Is there a cursor theme that looks like a laser pointer?

I have to give a presentation, and I want to make the cursor look like a laser pointer.

It seems that Libreoffice Impress cannot do it.

Instead, I want to change the cursor theme temporarily during the presentation so that the mouse pointer looks like a laser beam. Is there a theme like that?


Below maybe not what you really want, but it is a good workaround.

Install xcursor-themes package by

sudo apt-get install xcursor-themes

and temporarily switch to some red theme by keyboard shortcut.


Alternatively, you can use GoogleDot Red Cursor theme, which features a circular red mouse pointer.

googledotred


Below are the scripts for setting up a keyboard shortcut to change the cursor in MATE DE, you can adapt them for other DEs.

Script for cursor theme toggling:

mkdir ~/bin
cat <<EOF > ~/bin/toggle-pointer.sh
if gsettings get org.mate.peripherals-mouse cursor-theme | grep -q default
then
    gsettings set org.mate.peripherals-mouse cursor-theme 'oxy-red-argentina'; 
    gsettings set org.mate.peripherals-mouse cursor-size 48;
else
    gsettings set org.mate.peripherals-mouse cursor-theme 'default'; 
    gsettings set org.mate.peripherals-mouse cursor-size 24;
fi
EOF

chmod +x ~/bin/toggle-pointer.sh

Note: if you know cursor theme then replace oxy-red-argentina with known name.

Command to bind the above script to the Super+b (as example) shortcut:

dconf load / <<EOF
[org/mate/desktop/keybindings/custom99]
action='/home/$USER/bin/toggle-pointer.sh'
binding='<Mod4>b'
name='ToggleCursorTheme'
EOF

This will work as follows:

beam