How to Use a Teleprompter: A Beginner's Guide

That is the whole idea, and the rest of this guide is about doing it well the first time. It is the starting point of our video and speaking series: later guides go deeper on reading a script so it sounds natural, on words per minute and prompter speed, on what to check in a teleprompter app and on building a phone prompter yourself.

What a teleprompter does (and the glass version)

A teleprompter puts your words where your eyes already are. Instead of looking down at notes and back up, you read lines that sit at, or right next to, the camera lens, and the viewer sees someone talking to them.

The classic version is a camera rig. According to Wikipedia’s article on the teleprompter, a screen sits in front of and usually below the lens, and a sheet of clear glass or another beam splitter reflects the text to the presenter’s eyes. Light from the presenter passes through the glass into the lens, and a shroud blocks stray light so the camera does not record the text. Because the text is reflected, the screen shows it reversed. The same article says the first teleprompter was built in 1950 and that the device creates the illusion that the speaker has memorised the speech, while notes and cue cards make a speaker look away from the lens.

Today there are two broad kinds:

• Glass rig. A frame holds a piece of glass at an angle in front of the lens, with a screen (often a tablet or phone) below it. The text is mirrored so that it reads correctly in the reflection.
• Phone prompter app. The app scrolls your text on the phone’s own screen, and the camera records at the same time. There is no glass, so there is nothing to mirror. The skill is keeping the text near the lens.

Most beginners filming a talking-head video on a phone start with the second kind, and everything below applies to both.

What you need before you record

You need very little. A script, a phone or camera on something steady, light on your face, and a quiet room. A few other things help more than gadgets do:

• A script you wrote for the ear. Text meant for a page reads badly aloud. Short sentences, everyday words and one idea per line make a script easy to deliver.
• A fixed camera position. Prop the phone up so the lens is at eye level or slightly above. Moving it after you set the text size means setting everything again.
• A time limit that fits your tool. A single take on the free version of Cuelift runs up to 3 minutes. A long video works better in short takes anyway, which makes it easy to re-record one section.

Set it up in six steps

Follow these in order the first time. Each has a one-line reason, because the reason helps you adjust when your situation differs.

1. Write for the ear. Read each sentence aloud while you write it. If you run out of breath or trip over it, split it. The reason: your eyes forgive a long sentence, your voice does not.
2. Set the text size and margins. Make the text large enough to read at arm’s length without leaning in, with generous side margins so each line is short. The reason: leaning forward changes your posture, and long lines make your eyes sweep sideways.
3. Choose a pace. Start slower than feels necessary, then adjust after one rehearsal. The reason: a pace you can say clearly beats a pace that matches a number.
4. Decide whether to mirror. Turn mirroring on only if you are using a glass rig. The reason: a phone app already shows the text the right way round, and mirrored text on a plain screen is unreadable.
5. Use a countdown. A short countdown (Cuelift offers off, 3 or 5 seconds) gives you time to settle and find the first line. The reason: the first sentence is where beginners rush.
6. Record a short test, then the real take. Watch the test for eye line, pace and sound before you commit. The reason: it takes twenty seconds and saves a ruined session.

Settings to try first

None of these numbers is a rule. They are a first try; one rehearsal tells you more than any table.

Pacing and pauses

Pacing is the part most people underestimate. A prompter that scrolls too quickly makes you chase the text, and one that scrolls too slowly makes you wait for it and flattens your voice.

For a sense of scale, a large review of reading studies by Marc Brysbaert, published in 2019, put the average speed of English-reading adults reading silently at 238 words per minute for non-fiction and the average speed of reading aloud at 183 words per minute. You can read the abstract through the paper’s DOI. Two practical points follow. First, your speaking pace on camera is a different thing from your silent reading pace, so do not set the scroll by how fast you read in your head. Second, a script you are performing, with pauses for emphasis, can run slower than the average for reading aloud. Treat 183 as an upper reference rather than a target, begin lower, and adjust after you hear yourself.

A few habits that help:

• Mark pauses in the script. A line break or a blank line is enough. Breathe there.
• Pause the scroll when you need to. Cuelift lets you tap to pause or resume and drag to jump back or ahead, so a cough or a retake does not mean starting over.
• Slow down for numbers, names and the key sentence. Those are the lines viewers need to catch.
• Let the last word land. End each section with a short beat before the scroll moves on.

If you want to work out how long your script will run at a given pace, our guide to teleprompter speed in words per minute has a table you can use.

Mistakes beginners make

Most first-time users make a few of these, and one rehearsal fixes them.

• Reading a page, not a script. Long sentences with commas and brackets sound stiff when spoken. Rewrite them as you would say them to a friend.
• Text too small. You lean in, your head drops and your eyes squint. Enlarge it until you sit back naturally.
• Scrolling too fast. Racing the text makes you breathe shallowly and drop endings. Slow it down.
• Skipping the rehearsal. One read aloud finds the tongue-twisters, the long breaths and the places where the wording is awkward.
• Recording one long take. Short takes are easier to deliver and to fix.

If your delivery still sounds flat, the next guide in this series, on reading a script on camera without sounding stiff, covers it in detail.

Phone, tablet or camera-glass rig

Which kind should you use? It depends on the camera you film with and how much you want to carry.

A phone app is a sensible place to start, because you can try the whole routine in one sitting without buying anything. Cuelift is our own teleprompter app for video. It keeps the text in a reading window next to the camera lens, lets you mirror the text for a glass rig, records up to 1080p with no watermark, and works offline and without an account. Free takes run up to 3 minutes, and the optional Pro version lifts that limit. The Store page shows which platforms and stores it is available on.

If you later want a glass rig, mirroring is the only extra step. You can even build a phone teleprompter yourself before deciding whether to buy one.

Questions people ask

How do you use a teleprompter?

Follow the six steps above: write for the ear, set a large text size with wide margins, choose a pace you can say clearly, decide on mirroring, use a short countdown and record a test before the real take. Rehearse once out loud first. During the take, keep your eyes on the lines nearest the lens and pause the scroll when you need to.

Why is teleprompter text mirrored?

On a camera rig, the text is reflected off a sheet of glass, and a reflection flips it. The screen therefore shows the text reversed, so that it reads correctly once it bounces off the glass. If you use a phone app with the reading window beside the lens, the text is read directly and should not be mirrored.

Where is the best position for the text?

As close to the camera lens as you can place it. On a glass rig the text appears in front of the lens itself. In a phone app, a reading window beside or under the lens keeps your eyes near the camera, and short lines mean you hardly need to move them sideways. Keep the lens at about eye level so your head stays level too.

Can I use my phone as a teleprompter?

Yes. A prompter app scrolls the script on your phone while the camera records, and you set the speed, size and margins to suit you. Place the phone steady at eye level, and rehearse once. You can also put a phone or tablet in a glass rig, but in that case, mirror the text.

How can you tell if someone is using a teleprompter?

Often you cannot, and that is what it is for: the Wikipedia article says the device creates the illusion that the speaker has memorised the speech. Clues people mention are a steady gaze, an even pace and very few stumbles. None of them proves anything, because a well-rehearsed speaker can look exactly the same.

Before you hit record

Write for the ear, keep the text near the lens, start slower than you think you need, and rehearse once. After a few videos the routine becomes automatic, and your attention goes to what you are saying instead of where to look.