Cue — a teleprompter only you can see

Watch a real session

Thirty-four seconds, start to finish: paste a script, match your pace, present, and pick it back up from any app.

One session in Cue, recorded as it happens: the cursor does everything you would.

The newsroom trick, minus the rig

Television presenters have read from a prompter on the camera since the 1950s. It is why they look straight at you. Cue does the same job with one quiet window under your webcam.

A man in a patterned shirt feeds a long paper roll of typed script into a camera-mounted teleprompter — Loading the script roll into a teleprompter at WCCO-TV, 1976.

A studio camera fitted with a teleprompter hood and a script monitor — A studio prompter: a monitor and a sheet of glass in front of the lens.

A grey 1950 EMI Emitron television camera head with a large number 2 on its side — EMI Emitron camera head, 1950. Your webcam is its grandchild.

You see your script.

Flip the switch to share your screen. Cue keeps its window out of screen capture, so the call and the recording get your slides, never your script.

Hidden in Zoom screen shares
Hidden in Loom recordings

Three steps to go live

First, paste your script.

Your script

0:13Scroll time

0:13Spoken at 150 wpm

33 words · matches your pace

Then, set your pace in words per minute.

Scroll speed Natural · ≈150 wpm

Finally, press ⌘↩ and look up.

⌘↩ Start Prompter

Every setting, before you start

Honest timingScroll time next to speaking time, and one click to match them.
Text size that keeps paceBigger text scrolls faster, so your words per minute stay the same.
Shortcuts from any appHold ⌥ Option: ⌥Space pauses even while Zoom or Keynote is in front.

Preview

Hi everyone, and thanksfor joining.

Timing

0:26Scroll time

0:26Spoken

65 words · Matches your pace

Scroll speedNatural · ≈148 wpm

Text size32 pt

CountdownOff3s5s

Start Prompter ⌘↩ Start ⌥Space Pause ⌘W Close

PreviewWatch the scroll at your real speed and size before you go live.
Speed in wpmSet the pace in words per minute, the way you think about talking.
CountdownThree or five seconds to settle before the first line moves.

Questions

A tablet teleprompter: the script on a screen below is reflected, mirrored, in angled glass above — A beam-splitter prompter shows the script mirrored. Cue's Mirror setting is for rigs like this.

Is it really invisible when I share my screen or record?

In Zoom and Loom, yes. We shared the whole screen in Zoom and recorded it with Loom, and Cue appeared in neither. It works because Cue asks macOS to leave its window out of screen capture. Each app still decides how it captures, and macOS 15 and later changed how capture works, so Meet, Teams and newer macOS versions haven't been confirmed yet. Before an important talk, do a ten-second test; if Cue ever shows up, share a single window instead of the whole screen.

Can I control it without clicking on it?

Yes. Hold Option (⌥) and use the same keys as in the prompter: ⌥Space pauses, ⌥↑ and ⌥↓ change speed, and ⌥← jumps back. They work while Zoom, Meet or Keynote is in front, with no extra permissions. If Raycast or Alfred already uses ⌥Space on your Mac, switch pausing to ⌃⌥Space under More in the dashboard.

What if I lose my place?

Scroll on your trackpad to drag the script back, or press ⌥← from any app. Pressing R jumps to the top, and pressing it again within four seconds takes you back to where you were.

Which Macs does it run on?

Any Mac with macOS 14 Sonoma or newer, Apple Silicon or Intel. The download is a 434 KB zip.

Why does macOS warn me when I first open it?

Cue isn't notarized by Apple yet, and macOS checks every app downloaded through a browser. Installing with the Terminal command skips that check, because files fetched by Terminal aren't marked as downloaded. With the zip, right-click Cue and choose Open the first time on macOS 14, or use Open Anyway in System Settings, Privacy & Security on macOS 15 or newer.

Does my script leave my Mac?

No. Cue has no account and makes no network connections. Your script and settings are stored on your Mac.

What does Mirror do?

It flips the text for beam-splitter glass rigs, where the script is read in a reflection. With a webcam you can leave it off.

Is it free?

Yes. Download it, use it, keep it.

Look up.Read on.

Paste one line into Terminal and Cue lands in your Applications folder and opens, with no security prompt. Prefer a normal download? The zip is one tab over.

Install Cue

Open Terminal, paste this, press Return:

curl -fsSL https://YOUR-SITE/install.sh | bash

It downloads Cue, puts it in Applications and opens it. Nothing else is installed and no password is asked. Read the script.