Laser-like mouse pointer/cursor for (desktop-shared) presentation

Question

I'm wondering whether there is a way to turn the mouse pointer into a laser pointer, preferrably a thick red dot with a fading trail, e.g. for a screen-sharing session with slides in LibreImpress or a PDF opened in some viewer. Ideally, this feature would be application-independent, a GNOME or X feature so to say. This LibreImpress-specific option is not quite what I'm looking for. Also GNOME Tweaks does AFAIK not allow me to do this. Thanks for hints to a potential solution.

Does this answer your question? Is there a cursor theme that looks like a laser pointer? — Archisman Panigrahi, Sep 23 '21 at 11:47
@ArchismanPanigrahi Thx for the link. Unfortunately, not quite. I'm aware of pointer themes with increased-size pointer symbols. The toggle keyboard shortcut is nice, though you can also switch those themes through GNOME Tweaks before a presentation. I'm more looking for something you get on Apple Keynote or in Google Jamboard. It appears as if it needs an extra GNOME plugin. — mfg, Sep 23 '21 at 12:24
Please check the updated answer using googledot cursor theme. Image - https://i.sstatic.net/jXcIe.png — Archisman Panigrahi, Feb 21 '22 at 19:19
I'm more looking for something you get on Apple Keynote or in Google Jamboard Libreoffice still does not have a setting to modify the cursor. — Archisman Panigrahi, May 16 '23 at 21:48

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 31 '24 at 13:57

1

If you have some installed cursor themes, you can move that folder to the ~/.local/share/icons and then you should be able to change cursor in gnome tweak tool

See How to make the mouse cursor look like a laser pointer in Ubuntu? for more details.

edited Oct 31 '24 at 13:57

Archisman Panigrahi

40,026

answered Feb 24 '21 at 18:56

Emil

110

Thanks for your hint. I moved /usr/share/icons to ~/.local/share/icons and GNOME Tweaks still shows the same Cursor themes. Actually, I am aware of changing cursor themes in Tweaks, done this many times in the past. On the one hand, none of the themes comes close to what I described and, on the other hand, I doubt that GNOME Tweaks has the capability to achieve an MS Powerpoint/Apple Keynote-like pointer style. I suppose it needs a bespoke driver or GNOME app to achieve this. I'm looking for something like the latter. – mfg Feb 25 '21 at 07:56
It seems that one can develop a new theme such as Yaru or Numix including corresponding cursors, though not sure about how to design cursors with a fading trail. I'm unfortunately unfamiliar with GNOME theme design and I fear that I'm currently not able to invest the necessary time. Thanks for any further suggestions. – mfg Feb 25 '21 at 08:07

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 10 '21 at 18:49

0

sudo apt install dconf-editor dconf-editor

navigate to org/gnome/desktop/interface/cursor-theme

try

redglass OR handhelds

Default : Yaru

answered May 10 '21 at 18:49

hmh

1

Laser-like mouse pointer/cursor for (desktop-shared) presentation

2 Answers2

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