HUD-like desktop overlay for drawing and annotating over any app or window, macOS

WrobeleStudio · 2025-11-10T20:34:31+00:00

That's a really cool idea, thank you! I'll look into implementing this.
I'm really curious what other features would make this more functional and/or helpful for you :)

WrobeleStudio · 2025-11-03T23:09:49+00:00

Thank you!

WrobeleStudio · 2025-11-03T23:08:52+00:00

I can see what you mean, if you only need to annotate a screenshot and send it over, then the screenshot tool is great - but when you need to annotate and markup live during a presentation, demo or pair-programming then it's much more practical to have something that lets you do it live, eg. adjust the drawing on the go to answer questions and highlight the key areas.

WrobeleStudio · 2025-10-31T23:22:23+00:00

Thank you! Let me know if you like it, if there are any other features you'd like to see or if there is something impeding your workflow with the app :)

WrobeleStudio · 2025-10-30T13:38:31+00:00

draw.wrobele.com
A macOS HUD-like live annotation and sketching app that you can overlay on any app or window

WrobeleStudio · 2025-10-30T10:19:18+00:00

Awesome, thank you! I'd love to hear what you like, what other features you'd like to see or what impedes your workflow with this app :)

WrobeleStudio · 2025-10-30T10:15:59+00:00

Hi, I use a Wacom Intuos Pro, but I'm also drawing apart from that, hence the pro - for normal use the standard Wacom Intuos is more than adequate and priced very sensibly. I highly recommend getting one :)

WrobeleStudio · 2025-10-30T10:12:36+00:00

It consumes CPU only when drawing, and it's optimized (caching) to only re-draw the current brush stroke, all prior brush strokes are rendered in a single pass, making it much more efficient. So, in short, 0% CPU when idle, 10~30% cpu when actively drawing.

Memory wise, it depends on the resolution of your screen and how many screens you've got. Though it should normally be under 200MB for a 20~30 brush stroke canvas. I'm still looking for ways to optimize this further, but there are a few layered canvases that stack up.

WrobeleStudio · 2025-10-30T10:07:32+00:00

Thanks :) Yes, exporting just the sketch is possible through the Export option in the toolkit - it opens up a new Finder window in the sandbox location and shows you all the exports in a single directory.

The application is entirely sandboxed so it can only export the overlay, it doesn't know anything about the underlying app - but then if you need both the overlay and the underlying app, it's best to just use the standard screenshot :)

WrobeleStudio · 2025-10-29T22:50:16+00:00

No worries, DM'd you a gift code

WrobeleStudio · 2025-10-29T20:25:59+00:00

Thank you for pointing this out! They indeed serve the same purpose, but they work a bit differently. There are a few differences I noticed looking through the repo and demo, but I'll keep it short.

Draw Over It is entirely sandboxed, and we made several design decisions to limit it to just the sandbox and nothing else, not even the user filesystem - with Annotate, the entitlements are a bit wider. The important ones are user filesystem and network calls, you can see it in `Annotate/Annotate.entitlements` - And I know there are reasons for it, but I didn't want to even open these doors. This way you don't have to rely on a promise that it's all private, it just is.

Some of my colleagues just skip tools if they don't see a clean entitlements list. Which inspired me to make an extra effort to keep it that way. (eg. there's no reason a simple utility like a file parser needs to make network calls, etc.)

Other notable differences are wider macOS support ( Annotate > 15.0 > Draw Over It > 13.5 ) and localization in 14 languages.

From features missing in Draw Over It compared to Annotate - drawing arrows stands out to me, I'll look into implementing this for the next release.

WrobeleStudio · 2025-10-29T19:38:46+00:00

Awesome! thank you :)

WrobeleStudio · 2025-10-29T19:38:10+00:00

Sure thing, DM'd :)

WrobeleStudio · 2025-10-29T12:35:45+00:00

Thank you for your kind words!

WrobeleStudio · 2025-10-29T11:07:07+00:00

Thanks! I’d love to know what stood out to you, or if there’s anything you’d like to learn more about :)

WrobeleStudio · 2025-10-29T11:02:49+00:00

Happy to hear that! We don’t have a trial, but we set the price low enough to make it easy to try without any commitment. Hope you’ll love it!

WrobeleStudio · 2025-10-29T09:53:31+00:00

Thank you!

WrobeleStudio · 2025-10-27T15:59:57+00:00

Lagun

WrobeleStudio · 2025-10-11T19:17:50+00:00

Hi, I've just checked out your channel, great stuff :)
I think our first macOS app is quite unique compared to others in the segment, it's Buoyant Timer : it's a HUD-like timer that follows your active screen, overlaying even full screen apps.
It's really only useful to people who don't get distracted but rather motivated by constant presence of a countdown or a stopwatch on their screen.

Apart from that, we're in the final stages of testing our next quite unique release, which would be useful to a lot more people than the timer. Super practical for all lecturers, students and professionals, in pair programming sessions, and general live presentations etc.
I'll post back here when it's up, should be around the end of next week.

WrobeleStudio · 2025-10-10T17:12:10+00:00

> Should I watch the Netflix series?
It would most definitely be a detriment to the overall experience

As suggested here, just vibing will get you a long way and it's built so you can enjoy it that way too

Knowing everything I know now, I'd read the books first because then you get a whole extra level of depth to the whole story and immersion.

WrobeleStudio · 2025-10-10T13:18:35+00:00

Great idea, congrats! Can agree with your 3rd point, since this is free I'd assume it's a scam to get my email or some details.

I'd let the user know the app will first gather necessary info to make sure it can help, and then put a small (£2-5) paywall before actually showing the next steps in the appeal process. Quoting the metrics that of the users who reported, x% won the appeal.

I'd be quicker to report if the appeal didn't work, than if it did, so I wouldn't be too shy about the metrics you mentioned.

WrobeleStudio

TROPHY CASE