How to use an iPad as a teleprompter
An iPad is a comfortable size for a teleprompter: its screen holds large text you can read from across a room, and it fits a desk stand or a glass rig. How well it works depends on where it sits in relation to the camera lens, because that decides where your eyes go. This post covers the four setups that work and what each costs, then the settings that matter on the iPad itself. Apple’s free Pages app can scroll a script, so you can try the first setup before you buy anything.
Pick your setup
The four differ mostly in the eye line, which is how far your gaze moves away from the lens while you read.
| Setup | Devices | Where your eyes go | Mirror | Rough cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A stand under a phone or camera that records | Two | Just under the lens | Off | A tablet stand, about $15–50 by Speakflow’s count |
| A stand, recording with the iPad’s own front camera | One | Just under the front camera, if the text sits close to it | Off | Only the stand |
| A beam-splitter rig | Two: the iPad under the glass, a phone or camera behind it | Straight into the lens | On | $100–500 and up for a kit by Speakflow’s count |
| A stand below a webcam, for a call | One or two | A little below the webcam | Off | A stand, or only the iPad when the call runs on it |
Figures from Speakflow, BIGVU, Teleprompter.com and Macworld are as their guides gave them when we read them on 30 October 2026. Macworld’s guide dates from 2019.
A stand next to the lens
This is the setup to start with. Put the camera at eye level on a tripod, whether it is a phone or a camera, and frame the shot. Then stand the iPad directly under it, as high as it will go, so the top of the screen sits just below the lens. If your prompter lets you move the reading line, put it near the top of the screen, closest to the lens. Keep any mirror setting off, since that is for glass.
Your eyes then sit a little below the lens, which viewers notice far less than a gaze to the side. The guide to using a teleprompter has the study behind that and Autocue’s rule for distance, a foot for every inch of screen. For an 11-inch iPad that is about 11 feet, a little over the 3 m minimum in Macworld’s guide. BIGVU’s figures are shorter: from four to five feet the eye movement is hard to see, it says, and at about two feet the reading shows even with wide margins.
Most desks put you closer than either, so narrow the column. A line across an iPad is much wider than one across a phone, and the wider the line, the further your eyes travel along it. Upright, the iPad gives a shorter line at the same text size; sideways, wide side margins do the same job.
If the iPad records itself with its front camera, keep the text in a narrow band against the edge that camera is on, and sit back as far as you can still read. Either way, record about 30 seconds and watch it back before the real take, as Speakflow suggests.
Under glass: an iPad in a beam-splitter rig
A rig sets a sheet of glass at 45 degrees in front of the lens, with the iPad lying face up beneath it. You read the reflection while the camera looks through the glass at you, so your eyes stay on the lens. The DIY teleprompter guide covers the glass, the angle, the mirror, the double image and the light the camera loses. All of it holds at iPad size, and four things change.
- The glass gets bigger. Teleprompter.com’s DIY iPad kit uses a sheet about 12 by 12 inches with black cloth on the back and sides, and the DIY guide’s picture-frame build used 24 × 30 cm frames, sized for a tablet.
- A phone or a camera does the recording. The iPad lies face up, so its front camera looks at the ceiling.
- The screen has to be bright, because glass reflects only part of its light. Speakflow suggests at least 500 nits for a bright room and puts most iPads at 500 to 600.
- The mirror setting goes on, with the top of the text pointing away from the camera.
A ready-made kit gets the angle and the hood right for you. Speakflow’s guide puts tablet rigs at $100 to $500 and more, and Macworld’s 2019 guide warned that home-made rigs suffer from reflections and light leaks. Check the largest tablet a kit takes; one rig in Speakflow’s list stops at 10.5 inches.
Under the webcam, for calls
On a call the camera is the webcam, so the script goes as close under it as you can get it. Teleprompter.com’s guide to reading on calls keeps the script within about 15 degrees of the lens and says your eyes visibly drop once it sits more than a few inches below the camera. Raise the screen until its top line meets the camera.
On a laptop, the webcam is at the top of the laptop’s own screen, and the best place for the script is right under it on that screen. The guide to reading notes on a video call covers that. An iPad on a stand earns its place when the call runs on a monitor with a webcam clipped to its top edge: stand the iPad just under the webcam, where it covers only a strip of a large screen.
When the call runs on the iPad itself, a prompter app that supports Split View or Stage Manager can share the screen with it. Put the script on the side nearest the front camera. Teleprompter.com suggests a prompter window about a third of the screen wide, lines of five to seven words, and brightness around 60% to keep glare down.
Text size, brightness and glare
None of the guides we read gives a font size, because the right one depends on the screen and the distance. Sit where you will record and read a paragraph aloud. If you lean forward or squint, go up a size, then one more for nerves and bright lights.
Brightness pulls two ways. Under glass, turn it up, because the glass reflects only part of the light. On a stand or a call you look at the screen itself, and Teleprompter.com’s 60% is a better start. Turn the screen away from windows and lamps until you see none of them in it; if a reflection stays, Speakflow suggests a matte screen protector.
Three settings are worth changing on the iPad before a long take:
- Auto-Lock, in Settings under Display & Brightness. Speakflow’s advice is to set it to Never for the session, so the screen stays on.
- A Focus such as Do Not Disturb, from Control Centre, so a banner stays off your script.
- The rotation lock in Control Centre, before you lay the screen flat under glass, because a screen lying flat can turn on its own.
Free and app options
Start with Pages, which is free on the iPad. Open the script, tap the More button at the top and choose Presenter Mode. Under Presenter Settings you set the font, size and spacing and turn on Auto Scroll, which moves the text at a speed you set with a slider. Tap the page to start the scroll and again to pause it. Presenter Mode shows only the body text, so paste the script straight onto the page; text in a text box, a shape or a table stays hidden. For a short script at a steady pace, that is enough.
The online teleprompter on this site is the next free step. It runs in any modern browser and has a mirror switch for glass.
A prompter app earns its place when the pace of the take changes. BIGVU puts scroll control first in its criteria for iPad prompter apps, and it is the one that matters most here. A fixed speed suits a script you have rehearsed to a steady pace. A prompter that follows your voice waits when you pause and keeps up when you speed up, which counts most when the screen is out of reach, across the room or under glass. The comparison of iPhone teleprompter apps covers the main ones, and each app’s App Store page lists whether it runs on iPad.
Mistakes that give it away
- Sitting too close, so your eyes sweep along every line. Sit back, or narrow the column.
- Reading the bottom of the screen, furthest from the lens. Keep your eyes on the reading line and let the words come to it.
- Chasing a fixed speed set a little faster than you talk. BIGVU’s advice is to slow the scroll to your pace.
- The mirror left on from the rig, so the script reads backwards on the stand.
Where Wispim fits on an iPad
Wispim is the app this site is about. It runs on any iPad with iPadOS 16 or later, from the same App Store listing as the iPhone app, in all four orientations and in Split View, Slide Over and Stage Manager. New scripts on an iPad start at 64 pt, large enough to read from a rig or a stand, and the text goes from 24 to 120 pt; pinch the script during a full-screen take to change it, and the size stays with that script. For a beam-splitter glass, Mirror flips the text, and on an iPad it is one setting for the whole device.
Voice mode follows the words you say and waits when you pause, Sound moves while it hears you talk, and Constant scrolls at a speed you set. Voice following works in every language your iPad can recognise, and each script opens at the last speed you set. Recognition runs on your iPad where your language supports it. For other languages your iPad sends the audio to Apple to convert it to text, and the app tells you before and during a full-screen take. Your scripts, their titles, the transcripts and the audio are never sent to Wispim.
Above another app, the script moves into the floating window, in the same three shapes as on iPhone: Wide, Tall and Strip, a thin band two lines deep. It stays on top of other apps, so the script can sit above your call. Nothing inside the window responds to touch, and voice commands steer it instead. They are pause, continue, back a sentence, start over and go to the end, in 10 languages. With a hardware keyboard, Space pauses and resumes a take.
Wispim is free for six prompter takes, which do not refill, with every scroll mode and unlimited scripts. Pro removes the take limit and adds import from TXT, Markdown, PDF, DOCX and RTF, and one purchase covers iPhone, iPad and Mac on the same Apple Account. The iPad page has the App Store link. To read a short script from a stand at a steady pace, Pages does the job for free.
Questions
Can I use an iPad as a teleprompter?
Yes. Apple’s free Pages app scrolls a script in Presenter Mode, and a stand that holds the iPad right under the camera lens is enough to start. A beam-splitter rig puts the words straight in front of the lens, and a prompter app adds speed control, a mirror for the glass and, in some apps, scrolling that follows your voice.
How far should I sit from an iPad teleprompter?
As far back as you can still read the text without effort. Autocue’s rule is a foot for every inch of screen, which is about 11 feet for an 11-inch iPad. BIGVU puts the point where eye movement becomes hard to see at four to five feet. Closer than that, use wide side margins so each line is short.
What text size should I use on an iPad teleprompter?
Use the smallest size you can read without effort from where you will sit, plus one step. Test it from your mark by reading a paragraph aloud. Wispim starts new scripts on an iPad at 64 pt and lets you set anything from 24 to 120 pt.
Do I need to mirror the text?
Only under glass, which reverses the text left to right. On a stand or below a webcam, leave the mirror setting off.
Can the iPad be the teleprompter and the camera at once?
On a stand, yes. Put the text in a narrow band right under the front camera and sit back. A glass rig takes two devices, because the iPad lies face up under the glass while a phone or a camera looks through it.
Can I use an iPad as a teleprompter on a video call?
Yes. Stand it right under the webcam with the script in its top lines, or, when the call runs on the iPad, keep the script on the side of the screen nearest the front camera. Teleprompter.com suggests about 60% brightness to keep glare down.