Preview Quality controls the resolution at which ScreenKite renders frames in the editor's live preview. Lowering it reduces GPU work per frame so playback stays smooth on complex projects — without touching your export at all.
The control is a Quality button in the right cluster of the preview toolbar, identifiable by the speedometer icon.
Preview toolbar right cluster showing the Quality button in its default High state (speedometer icon, no suffix)
What Is Preview Quality?
When ScreenKite plays back your project it composites each frame onto a Metal drawable. By default that drawable matches the full canvas resolution (High, 100%). Lower tiers shrink the drawable before compositing; Core Animation then upscales the result to fill the preview area, so the view stays the same physical size on screen — only the number of pixels rendered changes.
Because pixel throughput scales with the square of the resolution multiplier, dropping to Low (50%) cuts rendered pixels to roughly a quarter of the High workload.
Choosing a Tier
| Tier | Resolution | Use case |
|---|---|---|
| High | 100% | Default. Full fidelity — best for final review or still-frame inspection. |
| Balanced | 66% | Smoother playback on mid-range Macs or projects with many overlapping effects. |
| Low | 50% | Smoothest playback on heavy projects with many layers, blur masks, or camera layouts. |
How to Change Preview Quality
- Open a project in the Project Editor.
- Click the Quality button (speedometer icon) in the right cluster of the preview toolbar.
- Select High, Balanced, or Low from the dropdown.
The button label updates to show the tier name as a suffix whenever you are not on the default (High). For example, selecting Balanced shows Quality · Balanced. Selecting High again removes the suffix.
Effect on Export
Preview Quality has no effect on your exported video. Resolution and quality at export time are controlled separately by your canvas size and the options in the Export Settings dialog.
Your chosen tier is stored in UserDefaults under the key editor.previewQuality and applies globally across all projects and launches.