How to Turn Your iPad or Tablet into a Professional Teleprompter

A dedicated teleprompter rig with a built-in screen runs a few hundred dollars. If you've got an old iPad, an Android tablet, or even a spare phone sitting in a drawer, you already own the most expensive component — you just need to point it correctly.

There are two real ways to do this, and which one fits depends on your budget and how much you care about perfect eye contact.

Option A: Tablet Directly Under the Camera (Free)

Mount the tablet on a small stand right beneath your camera lens.

• Pros: Costs nothing. No mirror rig to buy.
• Cons: Your eyes drop slightly below the lens to read, which can look like missed eye contact if you're too close. Keep at least 6–8 feet of distance to minimize it.

Option B: A Glass Mirror Rig (The Professional Setup)

A beamsplitter rig — something like a Desview T3 or Glidegear TMP 100 — sits between you and the camera.

• How it works: The camera shoots through a sheet of semi-reflective glass. The tablet lies flat below, projecting the script up onto that glass.
• Pros: Genuinely perfect eye contact — you're looking straight through the script into the lens.
• Cons: The rig itself costs $50–$120, and your software needs a working Mirror Mode toggle, since the reflected text comes out backwards.

       GLASS MIRROR RIG, ROUGHLY:

                [ Beamsplitter Glass ] ◄── (reflects script)
                      /        ▲
                     /         │
       [ Camera ] ──► ─────────┴── [ iPad / Tablet ] (flat, scrolling)
       (shoots through glass)

Setting It Up: Three Things to Get Right

Mounting

If you're running the glass rig method, make sure the mount can actually carry the weight.

[!WARNING]

A 12.9-inch iPad Pro plus a glass rig is genuinely heavy and top-loaded. A cheap plastic tripod will tip or buckle — spend on a proper stand here.

Mirror Mode

Reflected text comes out backwards, the same way text looks in a bathroom mirror. Your software needs a horizontal flip toggle, or you'll be reading mirrored gibberish on the glass.

Font and Scroll Speed

Run a quick dry test before recording for real: font large enough that you're not squinting or leaning forward (leaning ruins your lighting and framing), and scroll speed matched to how you actually talk, not how fast you can read.

Why a Browser Tab Beats Most Dedicated Apps Here

You don't need an App Store download with a subscription gate halfway through the features you actually want.

ScriptPacer.com runs straight in Safari or Chrome on your tablet, no install. It covers the three things above directly:

1. One-click Mirror Mode — flips the text instantly for glass rig compatibility.
2. A synced script library — write on your laptop, open the same script on the tablet, nothing to transfer manually.
3. Pacing feedback — set your target time per section and get a live color cue if you're drifting off pace.

Open Safari, type in scriptpacer.com, drop the tablet onto your stand, and you're set up for a rig that would've cost real money five years ago.