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I am looking for a program that will allow me to draw anywhere (in any program/on the desktop, etc.) with my mouse on the screen.

The program should:

  • be free
  • allow me to select colors
  • be lightweight (installer can be on USB and I can install anywhere)
  • run on Windows XP - Windows 7 (definately Win 7)
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  • would you please exapand to ubuntu too! To see answers for both windows and ubuntu – Mohammad Reza Rezwani Jul 24 '14 at 6:26
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    You could ask a seperate question for ubuntu if you really wanted one. Platforms are important here. – Journeyman Geek Jul 24 '14 at 7:48
  • @ṧнʊß ok Can I copy past yours ;) :D and just replace ubuntu? your question exactly what I am looking for. – Mohammad Reza Rezwani Jul 24 '14 at 8:33
  • @lion Then I might as well make it ;) :P It will be useful for me on Ubuntu as well (although I don't use it unless I need to - I'm a Windows/OSX guy ;) – ᔕᖺᘎᕊ Jul 24 '14 at 8:44
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    @lion Here you go: softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/questions/10111/… – ᔕᖺᘎᕊ Jul 24 '14 at 8:45
13

I'm fond of zoomit by Microsoft Sysinternals. It lets you draw, type or zoom into a screen, is keystroke controlled (so it dosesn't get in your way in a presentation) and supports multiple colours. As such, its perfect for when you need to give a presentation and need to unobtrusively annotate the screen you're working on. It's freeware, portable (almost all Sysinternals software doesn't need an install), tiny (297kb), and takes up less than 2mb of memory running.

It officially works on windows XP or better and I've tested it (and created this screencast) on windows 7 64bit.

ZoomIt UI

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  • Those are a lot of instructions! ;) I'll look at it when I'm on my Windows computer, but thanks. +1 to you and Franck anyways! – ᔕᖺᘎᕊ Jul 24 '14 at 8:48
  • I found a similar tool called DemoHelper - also free, also less than 2 MB running. I picked this over ZoomIt for two reasons: (1) lines drawn with the mouse look nicer to me, I think it smoothens the mouse input slightly, and (2) I can toggle the marker off, so when I'm recording a screencast (in OBS with mouse capture off) the viewer won't see the marker, only what I'm drawing. – mindplay.dk Apr 17 '17 at 9:29
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    Post an answer, not a comment ._. – Journeyman Geek Apr 17 '17 at 9:32
10

You can use Epic Pen:

  • Free and open source
  • Windows XP and later
  • lightweight: 2 MB
  • draw anywhere on the screen
  • can select color:

Epic Pen UI

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5

You can use ScreenMarker:

  • Free and portable
  • Windows XP and later (does not clear the screen properly on Windows 7 and later)
  • lightweight: 2 MB
  • draw anywhere on the screen
  • can select color:

ScreenMarker UI

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2

If you run Windows XP/7/10 as guest vm on Ubuntu host, there is an open source software Gromit-MPX. See Gromit-MPX for Thinkpad Yoga 12, and a short video on Desktop Annotation, Draw Anywhere on Screen

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