Until a few weeks ago, there were basically two programs that could be used to do a screencast on a Mac: Snapz Pro X from Ambrosia Software and iShowU from shinywhitebox. Now there’s a third and it takes the genre to a completely new level.
Screenflow bills itself as the “Professional Screencasting Studio” and based on the hour or so I’ve spent with the program I completely agree. As you’ll see from the demo screencast featured prominently on the product site (http://www.varasoftware.com/products/screenflow/), it works pretty much like iMovie (pre iLife ’08) and offers a number of new features that I haven’t seen in a screen capture program for any platform (yes, Camtasia users are going to be jealous).
One feature I really like is the way Screenflow will record not only your screen and an accompanying audio track, but also a video track from your webcam or iSight so you can personalize the delivery. As you’ll see in the demo, you have incredible control over the finished screencast in post-production (come to think of it, the idea of post-production is also something of a new concept for screencasting).
Some might consider the license fee expensive ($84.99 for educational affiliates, $99.00 for everyone else) but I assume if you really count on screencasting to do your job, the price to get a tool of this caliber, well, it’s a bargain.
Note: Screenflow requires Mac OS X Leopard and a Quartz Extreme capable graphics card.