screenoverlay 0.6.2

Cross-platform screen overlay with blur, black, white, and custom modes

🖥️ ScreenOverlay

Cross-platform Python library for creating instant fullscreen overlays with blur, solid colors, or custom effects.

Perfect for privacy screens, focus modes, screen recording, presentations, visual effects, and more.

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📖 Our Story

While developing ScreenStop - our advanced AI-powered phone screenshot detection system - we found ourselves constantly needing to blur or obscure our screens during development, testing, and demos. We needed something instant, lightweight, and cross-platform that didn't require screen recording permissions.

After trying various solutions and finding them too slow (>1 second latency), too complex, or requiring special permissions, we built our own. ScreenOverlay was born from this need - a <50ms overlay system that just works.

We're releasing it as open-source (MIT) because we believe privacy tools should be accessible to everyone. Whether you're protecting sensitive data during a video call, building focus apps, or just need a quick screen blackout - ScreenOverlay has you covered.

Want enterprise-grade screen protection? Check out our flagship product ScreenStop below.

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✨ Features

• 🎭 4 Overlay Modes - blur, black, white, custom colors
• ⚡ Ultra Fast - <50ms startup, native OS blur effects
• 🖥️ Multi-Monitor Support - Automatically blurs ALL screens simultaneously
• 🔒 No Permissions - No screen recording access required
• 🌍 Cross-Platform - macOS, Windows, Linux
• 🎯 Simple API - One line of code to activate
• 🪶 Lightweight - Minimal dependencies

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📦 Installation

pip install screenoverlay

That's it! No additional setup required.

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🚀 Quick Start

Simple Duration-Based Overlay

from screenoverlay import Overlay

# Privacy blur (great for screen sharing)
Overlay(mode='blur', blur_strength=4).activate(duration=5)

# Full blackout
Overlay(mode='black').activate(duration=3)

# Flash effect
Overlay(mode='white').activate(duration=1)

# Custom colored overlay
Overlay(mode='custom', color_tint=(255, 100, 100), opacity=0.7).activate()

# Multi-monitor control
Overlay(mode='blur', all_screens=True).activate(duration=5)   # Blur all monitors (default)
Overlay(mode='blur', all_screens=False).activate(duration=5)  # Blur only primary monitor

Press ESC to dismiss the overlay early.

Instant Show/Hide Control ⭐ NEW

For real-time applications that need instant toggling with zero latency (like ScreenStop):

from screenoverlay import Overlay
import time

# Initialize once (one-time ~300ms setup)
overlay = Overlay(mode='blur', blur_strength=4)
overlay.start()

# Then show/hide instantly (~0.1ms each)
overlay.show()  # Overlay appears instantly
time.sleep(2)
overlay.hide()  # Overlay disappears instantly

overlay.show()  # Show again - still instant!
time.sleep(2)
overlay.hide()

# Cleanup when done
overlay.stop()

Performance: show() and hide() take ~0.1ms - virtually instant! Perfect for real-time control.

See examples/ folder for more use cases!

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🎨 Overlay Modes

1️⃣ Blur Mode

Blurred background with customizable strength - perfect for privacy during screen sharing.

Overlay(
    mode='blur',
    blur_strength=4,        # 1-5: higher = more obscured
    color_tint=(120, 120, 150),  # RGB tint color
    opacity=0.85            # 0.0-1.0
).activate(duration=5)

Use Cases:

• 🎥 Privacy during screen recording/sharing
• 🧘 Focus mode / distraction blocking
• 📱 Hide sensitive information temporarily

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2️⃣ Black Mode

Full black screen overlay - instant privacy.

Overlay(mode='black').activate(duration=3)

Use Cases:

• 🔒 Quick privacy/security blackout
• 🎬 Presentation breaks
• ⏸️ Screen pause effect

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3️⃣ White Mode

Full white screen overlay - clean and bright.

Overlay(mode='white').activate(duration=2)

Use Cases:

• 💡 Flash effects
• 🎞️ Scene transitions
• ✨ Attention grabber

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4️⃣ Custom Mode

Create your own colored overlays with custom transparency.

Overlay(
    mode='custom',
    color_tint=(255, 0, 0),  # Red overlay
    opacity=0.5               # Semi-transparent
).activate(duration=5)

Use Cases:

• 🎨 Branded overlays
• 🌈 Color filters
• 🎪 Creative effects

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📖 Complete API Reference

Overlay Class

Overlay(
    mode='blur',              # 'blur', 'black', 'white', 'custom'
    blur_strength=3,          # 1-5 (only for mode='blur')
    opacity=0.85,             # 0.0-1.0
    color_tint=(136, 136, 136),  # RGB tuple (0-255)
    all_screens=True          # True = all monitors, False = primary only
)

Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
mode	str	'blur'	Overlay mode: 'blur', 'black', 'white', 'custom'
blur_strength	int	3	Blur intensity 1-5 (only for blur mode)
opacity	float	0.85	Window opacity 0.0 (transparent) to 1.0 (opaque)
color_tint	tuple	(136, 136, 136)	RGB color values (0-255)
all_screens	bool	True	If True, blur all monitors. If False, blur only primary monitor

activate() Method

Show overlay for a fixed duration.

overlay.activate(duration=5)

Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
duration	float	5	How long to show overlay (seconds)

Note: Press ESC to dismiss early.

start() Method ⭐ NEW

Initialize the overlay process for instant show/hide control.

overlay.start()

Important: Call this once at app startup. It creates a background process (~300ms). After initialization, use show() and hide() for instant toggling.

show() Method ⭐ NEW

Show the overlay instantly (~0.1ms).

overlay.show()

Performance: Virtually instant - no subprocess creation, just a queue message.

hide() Method ⭐ NEW

Hide the overlay instantly (~0.1ms).

overlay.hide()

Performance: Even faster than show() - typically <0.1ms.

stop() Method

Stop and cleanup the overlay process.

overlay.stop()

Note: Call this when your application exits to gracefully terminate the overlay process.

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💡 Real-World Usage Examples

Privacy Screen During Video Call

from screenoverlay import Overlay

# Activate blur when discussing sensitive info
overlay = Overlay(mode='blur', blur_strength=5)
overlay.activate(duration=10)

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Focus Timer (Pomodoro Technique)

from screenoverlay import Overlay
import time

def pomodoro_session():
    # 25-minute work session
    print("🍅 Focus time! Work for 25 minutes...")
    time.sleep(25 * 60)
    
    # 5-minute break with screen overlay
    print("☕ Break time!")
    Overlay(mode='black', opacity=0.8).activate(duration=5 * 60)

pomodoro_session()

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Screen Flash Effect

from screenoverlay import Overlay

# Quick camera flash effect
Overlay(mode='white', opacity=0.9).activate(duration=0.3)

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Custom Branded Overlay

from screenoverlay import Overlay

# Brand color overlay with transparency
Overlay(
    mode='custom',
    color_tint=(74, 144, 226),  # Brand blue
    opacity=0.6
).activate(duration=3)

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🖥️ Platform Support

Platform	Native Blur	Requirements
macOS	✅ NSVisualEffectView	pyobjc-framework-Cocoa (auto-installed)
Windows	✅ DWM Acrylic/Mica	Built-in (no extra deps)
Linux	⚠️ Compositor-dependent*	Built-in (no extra deps)

*Linux blur quality depends on your desktop compositor (KDE, GNOME, etc.)

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⚙️ System Requirements

• Python: 3.7 or higher
• Tkinter: Usually included with Python
• macOS only: pyobjc-framework-Cocoa (automatically installed)
• Windows/Linux: No additional dependencies

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⚡ Performance

Latency Benchmarks ⭐ UPDATED

• activate() (duration-based): <50ms startup
• start() (one-time init): ~300ms (creates subprocess)
• show() / hide(): ~0.1ms (virtually instant!)

How It Works

• Method: Native OS window effects (no screen capture)
• Permissions: None required (works without screen recording access)
• Memory: Minimal footprint (~10 MB per screen)
• Process Model: Separate process with queue-based messaging
• Multi-Monitor: Automatically detects and covers all screens

Why so fast? Unlike traditional screen capture approaches (400-1000ms), we use:

1. Native OS-level window blur effects (no image processing)
2. Persistent subprocess with withdraw()/deiconify() toggling
3. Queue-based messaging for instant communication
4. One window per monitor (all controlled simultaneously)

This makes show() and hide() nearly 10,000x faster than recreating the overlay each time!

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🛡️ Interested in Advanced Screen Protection?

ScreenOverlay is great for quick privacy needs, but what if you need automatic, AI-powered protection?

Meet ScreenStop 📱🔍

Our flagship product, ScreenStop, is an enterprise-grade ML-powered system that automatically detects when someone is taking a screenshot with their phone and triggers instant screen protection.

Key Features:

• 🤖 AI-Powered Detection - Advanced YOLO + custom ML model
• ⚡ Real-time Processing - 216ms detection time
• 🎯 100% Accuracy - Zero false positives in production
• 🔄 Automatic Protection - No manual activation needed
• 🏢 Enterprise Ready - Scalable and production-tested

Perfect For:

• 📊 Protecting confidential presentations
• 💼 Corporate security compliance
• 🏥 HIPAA/healthcare data protection
• 🏦 Financial services security
• 🔬 Research & IP protection

ScreenOverlay provides the instant privacy overlay.
ScreenStop provides the intelligence to trigger it automatically.

→ Learn more about ScreenStop

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🔧 Development & Testing

Local Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/pekay/screenoverlay.git
cd screenoverlay

# Create virtual environment
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

# Install in editable mode
pip install -e .

# Run examples
python examples/basic_duration.py
python examples/start_stop_control.py

Examples

Check out the examples/ directory for complete working examples:

• basic_duration.py - Simple blur overlay with fixed duration
• black_screen.py - Privacy blackout screen
• show_hide_control.py ⭐ NEW - Instant show/hide toggling (~0.1ms)
• start_stop_control.py - Manual control with multiprocessing
• custom_color.py - Custom colored overlay

Each example is fully documented and ready to run!

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Here's how you can help:

1. 🍴 Fork the repository
2. 🌿 Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. 💾 Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
4. 📤 Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. 🎉 Open a Pull Request

Ideas for Contributions

• 🐛 Bug fixes
• 📝 Documentation improvements
• ✨ New overlay modes or effects
• 🧪 Additional tests
• 🌍 Platform-specific optimizations

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📄 Licensing

ScreenOverlay uses a dual-license model similar to xlwings:

🆓 Non-Commercial Use (Free)

Free for individuals and non-commercial purposes:

✅ Personal projects
✅ Educational use
✅ Academic research
✅ Open source projects (OSI-approved licenses)
✅ Non-profit organizations
✅ Evaluation and testing

No license key needed - just pip install screenoverlay and start using it!

💼 Commercial Use (License Required)

A commercial license is required if you use ScreenOverlay:

💼 At a company or for commercial purposes
🏢 In a commercial product or service
💰 For client work or revenue-generating activities
🔧 In any business context

Pricing:

License Type	Price	Use Case
👨‍💻 Developer	$149/year	Single developer
👥 Team	$699/year	Up to 5 developers
🏢 Enterprise	Custom	Unlimited developers + priority support

All commercial licenses include:

✅ Commercial use rights
✅ Priority email support
✅ Perpetual license for purchased version
✅ 1 year of updates

Purchase License | Contact Sales

❓ Which License Do I Need?

Simple rule: If you're using it in a business/commercial context, you need a commercial license.

Scenario	License Needed
Personal side project (no revenue)	🆓 Non-Commercial
Learning Python at home	🆓 Non-Commercial
University research project	🆓 Non-Commercial
Open source project (MIT, GPL, etc.)	🆓 Non-Commercial
Using at your company/job	💼 Commercial
Building a SaaS product	💼 Commercial
Freelance client work	💼 Commercial
Integrating into commercial software	💼 Commercial

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🙏 Acknowledgments

• Built during the development of ScreenStop
• Uses Python's tkinter for cross-platform GUI
• Leverages native OS APIs for optimal performance
• Inspired by the need for instant, permission-free privacy controls

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📬 Contact & Support

• 🐛 Issues: GitHub Issues
• 💬 Discussions: GitHub Discussions
• 📧 Email: [e-mail]
• 🏢 Enterprise Solutions: Contact us about ScreenStop for advanced protection

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🌟 Show Your Support

If you find ScreenOverlay useful:

• ⭐ Star the repository
• 🐦 Share on social media
• 📝 Write about your use case
• 🔍 Explore ScreenStop for advanced features

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Built with ❤️ by Pekay

Download · Report Bug · Request Feature · ScreenStop