Frequently asked questions

Overlay Pen is an iPad app that turns iPad and Apple Pencil into a pen for live video. What you draw appears on top of your camera, slides or screen share in Ecamm Live, OBS Studio and, through their virtual camera, in Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet.

An iPad with iPadOS 17 or later and an Apple Pencil that works with it. For the wireless overlay you also need Ecamm Live (Mac) or OBS Studio (Mac, Windows or Linux) on the same network. Alternatively, connect by USB to a Mac or by HDMI to a capture card.

Yes, through Ecamm Live or OBS Studio. They combine your camera and the drawing and pass the picture to the meeting as a virtual camera. Overlay Pen does not plug into the meeting apps directly.

No. The wireless web overlay sends the drawing with real transparency. The green or blue background is only needed when you connect by USB or HDMI and key the colour out.

Not with the wireless overlay or the HDMI output: only the ink is sent. When the iPad screen itself is captured over USB, the palette slides away as you start drawing, and you can place the capture area so it sits outside the picture.

The overlay tells the iPad its exact pixel size, and the ink is rendered for it: 720p, 1080p or 4K. When you zoom into the board, the ink is rendered again at the new size.

The line you are drawing is sent up to 60 times a second over your local network, so it grows while you draw instead of appearing afterwards.

No. Overlay Pen draws only with Apple Pencil, so you can rest your hand on the screen. Fingers are for gestures: hold one finger to show the palette, pinch to zoom, tap with two fingers to undo and three to redo.

Yes. Open a video from the camera roll with the photo button. Drawing pauses it, the drawing stays while it plays, and scrubbing to another moment clears the board.

No account, no login and no cloud. The iPad and your computer only need to be on the same local network. Overlay Pen collects no data.