TL;DR: wayscriber is a ZoomIt-like screen annotation tool for Wayland compositors, written in Rust. Works on compositors with the wlr-layer-shell protocol (Hyprland, Sway, river, …); building from source requires Rust 1.85+. Quick start: set it up in four steps.

• Why wayscriber?
• Quick Start
• Features at a Glance
• Demo
• Installation
• Running wayscriber
• Controls Reference
• Configuration
• Troubleshooting
• Additional Information
• Project History
• Contributing & Credits

• Works across Wayland compositors (Sway, Wayfire, River, Hyprland, …) via wlr-layer-shell. Tested extensively on Hyprland and confirmed working on Niri; reports from other compositors welcome.
• Built for live presentations, classroom sessions, and screenshares - toggle with a key and annotate your screen instantly without breaking flow.
• Complements tools like Satty: Satty excels at capture → annotate → save workflows, while wayscriber stays resident as an always-available drawing layer with instant mode switching.

1. Install wayscriber

1. Arch Linux (AUR): (build from source)
   • yay -S wayscriber
   • paru -S wayscriber
2. Arch Linux (AUR, prebuilt):
   • yay -S wayscriber-bin
   • paru -S wayscriber-bin.
3. Other distros: see Installation, then install wl-clipboard, grim, and slurp for the fastest screenshot workflow.

2. Choose how to run it:

Launch wayscriber when you need it, exit when done:

wayscriber --active

Or bind to a key in ~/.config/hypr/hyprland.conf:

bind = SUPER, D, exec, wayscriber --active

Press F10 for help, F11 for configurator, Escape/Ctrl+Q to exit, and F12 to toggle the status bar.

Run wayscriber in the background and toggle it with a keybind:

Enable the service:

systemctl --user enable --now wayscriber.service

Add keybinding to ~/.config/hypr/hyprland.conf:

bind = SUPER, D, exec, pkill -SIGUSR1 wayscriber

Reload Hyprland:

hyprctl reload

Note: If the daemon doesn't start after a reboot, see Troubleshooting.

Alternative: Use Hyprland's exec-once instead of systemd:

exec-once = wayscriber --daemon
bind = SUPER, D, exec, pkill -SIGUSR1 wayscriber

• Drawing & editing: Freehand pen, straight lines, rectangles, ellipses, arrows, and multiline text with smoothing; undo & redo; quick line-width and color changes via hotkeys or scroll.
• Board modes: Whiteboard, blackboard, and transparent overlays, each with isolated frames and auto pen contrast; snap back to transparent with Ctrl+Shift+T.
• Capture shortcuts: Full-screen saves, active-window grabs, and region capture to file or clipboard using grim, slurp, and wl-clipboard when available.
• Session persistence: Opt-in per board/monitor storage that restores your canvas plus pen color & thickness; inspect with wayscriber --session-info or clear with wayscriber --clear-session.
• Workflow helpers: Background daemon with SIGUSR1 toggle, tray icon, one-shot mode, live status bar, and in-app help overlay (F10).
• Click highlights: Presenter-style halo on mouse clicks with configurable colors, radius, and duration; follows your pen color by default, toggle the effect with Ctrl+Shift+H or swap to highlight-only mode with Ctrl+Alt+H.
• Configurator & CLI: Launch wayscriber-configurator (or press F11) to tweak colors, bindings, persistence, compression, and more; power users can edit the TOML or use CLI switches.
• Performance & reliability: Dirty-region rendering keeps redraws fast, while session files use atomic writes, size limits, compression, and backups for safety.

Wayscriber can remember your boards between runs (per monitor and per board color) along with pen color/thickness. Persistence is opt-in. Toggle it from the configurator (F11 → Session tab) or launch the GUI directly:

wayscriber-configurator

Prefer text? Edit ~/.config/wayscriber/config.toml. Helpful commands:

wayscriber --session-info     # Inspect saved sessions
wayscriber --clear-session    # Remove stored boards

Grab a walk-through in docs/CONFIG.md if you want to edit the TOML by hand.

See docs/SETUP.md for detailed walkthroughs.

# yay – build from source
yay -S wayscriber

# yay – prebuilt binaries
yay -S wayscriber-bin

# paru – build from source
paru -S wayscriber

# paru – prebuilt binaries
paru -S wayscriber-bin

The package installs the user service at /usr/lib/systemd/user/wayscriber.service.

Upgrading from the old hyprmarker packages?
Remove the legacy packages once and reinstall under the new name:

sudo pacman -Rns hyprmarker hyprmarker-debug  # ignore if either package is already gone
yay -S wayscriber    # or yay -S wayscriber-bin

After this one-time cleanup, future upgrades work exactly like any other AUR package.

Install dependencies:

# Ubuntu / Debian
sudo apt-get install libcairo2-dev libwayland-dev libpango1.0-dev

# Fedora
sudo dnf install cairo-devel wayland-devel pango-devel

Optional but recommended for screenshots:

sudo apt-get install wl-clipboard grim slurp   # Debian/Ubuntu
sudo dnf install wl-clipboard grim slurp       # Fedora

Build from source:

git clone https://github.com/devmobasa/wayscriber.git
cd wayscriber
cargo build --release

The binary will be at target/release/wayscriber.

cargo build --release
./tools/install.sh

The installer places the binary at ~/.local/bin/wayscriber, creates ~/.config/wayscriber/, and offers to configure Hyprland.

Run wayscriber in the background and toggle with a keybind.

Enable the service:

systemctl --user enable --now wayscriber.service

Add keybinding to ~/.config/hypr/hyprland.conf:

bind = SUPER, D, exec, pkill -SIGUSR1 wayscriber

Reload Hyprland:

hyprctl reload

The daemon shows a system tray icon (may be in Waybar drawer). Press Super+D to toggle overlay, right-click tray icon for options.

Service commands:

systemctl --user status wayscriber.service
systemctl --user restart wayscriber.service
journalctl --user -u wayscriber.service -f

Note: If the daemon doesn't start after reboot, see Troubleshooting.

Alternative: Use Hyprland's exec-once instead of systemd:

exec-once = wayscriber --daemon
bind = SUPER, D, exec, pkill -SIGUSR1 wayscriber

Launch directly into an active overlay without the daemon:

wayscriber --active
wayscriber --active --mode whiteboard
wayscriber --active --mode blackboard

Bind it to keys if you prefer:

bind = $mainMod, D, exec, wayscriber --active
bind = $mainMod SHIFT, D, exec, wayscriber --active --mode whiteboard

Exit the overlay with Escape or Ctrl+Q.

wayscriber ships with keyboard shortcuts for quick captures:

• Ctrl+C – copy the entire screen to the clipboard.
• Ctrl+S – save the entire screen as a PNG (uses your capture directory).
• Ctrl+Shift+C – select a region and copy it to the clipboard.
• Ctrl+Shift+S – select a region and save it as a PNG.
• Ctrl+Shift+O – capture the active window (Hyprland fast path, portal fallback).
• Ctrl+6 / Ctrl+Shift+6 – reserved for remembered-region clipboard/file captures (coming soon).

Requirements: install wl-clipboard, grim, and slurp for the fastest Hyprland workflow. If they are missing, wayscriber falls back to xdg-desktop-portal's interactive picker.

Press F10 at any time for the in-app keyboard and mouse cheat sheet.

• Config file location: ~/.config/wayscriber/config.toml.

• Copy defaults to get started:

  mkdir -p ~/.config/wayscriber
  cp config.example.toml ~/.config/wayscriber/config.toml

• Key sections to tweak:

  • [drawing] – default color, thickness, and font settings.
  • [performance] – buffer count and VSync.
  • [ui] – status bar visibility and position.
  • [board] – whiteboard/blackboard presets and auto-adjust options.

Example snippet:

[drawing]
default_color = "red"
default_thickness = 3.0

[performance]
buffer_count = 3
enable_vsync = true

See docs/CONFIG.md for the full configuration reference.

If using systemd: User services don't start at boot by default. Enable lingering:

loginctl enable-linger $USER

Simpler alternative: Use Hyprland's exec-once instead:

exec-once = wayscriber --daemon

• Check status: systemctl --user status wayscriber.service
• Tail logs: journalctl --user -u wayscriber.service -f
• Restart: systemctl --user restart wayscriber.service

1. Verify Wayland session: echo $WAYLAND_DISPLAY
2. Ensure your compositor supports wlr-layer-shell (Hyprland, Sway, river, etc.)
3. Run with logs for clues: RUST_LOG=info wayscriber --active

• Confirm the file exists: ls -la ~/.config/wayscriber/config.toml
• Watch for TOML errors in logs: RUST_LOG=info wayscriber --active

Tune [performance] in config.toml if memory or latency is a concern:

[performance]
buffer_count = 2
enable_vsync = true

• Triple-buffered rendering prevents flicker during fast drawing.
• Frame-synchronized updates (VSync) keep strokes smooth.
• Dirty-region updates minimize CPU/GPU overhead.
• Tested to sustain 60 FPS on 1080p–4K displays.

wayscriber/
├── src/
│   ├── main.rs           # Entry point, CLI parsing
│   ├── daemon.rs         # Daemon mode with signal handling
│   ├── ui.rs             # Status bar and help overlay rendering
│   ├── util.rs           # Utility functions
│   ├── backend/
│   │   ├── mod.rs        # Backend module
│   │   └── wayland.rs    # Wayland wlr-layer-shell implementation
│   ├── config/
│   │   ├── mod.rs        # Configuration loader and validator
│   │   ├── types.rs      # Config structure definitions
│   │   └── enums.rs      # Color specs and enums
│   ├── draw/
│   │   ├── mod.rs        # Drawing module
│   │   ├── color.rs      # Color definitions and constants
│   │   ├── font.rs       # Font descriptor for Pango
│   │   ├── frame.rs      # Frame container for shapes
│   │   ├── shape.rs      # Shape definitions (lines, text, etc.)
│   │   └── render.rs     # Cairo/Pango rendering functions
│   └── input/
│       ├── mod.rs        # Input handling module
│       ├── state.rs      # Drawing state machine
│       ├── events.rs     # Keyboard/mouse event types
│       ├── modifiers.rs  # Modifier key tracking
│       └── tool.rs       # Drawing tool enum
├── tools/                # Helper scripts (install, run, reload)
├── packaging/            # Distribution files (service, PKGBUILD)
├── docs/                 # Documentation
└── config.example.toml   # Example configuration

Wayscriber shipped under the name hyprmarker through the v0.4 release line. The rename in v0.5.0 reflects the broader compositor support that has been built since the original Hyprland-only prototype. Use wayscriber --migrate-config to copy existing settings, and see docs/MIGRATION.md for the full compatibility checklist.

Coming from hyprmarker? Uninstall the old package (paru -R hyprmarker, etc.) and disable the legacy user service before installing Wayscriber:

systemctl --user disable --now hyprmarker.service 2>/dev/null || true

Then install Wayscriber and enable wayscriber.service if you want the daemon on login.

• docs/SETUP.md – system setup and installation details
• docs/CONFIG.md – configuration reference
• docs/MIGRATION.md – guidance for migrating from hyprmarker

• Native Wayland wlr-layer-shell implementation
• Configuration file support
• Status bar and help overlay
• Scroll wheel thickness adjustment
• Daemon mode with global hotkey toggle (Super+D)
• System tray integration
• Autostart with systemd user service
• Multi-line text support (Shift+Enter)
• Custom fonts with Pango rendering
• Whiteboard/blackboard modes with isolated frames
• Board mode configuration (colors, auto-adjust)
• CLI --mode flag for initial board selection
• Multi-monitor support with per-monitor surfaces
• Additional shapes (filled shapes, highlighter)
• Save annotations to image file
• Eraser tool
• Color picker

MIT License — see LICENSE for details.

• Pull requests and bug reports are welcome. Priority areas include compositor compatibility testing, multi-monitor support, and new drawing tools.

• Development basics:

  cargo build
  cargo run -- --active
  cargo test
  cargo clippy
  cargo fmt

  • Use ./tools/fetch-all-deps.sh to prefetch crates for the main binary and configurator before running frozen/offline builds.

• Acknowledgments:

  • Inspired by ZoomIt by Mark Russinovich
  • Built for Hyprland by vaxry
  • Similar ideas from Gromit-MPX
  • Development approach inspired by DHH's Omarchy
  • Uses Cairo and smithay-client-toolkit

• This tool was developed with AI assistance:

  • Initial concept & planning: ChatGPT
  • Architecture review & design: Codex
  • Implementation: Claude Code (Anthropic)

Created as a native Wayland implementation of ZoomIt-style annotation features for Linux desktops.