Wayscriber Docs
Wayscriber is a Wayland screen annotation tool for drawing on top of your desktop during demos, teaching, and screen shares.
These docs track the latest source. If you need an older version, use the GitHub release notes.
Start here
What you can do
- Draw on top of any screen
- Switch between named boards with custom backgrounds (transparent, whiteboard, blackboard, and more)
- Pan solid boards with Space+drag and reset them from the right-click menu
- Jump between boards with the picker and quick slots
- Use board pages for multi-step walkthroughs
- Zoom in/out, pan, and reset the view during callouts
- Draw while zoomed to highlight fine details
- Pick a drawing color from the displayed desktop with the screen eyedropper and magnified pixel loupe
- Keep separate named session files and manage them from the overlay or configurator
- Create multi-line text and sticky notes
- Drop numbered step markers and auto-numbered arrows
- Paste copied PNG/JPEG images as movable canvas objects
- Save full per-tool preset profiles for instant switching
- Apply or create preset profiles from the top strip’s presets island
- Undo/redo quickly and clear the canvas in one keypress
- Capture screenshots to file or clipboard
- Presenter helpers: freeze the screen, presenter mode, click highlights, an on-screen input HUD for keystrokes and clicks, and layer-shell light passthrough
- Select/move shapes with Alt-drag or V, copy/paste from the context menu, then edit in the properties panel
- Configure drag tools globally or per mouse button
- Use the icon-led command palette to search actions, edit shortcuts, and reopen persisted recent commands, including Save Preset 1–5
- Click the chip HUD to open boards/pages, colors, tools, or searchable Help
- Open Canvas… from the top-strip overflow for boards, pages, advanced history, zoom, and Step Undo/Redo controls
- Adjust zoom from the persistent bottom-right percentage chip
- Use the contextual style pill instead of keeping a permanent side panel open
- Save and restore sessions across runs
- Configure everything with the GUI or the config file
Requirements
- A Wayland session. X11 is not supported.
- Known-good layer-shell compositors: Hyprland, Sway, River, Wayfire, Niri/COSMIC, and KDE Plasma/KWin.
- GNOME is supported through the xdg-shell/portal fallback, with limits: light passthrough is unavailable and fullscreen/input behavior can vary.
- Runtime libraries are installed by the DEB/RPM/AUR/Nix packages. You only need to install Cairo, Pango, Wayland, and libxkbcommon development packages yourself when building from source or using the tarball.