--- title: "A vertical tutorial layout: screen on top, presenter below" canonical: "https://blitzreels.com/changelog/tutorials-get-their-own-layout" --- # A vertical tutorial layout: screen on top, presenter below Milestone: 2026-05-26 Article published: 2026-09-26 Status: Product update Screen recordings with a presenter get a vertical layout: screen on top, camera below. Auto reframe picks it when clipping, and the CLI and API can request it. ![A landscape screen recording with the presenter on the left, next to the vertical clip BlitzReels made from it: the screen on top, the presenter below.](https://blitzreels.com/images/changelog/tutorials-get-their-own-layout.jpg) ## What’s new, exactly This is a clip layout. When you turn a landscape screen recording with your camera in it into a vertical clip, BlitzReels can stack two panels: the screen on top and the presenter below. Both stay in the frame for the whole clip. It doesn’t involve BlitzRecorder. BlitzRecorder is our separate recording app for Mac and iPhone. This layout works on the recording you bring to BlitzReels, whatever you made it with, as long as the screen and the presenter appear in the same video. ## Why tutorials need their own layout A tutorial has two subjects. The screen shows what you’re doing, and your face keeps people watching while you explain it. The usual vertical framings lose one of them: a speaker crop throws away the demo, and fitting the whole landscape frame into 9:16 leaves a small screen between two empty bands. Stacking gives each subject its own space. The screen gets the full width of the vertical frame, and you stay underneath, talking viewers through what’s on screen. ## How the layout gets chosen On May 2, 2026 the reframe analysis learned to recognize screen recordings, telling a screen on its own apart from a screen with a presenter’s camera. The planner got two tutorial layouts to match: screen focus when there’s no camera, and the screen-and-presenter stack when there is. On May 26 the stack also became something you can ask for directly through the CLI and API. In the clip flow you don’t pick anything. With Auto reframe on, BlitzReels analyzes the source, and when it recognizes a screen recording with a presenter, it uses the stack for those clips. If it finds no camera, it keeps the screen in focus. If it doesn’t see a screen recording at all, the clip gets the usual [auto reframe](https://blitzreels.com/changelog/reframing-that-moves-with-the-video) framing. ## How to make a tutorial clip From the dashboard: 1. Record your tutorial in landscape with your camera visible in the frame. 2. Click “Clip a long video”, then upload the file or paste its link. 3. Keep Auto reframe on and generate clips. 4. Watch each clip at phone size before you post. Small text in a code editor or a busy dashboard can still be hard to read. From the terminal or your own code: - blitzreels clips create with --content-type-hint tutorial tells clip creation to treat the source as a tutorial. - blitzreels media reframe apply with --content-type-hint tutorial --layout-strategy auto applies the tutorial framing to a video already in a project. That’s what we ran on November 1 on a real screen recording with a presenter: the analysis recognized a tutorial and the clip came back stacked. - The public API also takes tutorial_stack_ratio: screen_70_face_30, the default, or screen_50_face_50 to give the presenter more room. The [CLI documentation](https://blitzreels.com/docs/cli) covers setup and sign-in, and the [API documentation](https://blitzreels.com/docs) lists the options. ## Who it’s for, and the limits Software tutorials, coding walkthroughs, product demos and [course lessons](https://blitzreels.com/use-cases/course-lesson-clips) all fit. One long recorded lesson can become several vertical clips where viewers see both the screen and the teacher. - The source has to be landscape and the output vertical or square, like the rest of auto reframe. - The presenter has to appear in the recording. Without a camera, you get the screen-focus layout. - A dense screen stays dense. Zoom your interface or increase the font size before recording if the clips are meant for phones. If you still need to record, [BlitzRecorder](https://blitzreels.com/blitzrecorder), our open-source recorder for Mac and iPhone, captures your screen, microphone and camera into local files. ## Questions ### Is the tutorial layout part of BlitzRecorder? No. It’s a clip layout in BlitzReels that works on landscape recordings showing both your screen and your camera. BlitzRecorder is our separate open-source recorder for Mac and iPhone. ### Do I have to choose the tutorial layout myself? Not in the clip flow. With Auto reframe on, BlitzReels uses it when the analysis recognizes a screen recording with a presenter. Through the CLI or API you can also ask for it with the tutorial content type. ### Can I change how much space the screen gets? Through the public API, yes. The tutorial_stack_ratio option accepts screen_70_face_30, the default, or screen_50_face_50. ### What if my screen recording has no webcam? Then there’s no presenter to stack, and BlitzReels keeps the screen in focus instead. ### Will small text be readable on a phone? Not always. The screen gets the full width of the vertical frame, but a dense editor or dashboard can still look small, so check each clip at phone size and zoom your interface before recording. ## Turn a screen recording into vertical clips Upload a tutorial with your camera visible, keep Auto reframe on, and see how BlitzReels frames it. [Clip a tutorial](https://blitzreels.com/clipping) We wrote this story later, looking back at our product history. The date at the top marks the work described here; features and access may have changed since then.