎬 1. Synchronized Screen & Microphone Recording

• High-Efficiency Capture: Captures desktop video at a steady 25-30 FPS using Windows GDI BitBlt with crisp cursor overlay.
• Microphone Audio Sync: Records audio simultaneously using sounddevice and muxes video + audio into standard H.264/AAC .mp4 using FFmpeg.
• Live Elapsed Timer: Pulsing recording badge and live timer (00:15, 02:45) on the floating toolbar.
• One-Click Mute Toggle: Dedicated 🎙️ button to mute/unmute your microphone in real-time.

⏸️ 2. Seamless Pause & ▶️ Resume Support

• Need to take a breath or find a slide? Press F8 or click ⏸️ PAUSE.
• The video capture and microphone stream pause instantly with accurate duration calculation.
• Press ▶️ RESUME to continue recording seamlessly without audio stutter or desync.

📁 3. Custom Recording Folder & Smart Explorer Integration

• Folder Management: Click the toolbar 📁 button to open a sleek context menu:
  • 📂 Open Recordings Folder: Opens Windows File Explorer straight into your active destination.
  • ⚙️ Change Recording Folder...: Select any custom directory or external drive via Windows folder picker.
• Persistent Memory: Your selected folder is automatically saved to settings.json and remembered across sessions.
• Auto-Highlight on Finish: When stopping a recording with F9 or ⏹️ STOP, Windows Explorer automatically opens with the newly generated video file selected and highlighted.

👆 4. Instant Mouse Pass-Through (F2 / Ctrl+Space)

• Never get stuck unable to advance PowerPoint slides or click links in a browser while annotating.
• Tap F2 or Right-Click anywhere to let mouse clicks pass directly through to underlying applications. Tap again to resume drawing instantly.

🎨 5. Complete Annotation & Smart Shapes Suite

• ✏️ Freehand Pen & 🖍️ Fluorescent Highlighter: Ultra-smooth anti-aliased strokes with variable thickness and color palette.
• 🔴 Fading Laser Pointer: Real-time cursor laser dot with fading trail that guides student attention without leaving permanent marks.
• 🔦 Audience Spotlight: Focuses attention on key formulas or code snippets by dimming the background and illuminating only a spotlight around your cursor (resizeable via Mouse Wheel).
• 📐 Smart Shapes: Arrows, Straight Lines, Rectangles, and Ellipses (C / O).
• 🔢 Auto-Increment Step Badges: Place clean numbered badges (1), (2), (3)... on diagrams for step-by-step walkthroughs.
• T In-Place Text Tool: Click and type clean notes directly on screen. Keyboard shortcuts are intelligently paused during typing so your text input is uninterrupted.

📄 6. Blackboard, Whiteboard & Math Grid Modes

• Instant one-click transformation into a Pure Whiteboard, Matte Dark Blackboard, or Math Grid / Graph Paper canvas.

📸 7. Instant Screenshot & Clipboard Copy (Ctrl+S)

• Grab the screen with annotations, automatically copy it to the Windows Clipboard, and save it to the screenshots/ directory with one keystroke.

🪟 8. Floating Draggable Glassmorphic Toolbar

• Dual-row compact control bar with acrylic blur effect.
• Fully draggable anywhere on screen.
• Minimizes into a discreet floating mini pill (─) to keep your presentation clean.

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⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action	Description
F9 / Ctrl + R	Start / Stop Recording	Toggles screen + mic recording to MP4
F8	Pause / Resume Recording	Pauses or resumes the ongoing recording
F2 / Ctrl + Space	Mouse Pass-Through	Interact with desktop/slides directly
P	Pen Tool	Freehand pen drawing
H	Highlighter Tool	Semi-transparent marker
L	Laser Pointer	Glowing laser dot with fading trail
S	Spotlight Tool	Dim screen and focus spotlight circle
A	Arrow Tool	Directional arrows
I	Line Tool	Straight lines
R	Rectangle Tool	Box frames
C or O	Circle / Ellipse	Circular callouts
B	Step Badge	Auto-incrementing step numbers (1, 2, 3...)
T	Text Tool	Click-to-type text annotation
E	Eraser	Erase annotation strokes
Ctrl + Z	Undo	Undo last annotation
Ctrl + Y	Redo	Redo previously undone annotation
Delete	Clear Canvas	Clear all drawings on current screen
Ctrl + S	Screenshot	Save image & copy to Clipboard
Mouse Wheel	Resize	Adjust brush stroke width or spotlight radius
Right Click	Quick Mouse Mode	Return to mouse interaction mode
Esc	Exit Draw Mode	Switch back to mouse pointer
Ctrl + Q / Alt + F4	Quit Application	Safely stop recording and exit

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🚀 Quickstart & Installation

Prerequisites

• Operating System: Windows 10 or Windows 11 (64-bit recommended)
• Python: Python 3.10, 3.11, or 3.12 installed (python.org)

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/AbdulMoizAns/drox.git
cd drox

2. Install Dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Launch Drox Screen Studio

Run via the provided launcher batch files or directly via Python:

python main.py

(Or double-click run.bat in the project folder).

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📦 Building Standalone Executable (.exe)

You can package Drox Screen Studio into a standalone Windows .exe using PyInstaller:

pip install pyinstaller
pyinstaller --noconfirm --onedir --windowed --icon "assets/icon.ico" --add-data "assets;assets" main.py --name "DroxScreenStudio"

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🏗️ Project Architecture

drox/
├── assets/
│   ├── icon.ico           # Windows multi-size application icon
│   ├── icon.png           # High-resolution app icon
│   └── logo.png           # Repository banner & showcase logo
├── canvas.py              # Fullscreen transparent drawing overlay, boards & stroke renderer
├── hotkeys.py             # System-wide keyboard hooks & typing-state detector (pynput)
├── models.py              # Geometric annotation primitives (Pen, Line, Arrow, Rect, Badge, Text)
├── recorder.py            # High-speed GDI BitBlt screen capture + audio recorder + FFmpeg muxer
├── toolbar.py             # Glassmorphic floating draggable control bar & context menus
├── main.py                # Main application lifecycle, settings persistence & signal orchestrator
├── settings.json          # Persistent user configurations (custom recording paths)
├── requirements.txt       # Project Python package dependencies
├── run.bat                # Windows quick launcher
└── README.md              # Documentation & guide

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🇵🇰 Roman Urdu Guide (اردو رہنمائی)

Drox Screen Studio ek high-performance screen annotation aur recording software hai jo online teachers, YouTube creators aur programmers ke liye design kiya gaya hai:

1. Screen + Mic Recording (F9): Screen ke sath aapka mic sound HD MP4 format mein record hota hai.
2. Pause / Resume (F8): Lecture ke dauran jab chahein recording pause karein aur dobara wahi se shuru karein.
3. Recording Folder (📁): Toolbar par folder icon par click karke aap apna recording folder change kar sakte hain ya direct khol sakte hain.
4. Mouse Pass-Through (F2): PowerPoint slides ya browser par click karne ke liye F2 dabayein, slides change karein aur foran wapas drawing shuru karein.
5. Smart Tools: Pen (P), Highlighter (H), Laser pointer (L), Spotlight (S), Step badges (B), aur Text typing (T).

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📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - feel free to use, modify, and distribute for personal, educational, or commercial projects.

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Crafted with ❤️ by Abdul Moiz Ansari