Product Introduction

1. Focus Cursor is a macOS utility designed to enhance cursor visibility through dynamic highlighting and screen annotation tools. It provides real-time visual enhancements for cursor movements, clicks, and screen interactions, optimized for presentation scenarios. The tool operates at the system level without requiring third-party hardware or complex configurations.
2. The core value lies in improving information delivery effectiveness during visual demonstrations by reducing audience cognitive load. It solves the universal challenge of tracking small cursor movements on high-resolution displays through algorithmic visual amplification. The product transforms standard cursor operations into engaging visual events through customizable effects.

Main Features

1. The Cursor Follow feature utilizes a GPU-accelerated overlay to display persistent circular indicators around the pointer, with adjustable size and color parameters through JSON configuration files. These indicators maintain smooth animation at 60FPS across multiple monitor setups, automatically adapting to display resolution changes detected via macOS Core Graphics APIs.
2. Mouse Click Enhancement employs particle system animations triggered by NSEvent mouse-down detection, offering six preset effect types (including ripple and radial pulse) with customizable duration and color properties. The animation engine integrates with macOS Quartz Compositor to ensure zero input latency during visual feedback generation.
3. Screen Drawing Mode activates a low-latency vector drawing layer using Metal framework optimizations, supporting pressure-sensitive input from Apple Pencil or touchpad gestures. Users can toggle between temporary annotation (automatically fading after 5 seconds) and persistent markup layers, with all drawings stored as separate CALayer objects for individual manipulation.

Problems Solved

1. Addresses the visibility gap in digital presentations where standard cursor dimensions become inadequate on 4K/5K displays or large projection screens. The solution combines spatial amplification (cursor halo) with temporal emphasis (click animations) to create multiple visual tracking points, reducing viewer eye strain by 42% according to internal user testing metrics.
2. Primarily serves professional educators creating instructional content (e.g., Coursera instructors, YouTube tutorial creators) and enterprise users conducting software demos across sectors like SaaS onboarding and remote technical support. Secondary users include accessibility-focused individuals requiring enhanced pointer visibility under macOS accessibility guidelines.
3. Effective in multi-monitor webinar setups where presenters frequently switch between 27" 5K studio displays and 1080p screen sharing resolutions. The automatic scaling algorithm maintains consistent cursor prominence across different pixel densities, particularly valuable when demonstrating intricate UI interactions in design tools like Figma or Adobe XD.

Unique Advantages

1. Differentiates from basic cursor magnifiers through integrated presentation workflow tools, combining pointer enhancement with temporary screen annotation capabilities. Unlike separate screen drawing utilities, this tight integration allows simultaneous cursor highlighting and diagram annotation without application switching.
2. Implements a patented Mouse Mask system using Core Image filters to create dynamic vignette effects around the cursor, with adjustable opacity (10-90%) and radius (100-800px) parameters. This focus area isolation technique reduces peripheral visual clutter while maintaining context awareness, a feature absent in competing products.
3. Offers cross-platform consistency through shared configuration profiles between macOS and iOS versions (currently in TestFlight beta), particularly beneficial for users switching between desktop recording and iPad-based live demonstrations. The subscription model provides synchronized settings across devices through iCloud Keychain integration.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. What macOS versions are supported? Focus Cursor requires macOS Sonoma (14.0) or later due to dependencies on Metal 3 API optimizations and SwiftUI 5 framework components. The application is compiled as a universal binary supporting both Intel and Apple Silicon architectures.
2. Does the screen recording feature store any data? No user input or screen content is processed beyond temporary frame buffers required for visual effects rendering. All drawing annotations and cursor trails are ephemeral by design, with no disk writing or network transmission per the stated privacy policy.
3. How do in-app purchases affect functionality? The free version includes basic cursor highlighting with three color presets, while premium unlocks advanced features like custom animation curves, multi-layer screen annotations, and priority customer support. Subscription status is verified through StoreKit 2 receipts with offline fallback validation.
4. Can it handle multiple monitor configurations? Yes, the application dynamically tracks cursor position across up to six displays using CGDirectDisplayID references, automatically adjusting overlay positioning through NSScreen coordinate system conversions. Users can define per-display appearance profiles via the settings panel.
5. Is customization available for advanced users? Power users can access hidden configuration parameters by exporting preference plist files, enabling fine-tuning of animation physics (spring damping, velocity thresholds) and shader properties (halo gradient stops, blur kernel sizes). These settings can be modified using Xcode Property List Editor or third-party plist utilities.