Stout pour, the comedy screensaver, explained

A pint being poured, left to settle, drunk in gulps and poured again is not an obvious screensaver. That's the point. Stout pour is the comedy one in Screensavers by Zaweba, and it is there to make you smile when you come back to your desk.

The pint is unbranded, drawn by the app's own code, and it belongs to the night pack: a dark scene with a few things moving in it, here a glass, a head of foam and a dim bar.

What happens in each pour

The stout pours with a surge, dark and cloudy, then settles black under a creamy head. Anyone who has waited for a pint to settle at a bar will recognise the moment. Then it is drunk in gulps, and each gulp leaves a ring of foam on the inside of the glass, just as a real one does. When the glass is empty you see a dim bar behind it for a while, and then the whole thing starts again with a fresh pour.

It's a small, looping story. The humour comes from how carefully it is done: the settle, the foam rings, the pause in the bar. It is far more patient than a joke screensaver needs to be.

Speed, bar time and lamp

Speed sets how fast the whole cycle runs, from the pour to the last gulp. A slow pour is more realistic and gives you time to enjoy the settle. A faster one gets through pints at a rate that's funnier the longer you watch.

How long the bar shows, in seconds, decides the pause between pints, when the empty glass gives way to a view of the bar. A longer pause makes the scene calmer and gives the bar some atmosphere. A short one keeps the pints coming.

Bar lamp colour sets the colour of the light in the bar behind. A warm lamp makes it look like a cosy local. A cooler colour looks more like a modern bar. It's a small change with a big effect on the mood.

Why have a comedy screensaver at all

Most screensavers in the app are made to be soothing or beautiful. Stout pour is made to be enjoyed. A screensaver is something you see many times a day, often when you come back from a break or a meeting, and a little bit of fun at that moment is worth having. It also makes a good talking point on a PC in a games room, a staff room or behind a bar.

It suits Install several especially well. Tick it alongside a few calm scenes and it turns up only now and then, which makes it funnier than seeing it every time.

Pulling your first pint

Choose Stout pour in the manager, adjust the speed, bar time and lamp colour while the live preview follows along, then use Preview full screen to see a full pour at real size. Moving the mouse or pressing any key ends the preview. Use this screensaver builds it into your profile without administrator rights and opens Windows' Screen Saver Settings, where you set the wait time and the password option.

Settings are read each time the screensaver starts, so a change of lamp colour needs no rebuild. With several monitors you can have a pint on each screen, one pint stretched across them all, or one on the main monitor with the others black. A pint on each screen is, fittingly, a round.

A word on where to use it

Think about who sees the screen. In a shared office or a school, a calmer screensaver may be the better everyday choice, with Stout pour kept for your own PC. And if it's ever too much, Reset to defaults puts the settings back, or simply pick another screensaver in the manager.