Exports and Certificates
Pulse can package a recording in five different shapes, depending on who's going to receive it and what they'll do with it. This guide explains when to use each.
Quick Reference
Output | Free | Pro | When to use it |
|---|---|---|---|
Certificate (PNG) | ✓ (preset) | ✓ (custom) | A single visual proof you can hand off, post, or print |
Timelapse (MP4) | ✓ | ✓ | Show the work happening over time |
Basic Export | ✓ | ✓ | Hand off one Work's raw evidence |
Batch Certificate (PNG) | — | ✓ | One certificate that covers many Works in a Project |
Structured Export | — | ✓ | Audit-ready evidence bundle for a third party |
Each output (except Basic Export) is also OpenTimestamps-anchored — receivers can independently verify the timestamp without trusting you. See Verifying Records.
Certificate (PNG)
Generates a 1920×1080 PNG that summarizes one Work: title, recording window, total time, capture count, and a thumbnail strip from the recording. The PNG is hashed and anchored to Bitcoin via OpenTimestamps, producing a companion .png.ots file.
How to generate:
Open a Work.
Click Certificate.
Choose the destination folder.
Free ships with preset backgrounds. Pro unlocks custom design: your own background image, watermark, logo, color palette, and font. A small Pulse copyright watermark stays on every certificate regardless of plan — it cannot be removed (legal requirement).
If the verification pass on the underlying frames finds tampered or capture-error frames, Pulse stops and asks you what to do:
Tampered frame: stop (you should investigate) or skip the bad frames
Capture-error frame: stop or skip; if you skip, the PNG records "Skipped (capture errors): N" so the receiver knows
Timelapse (MP4)
Stitches your screenshots into an H.264 MP4 (4 Mbps, screen-content profile) and anchors it to Bitcoin alongside the PNG of a certificate.
How to generate:
Open a Work.
Click Timelapse.
Pick frame rate and choose the destination folder.
Tampered frames are excluded automatically. If the Work was recorded in Metrics-only mode (no screenshots), Pulse cannot produce a timelapse and tells you so up front.
Basic Export (Free)
Copies the active Work's raw evidence into a flat folder with a timestamped name (Pulse_Export_20260518_143022/). Inside:
Screenshots/— every capture, renamed to JST timestampsJsonLogs/— every manifestTimestamps/— everylog_*.json.otsproof
This is the minimum a third party needs to verify your record manually. It does not include certificates or timelapses — those are separate.
Batch Certificate (Pro)
Produces a single PNG that covers up to 8 Works in a Project and includes a Project-level OpenTimestamps anchor. Useful when you've split a deliverable across multiple Works (sketching, line art, coloring, etc.) and want one document the client can verify.
If the Project has more than 8 Works, the certificate lists the first 8 and adds "... and N more works." All Works are still part of the proof chain; the certificate is just the visual summary.
How to generate:
Open a Project on Pro.
Click Batch Certificate.
Choose the destination folder.
Structured Export (Pro)
The audit-ready package. Pulse copies every Work in the active Project into a single folder, with a clear directory layout:
The README.md walks any reviewer through verifying the export without installing Pulse — shell commands to hash each file, instructions to drop the .ots proof onto opentimestamps.org, and what each status means.
Pulse checks free disk space before starting the export and refuses if there isn't enough.
How to generate:
Open a Project on Pro.
Click Structured Export.
Choose the destination folder.
File Naming and Timestamps
All exported screenshot filenames use JST (Japan Standard Time) in YYYY-MM-DD_HHMMSS format. This is independent of the recording machine's local time and is consistent across all Pulse exports, so receivers see deterministic filenames.
OpenTimestamps proofs are always anchored to UTC Bitcoin blocks. The JST filename is purely for human-readable ordering; verification math runs on UTC.
Verifying a Bundle Without Pulse
Each output ships with everything a reviewer needs to verify it without trusting you or installing Pulse. See Verifying Records for the standalone verification walkthrough.
Related
Verifying Records — how a reviewer confirms each file
Public Page Add-on — share a web verification page instead of a file bundle
Plans and Pricing — what each plan unlocks in the export pipeline