Lossless Recording
Recording your screen at full quality with no compression artifacts — producing larger files that preserve every pixel for editing.
Lossless recording captures your screen at full quality, applying no compression to the video during capture. The result is a file that preserves exactly what was displayed on screen — every pixel, every frame — without compression artifacts.
Why lossless matters
When you compress video (which most tools do during recording), the codec discards information it judges as less important — colour transitions between similar pixels, motion blur in fast-moving areas. For screen recordings with text, code, and UI elements, this compression is visible as blurriness around letter edges and pixel artifacts in small icons.
Recording lossless first, then compressing at export, gives you control over where quality is sacrificed. You make the quality decision at export (when you know the final destination: YouTube, Loom link, client delivery) rather than at capture (when you don’t yet know).
Which tools support lossless recording
| Tool | Lossless format | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| OBS Studio | Lossless MKV (UTVideo codec) | Best lossless option; files are large |
| Camtasia | CAMREC (proprietary lossless) | Converts to compressed MP4 at export |
| ScreenFlow | SFPROJ (proprietary project) | Non-destructive editing, lossless source |
| Loom | No | Always compressed during upload |
| ScreenPal | Limited | Depends on tier and settings |
Loom, Tella, and most async-share tools compress during recording because their workflow is optimised for speed. You record, you share, done. Lossless doesn’t fit that workflow — you can’t share a 4GB lossless file via link.
When you need lossless
- Post-production editing: if you’re trimming, zooming, and adding effects in Camtasia or DaVinci Resolve, a lossless source means your final export quality isn’t degraded by two rounds of compression.
- High-motion content: recording at 60fps with fast mouse movements or animations loses more quality per compression round than a slow-moving UI recording.
- Text-heavy recordings: code editors and documentation with small fonts show compression artifacts more than image-heavy content.
When lossless isn’t worth it
For async team communication — the Loom use case — lossless recording is unnecessary overhead. A 5-minute Loom at Loom’s compressed quality is perfectly watchable. Nobody needs to archive it. Nobody’s editing it. The link lives in Slack for two weeks and then is never watched again.
Lossless is a production-tool concern. Keep it in the production half of your two-tool stack.
Related terms
- Video compression — what happens after lossless capture
- Screen capture — the broader process this fits within
- Async video — where lossless isn’t required