Telenotch

A macOS menu bar teleprompter app designed to live near the notch. Click the menu bar icon to reveal a floating panel with smooth auto-scrolling text.

Features

• Floating panel anchored below the menu bar / notch
• 60fps smooth auto-scroll with adjustable speed
• 5 color themes
• Mirror mode (for teleprompter glass setups)
• Edit mode — type or paste your script directly in the app
• Drag and drop .txt file import
• Keyboard shortcuts for hands-free control
• Persistent settings — speed, font size, theme, and script survive restarts
• No Dock icon — lives entirely in the menu bar

Screenshots

Coming soon

Requirements

• macOS 13.0 (Ventura) or later
• Xcode 15+ (for building from source)
• XcodeGen (only needed if regenerating the .xcodeproj)

Installation

Option A — Build from source

1. Clone the repo:

   git clone https://github.com/raajpatkar/telenotch.git
   cd telenotch

2. Open the project in Xcode:

   open Telenotch.xcodeproj

3. Select the Telenotch scheme, then press Cmd+R to build and run.

The app will appear in your menu bar. There is no Dock icon — this is intentional (LSUIElement=YES).

Option B — Command-line build

xcodebuild -project Telenotch.xcodeproj \
           -scheme Telenotch \
           build \
           CODE_SIGNING_REQUIRED=NO \
           CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY=""

Regenerating the Xcode project

If you edit project.yml (the XcodeGen spec), regenerate the .xcodeproj with:

xcodegen generate

Install XcodeGen via Homebrew if you don't have it:

brew install xcodegen

Usage

1. Click the text icon in the menu bar to open the panel.
2. Click Edit to enter your script, then click Done when ready.
3. Press Space or click Play to start scrolling.
4. Drag and drop a .txt file onto the panel to load a script.
5. Click the icon again (or press Esc) to close the panel.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Action
Space	Play / Pause
↑	Increase speed
↓	Decrease speed
R	Reset scroll to top
Esc	Close panel

Shortcuts are active whenever the panel is visible. They are disabled while in Edit mode so normal text input works.

Project Structure

File	Role
main.swift	NSApplication entry point
AppDelegate.swift	Status item, panel lifecycle, keyboard event monitor
TelenotchPanel.swift	NSPanel subclass — borderless, floating, always-on-top
PrompterState.swift	ObservableObject — all app state, 60fps timer, UserDefaults persistence
Theme.swift	enum Theme — 5 color themes
TeleprompterView.swift	Root SwiftUI view hosted in the panel
ControlBar.swift	Top control strip — buttons and sliders
ScrollingTextView.swift	Manual-offset scroll view with gradient fades and mirror support
Info.plist	Bundle config — LSUIElement=YES suppresses Dock icon
project.yml	XcodeGen spec

Architecture Notes

AppDelegate-first — no SwiftUI @main. main.swift boots NSApplication and sets AppDelegate as delegate.

PrompterState is the single source of truth. It owns the 60fps Timer, all @Published properties, and UserDefaults persistence. It is injected into all SwiftUI views as .environmentObject.

Scrolling is manual — no ScrollView. A Text view inside a .clipped() container uses .offset(y: -scrollOffset). A PreferenceKey (TextHeightKey) bubbles content height up from a GeometryReader so the max scroll offset can be computed correctly.

Keyboard shortcuts use NSEvent.addLocalMonitorForEvents(matching: .keyDown). The monitor is installed on panel show and removed on panel hide to avoid leaks.

License

MIT