iPrompter is a distraction-free native teleprompter for presenters using iPad or macOS. Mount an iPad on a mirror-rig or read directly from a Mac screen, then open a script and scroll it at a steady, controllable speed while reading aloud. The app is fast, minimal, and works entirely offline with no accounts or cloud services.
Reading view — full-screen, distraction-free, scrolling at a constant 60 pts/s. The control bar auto-hides after 3 seconds of inactivity and reappears on tap, so nothing sits between you and the script while you present.
Script library — folders in the sidebar, scripts in the middle sorted by most recently modified, and the editor on the right with live word count and estimated reading time. Every edit auto-saves; there is no Save button.
- Xcode 26 or later
- iOS deployment: iPadOS 17 or later
- macOS deployment: macOS 14 or later
- Project generation: iPrompter is generated from
project.ymlusing XcodeGen. TheiPrompter.xcodeprojfile is generated; never edit it directly. Instead, add or remove Swift files underiPrompter/oriPrompterTests/folders, and Xcode automatically picks them up via synchronized folders.
Simulator and macOS builds use ad-hoc signing and need no setup. To install on a real iPad, supply your own Apple Developer Team ID — it is intentionally not in this repo, since it identifies a specific developer account:
cp Config/Signing.local.xcconfig.example Config/Signing.local.xcconfig
# then edit it: DEVELOPMENT_TEAM = YOURTEAMIDConfig/Signing.local.xcconfig is gitignored and pulled in automatically by
Config/Signing.xcconfig. Alternatively pass DEVELOPMENT_TEAM=YOURTEAMID on
the xcodebuild command line, or just select your team in Xcode under
Signing & Capabilities.
Run these from the repo root:
xcodebuild -project iPrompter.xcodeproj -scheme iPrompter \
-destination 'generic/platform=iOS Simulator' build CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=NOxcodebuild -project iPrompter.xcodeproj -scheme iPrompter \
-destination 'platform=macOS' build CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=NO# Boot simulator (example: iPad Pro 13-inch M4)
xcrun simctl boot "iPad Pro 13-inch (M4)" || true
open -a Simulator
# Build and install
xcodebuild -project iPrompter.xcodeproj -scheme iPrompter \
-destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPad Pro 13-inch (M4)' \
build CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=NO
# Launch app
xcrun simctl launch booted com.iprompter.iPrompter# Build with ad-hoc signing so it launches
xcodebuild -project iPrompter.xcodeproj -scheme iPrompter \
-destination 'platform=macOS' build
# Launch the app
open ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/iPrompter-*/Build/Products/Debug/iPrompter.appxcodebuild -project iPrompter.xcodeproj -scheme iPrompter \
-destination 'platform=macOS' test CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=NO- Create: Tap "+" to create a new script titled "Untitled"; the editor opens immediately for you to add content. The script is auto-saved.
- Edit: All title and content edits auto-save; there is no Save button. Last-modified date updates on every change.
- Search: Type to search scripts by title and content (case-insensitive substring matching). Results filter the current list live.
- Organize: Create flat, single-level folders in the sidebar. Scripts belong to one folder or no folder. When a folder is deleted, its scripts are kept and appear under "All Scripts."
- Duplicate: Context-menu action copies a script with identical content and auto-generates a unique title (
Demo copy,Demo copy 2, etc.). - Delete: Swipe (iPad) or context menu (both platforms) to delete with confirmation. Deletion is permanent.
- Sorting: Scripts are sorted by last-modified date descending (newest first), fixed. Folders sort alphabetically in the sidebar.
- Transport: Play, Pause (position retained), Resume, Stop (return to top). The script opens paused at the beginning.
- Speed Control: Speed is measured and displayed in points/second (pts/s). Range is 10–300 pts/s, default 60. Adjust via on-screen slider (continuous, snaps to integers), −/+ buttons (step 10 pts/s), or keyboard (↑/↓ keys for ±10 pts/s).
- Speed Ramp: Every speed change and play/pause transition smoothly interpolates the actual scroll rate over 0.3 seconds—no sudden jumps, just a gentle acceleration or deceleration.
- Auto-Stop: Playback automatically stops when the text reaches the end and shows the control overlay again.
- Performance: 60+ FPS even on 10,000-word scripts at maximum font size, with no visible stutter or jitter.
- Styling: Adjust font family (SF Pro, New York, Helvetica Neue, Georgia, Menlo), size (20–120 pt), line spacing (1.0–2.0 multiplier), and margins (0–25% symmetric).
- Colors: Choose text and background from 8 preset colors each (no custom color picker). Defaults are white text on black (industry-standard for mirror rigs).
- Settings Panel: Tap the gear icon in the control overlay. Closes with Done or a tap outside.
- Persistence: All reading settings are global (not per-script) and survive app relaunches.
- Transforms: Three independent toggles—horizontal mirror (flip left-right), vertical flip (flip upside-down), and rotation (0°/90°/180°/270°). Any combination works; transforms apply to the reading text only.
- Readable Controls: The control overlay, speed readout, and settings interface are never mirrored or rotated. Only the text you read through the mirror is transformed.
- Live Toggle: Switch mirror settings during playback with no interruption; scrolling continues smoothly.
- Persistence: Mirror, flip, rotation, and speed settings survive app relaunches.
All shortcuts work on both iPad (with hardware keyboard) and macOS:
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Space | Toggle play/pause |
| ↑ (Up Arrow) | Increase speed by 10 pts/s |
| ↓ (Down Arrow) | Decrease speed by 10 pts/s |
| Esc | Exit prompter, return to editor |
macOS: The Playback menu in the menu bar mirrors these shortcuts (Play/Pause ⎵, Faster ↑, Slower ↓, Exit Esc). Menu items are enabled only while the prompter is active.
MVVM with SwiftData: Models (Script, Folder) are SwiftData @Model classes with built-in persistence and SwiftUI @Query integration. Views are lightweight and bind to model objects directly.
PrompterEngine (UI-Independent): The scrolling engine imports only Foundation and Observation—no SwiftUI, UIKit, or AppKit. This makes it:
- Fully unit-testable without a display link
- Ready for future voice-tracking integration
- Observable by views that drive it with frame-clock ticks
The production frame clock (DisplayLinkClock) wraps CADisplayLink on iOS and NSScreen.displayLink (macOS 14+) for 60 FPS rendering. Tests use a manual clock to verify ramp timing and speed clamping deterministically.
Settings Persistence: A single ReadingSettings struct (font, size, spacing, margins, colors, mirror/flip/rotation, speed) is encoded to JSON and stored in @AppStorage, keyed by color ID strings to survive palette changes.
iPrompter/
App/ Entry point, root navigation, app state
iPrompterApp.swift Main app, scene, model container, menu commands
RootView.swift Navigation shell (sidebar/list/editor + prompter overlay)
AppState.swift Observable state for prompter presentation
SidebarItem.swift Enum for sidebar selection (all scripts or folder)
Models/ SwiftData data models
Script.swift Script with title, content, dates, folder relationship
Folder.swift Folder with name and inverse scripts relationship
Engine/ UI-independent scrolling engine
PrompterEngine.swift State machine, speed ramping, auto-stop logic
PrompterClock.swift Protocol for frame-clock injection
Settings/ Global settings persistence
ReadingSettings.swift Font, size, spacing, margins, colors, mirror, speed
PresetPalette.swift 8-swatch color palette
SettingsStore.swift UserDefaults wrapper with JSON encoding
Features/
Library/ Script browser (WP2)
SidebarView.swift Folder list, "All Scripts", new folder UI
ScriptListView.swift Scripts filtered by sidebar selection
ScriptRowView.swift Script title, date, word/reading-time display
FolderRowView.swift Folder name and context menu
DuplicateNamer.swift Finder-style "copy" naming
MoveToFolderMenu.swift Context menu for script folder assignment
Editor/ Script editor (WP3)
EditorView.swift Title field, content editor, word count toolbar
ReadingTimeFormatter.swift "Xm Ys" format helper (e.g., "4m 30s")
Prompter/ Full-screen reading view (WP5)
PrompterView.swift Main prompter UI, auto-hide controls, gestures
PrompterTextBlock.swift Chunked text rendering (24 lines per chunk)
MirrorContainer.swift Mirror/flip/rotation transforms on text only
PrompterControlsView.swift Play/Pause, Stop, speed slider, ±/readout, gear
PrompterSettingsSheet.swift Font/color/spacing/mirror settings popup
DisplayLinkClock.swift CADisplayLink (iOS) / NSScreen.displayLink (macOS)
PrompterCommands.swift macOS Playback menu commands
TouchInterceptor.swift Platform view for hit-testing and key handling
PresetColor+Color.swift Color palette integration
iPrompterTests/
PrompterEngineTests.swift 22 unit tests: state machine, speed clamping, ramping, auto-stop
ReadingSettingsTests.swift 10 unit tests: settings encoding/decoding, persistence
All files under iPrompter/ and iPrompterTests/ are automatically tracked by Xcode (synchronized folders); there is no need to manually add them to the project.
The app includes 32 unit tests covering:
- Engine state machine: play → paused → stopped, with position retention
- Speed clamping: never below 10 or above 300 pts/s via any control
- Speed ramping: linear interpolation over 0.3 s on every speed change and play/pause
- Auto-stop: offset stays at content height; offset resets on stop
- Settings persistence: read/write round-trip through JSON encoding to UserDefaults
Run with:
xcodebuild -project iPrompter.xcodeproj -scheme iPrompter \
-destination 'platform=macOS' test CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=NOThe engine is tested with a manual clock (ManualClock in the test target) that delivers fixed frame deltas, so assertions are deterministic and independent of real frame timing.
- macOS physical-keyboard verification: Space and Esc shortcuts are verified by code inspection only; a manual keyboard test is recommended before release to rule out any remaining keyboard-event routing edge cases.
- 3-second auto-hide: The control overlay hides 3 seconds after the last interaction during playback. This is the design per the spec, but may feel aggressive in practice; consider this a candidate for product refinement.
- Hardware iPad keyboard: The simulator MCP cannot inject hardware key events to the iPad simulator, so Space/↑/↓ shortcuts were verified on macOS only. The key bindings in code are correct; physical iPad testing is recommended.
The following are intentionally not building in this release:
- Voice tracking (future integration point for the UI-independent engine)
- Camera recording
- Cloud sync / iCloud integration
- AI features
- Screen brightness control
- Import/export of scripts
- Per-script settings (reading view settings are global)
- Undo history beyond the system text-field undo
- iPhone layout (iPad/macOS only)
- Rich text or Markdown rendering
- Nested folders, custom sort, tags, or remote control