Penmarka Documentation

Getting Started

Requirements: Windows 10 or 11.

• Download Penmarka-Setup.exe and run it. A short wizard installs Penmarka for your Windows user (no admin rights needed) and adds it to the Start menu, with an optional desktop shortcut.
• Prefer the Microsoft Store? Search for Penmarka in the Microsoft Store app or open the Store listing and click Get. It installs the same signed app.
• The installer and the app are digitally signed by Vawick Consulting UG (haftungsbeschränkt). For a new release, Windows SmartScreen may still show a “Windows protected your PC” prompt while Microsoft builds up the release’s reputation. Click More info, check that the publisher shows Vawick Consulting UG (haftungsbeschränkt), then click Run anyway. To check the signature yourself, right-click Penmarka-Setup.exe → Properties → Digital Signatures.
• Penmarka starts minimized to the system tray. Click the tray icon to show the toolbar and overlay. It may be hidden under the taskbar’s ^ (hidden icons) menu the first time — drag it out to pin it if you’d like it always visible.
• Only one copy of Penmarka runs at a time. Launching it again while it’s already running just brings the existing toolbar forward and shows “Penmarka is already running”.
• Everything is saved automatically as you go: toolbar position, last-used tool, color, and pen size all persist across restarts.
• To fully close Penmarka, right-click the tray icon and choose Exit Penmarka — closing the toolbar window alone just hides it; Penmarka keeps running in the tray so your global hotkey still works.
• To update (website or Store install), run a newer Penmarka-Setup.exe from penmarka.com/download; it replaces the old version and keeps your settings. To uninstall, use Windows Settings → Apps → Installed apps → Penmarka.

The Overlay & Toolbar

Penmarka is built around two pieces that always move together:

• The overlay — a transparent layer spanning every connected monitor. When the Cursor tool is active, the overlay is click-through: clicks, scrolls, and keystrokes pass straight to whatever’s underneath. Selecting any drawing tool captures input instead, so you can draw.
• The toolbar — a small, draggable vertical panel. It remembers exactly where you leave it, including across a display-layout change (unplugging a monitor and reconnecting it later won’t strand it off-screen). On a small screen or at high Windows display scaling (150%, 200%), it shrinks itself to fit, so every button stays reachable.
• Flyouts — related tools are grouped behind three toolbar buttons (Shapes, Screen and Tools). Each flyout lists every tool with its icon, name and keyboard shortcut, highlights the one that’s active, and shows a clear ON/OFF pill for toggles such as Fill, Click Highlight, Timer, Teleprompter and Record.
• Minimize — the chevron button collapses the toolbar down to just its menu button when you want it out of the way; click it again to expand.

Tools & Features

Drawing

Shapes (flyout)

Every shape can be drawn outlined or filled — toggle Fill Shapes from the same flyout.

Color & Size

Dedicated toolbar buttons open a color picker (with a recent-colors strip) and a pen-size picker, applying instantly to the active tool.

Undo, Redo & Clear

Every edit — including erasing and clearing the whole screen — goes through a full undo/redo history.

Show/Hide Ink

The eye button (shortcut V) instantly hides every annotation on screen without deleting anything — useful for a quick “let me show you the original” moment mid-presentation. Toggle it back and everything reappears exactly as it was.

Screenshot Capture

Captures the full desktop with your annotations composited on top, and saves it as PNG or JPG to Pictures\Penmarka\ by default. A confirmation toast appears next to the toolbar so you always know it worked (or, if it didn’t, why).

Presentation Tools

A dedicated flyout for live presenting:

Screen Modes

Picking an already-active Screen Mode again reverts to Normal.

Presenter

Two independent toggles in the Tools flyout:

• Timer (I) — a small floating stopwatch HUD: start, pause, and reset, positioned next to the toolbar.
• Teleprompter (G) — a resizable, native-framed script window with adjustable scroll speed. Your script text is saved automatically and is still there next time you open it.

Recorder

Record your screen, everything you draw on it, and your voice into a single MP4 video. It’s the Record toggle (D) in the Tools flyout.

• What’s recorded — the desktop with your live annotations, including click ripples, the laser pointer, Spotlight and the Magnifier, plus your default microphone. Sound and picture are kept in step.
• While recording — a small floating bar next to the toolbar shows the elapsed time, with Pause/Resume and Stop. Paused time is left out of the video entirely.
• When you stop — the video is saved to Documents\Penmarka Recordings\ and a “Recording saved” confirmation appears right next to the recording bar.
• Microphone problems — if no microphone is available, or Windows privacy settings are blocking it, Penmarka warns you as soon as you start and records video only. You won’t discover a silent recording afterwards.

The Recorder captures your microphone only, not system or app sound. The microphone is used only while a recording is running. Recordings stay on your computer.

Projects, Save & Export

Penmarka can save your whole annotated canvas as a project file and bring it back later, or export a flattened image:

• Save Project… / Open Project… — save/restore the canvas to a .penlog file (plain, readable JSON under the hood).
• Import… — merge another .penlog file’s contents into the current canvas as one undoable action.
• Export… — flatten the current canvas to PNG, JPG, or PDF.

All four live in the toolbar’s menu (☰).

Multi-Monitor Support

The overlay spans your entire virtual desktop across every connected monitor. Plugging or unplugging a display mid-session is handled live — the overlay resizes itself and the toolbar re-anchors onto a still-connected screen automatically, with no restart needed. Screenshots and exports are computed per-monitor, so annotations land in the right place even when your displays use different Windows scaling percentages.

Global Hotkeys

These work even when Penmarka isn’t the focused window. The single-letter tool shortcuts above are active while the toolbar has focus.

Plans & Licensing

Personal is free forever — no account, no time limit, no nag screens. It’s a real, complete tool for quick annotation and screenshots, not a crippled trial.

Pro unlocks everything: every drawing tool, the full Presentation suite, Presenter, the Recorder, multi-monitor, pen-pressure tablet input, and the project/export workflow.

Free 14-day trial. The first time you open Penmarka, every Pro feature is unlocked for 14 days — no card, key or account. The toolbar menu (☰) shows how many days are left. When the trial ends, Penmarka tells you once and becomes Personal. Any Pro feature that’s switched on at that moment turns off (a recording that’s running is allowed to finish and save), and your drawings stay where they are.

Activating a license. Buy a license from the pricing page, then open the toolbar menu (☰) → Enter License Key… — during the trial too. Pro is available straight away. While Penmarka is running, it re-checks the license with LemonSqueezy about once a day in the background. Offline is fine: Pro keeps working for 14 days after the last successful check, then pauses until you’re back online and returns on its own. If a license is refunded or cancelled, Penmarka goes back to Personal and tells you why. One key can be active on 2 computers at a time; remove it from a computer via ☰ → Penmarka Pro (Manage License…).

Team licensing. Team gives every seat all Pro features for €24.00 per seat per year, for organizations with 10 or more users. To get started, email support@penmarka.com with the number of seats you need. We set up your license keys, send them to you, and invoice once for all seats. Each person enters their key via ☰ → Enter License Key…. To move a seat to another computer, remove the key on the old one via ☰ → Penmarka Pro (Manage License…) and enter it on the new one — or email us and we’ll move it for you. To add seats later, just email us.

Data & Privacy

Penmarka is a local-first desktop app:

• Settings and your canvas state live in a local SQLite database at %LOCALAPPDATA%\Penmarka\penmarka.db.
• Screenshots and exports are saved wherever you choose (default Pictures\Penmarka\).
• Recordings, including your microphone audio, are saved to Documents\Penmarka Recordings\. The microphone is only used while a recording is running.
• Project files (.penlog) are plain JSON — nothing proprietary or locked-in.
• The only network requests Penmarka makes are Pro license checks over HTTPS: when you activate or remove a key, and a background re-check about once a day. The free trial runs entirely on your computer.

Nothing you draw, type, capture, record or say ever leaves your machine.

For how Penmarka's website and license purchases handle personal data, see our Privacy Policy.

Troubleshooting