Overview

Kazam is a simple yet powerful screen recording application for Linux that allows you to capture your desktop, a specific window, or a selected area. After a quiet period following development stalling in 2014, Kazam returned with version 2.0, adding impressive new features including OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to extract text from screen recordings, live broadcasting support for platforms like Twitch and YouTube, and webcam recording with draggable positioning. It supports recording both screen content and audio simultaneously from any PulseAudio-supported device, making it ideal for creating tutorials, demonstrations, and presentations.

Key Features

• Multiple Recording Modes: Record full screen, specific windows, or custom-selected areas
• OCR Support: Extract text from screen recordings using optical character recognition
• Live Broadcasting: Stream directly to Twitch, YouTube, and other platforms
• Webcam Overlay: Record with draggable, resizable webcam picture-in-picture
• Audio Capture: Record system audio and microphone simultaneously from PulseAudio devices

Why Use It

Kazam strikes an excellent balance between simplicity and functionality. It is easier to use than OBS Studio for quick recordings while offering more features than basic screenshot tools. The addition of OCR and live broadcasting in version 2.0 makes it competitive with paid alternatives.

Use Cases

• Creating tutorials: Record step-by-step software tutorials with audio narration
• Live streaming: Broadcast coding sessions or presentations to Twitch or YouTube
• Bug reporting: Capture and share video demonstrations of software issues
• Educational content: Record lessons with OCR-extracted text for searchable transcripts

Platform

Linux (Xorg recommended)

Licence

GNU General Public License v2.0

Website

github.com/hzbd/kazam