screenkey

Display key presses on screen

$ screenkey

$ screenkey -M

$ screenkey --show-settings

$ screenkey -p bottom

$ screenkey --mods-mode emacs

$ screenkey --bg-color "#000000" -f "Monospace" --font-color yellow --opacity 0.8

$ screenkey -p fixed -g 400x100+100+100

screenkey [options]

screenkey is a screencast tool that displays pressed keys as an overlay on screen, making keyboard input visible to viewers during screencasts, tutorials, and live demonstrations. It captures all keystrokes system-wide and renders them in a customizable floating window.
The display supports multiple modifier key formats (Emacs, Mac, Windows style), configurable positioning, custom fonts and colors, and adjustable opacity. Mouse button clicks can also be shown alongside keyboard input. The overlay window can be placed at fixed screen positions or use custom geometry.
A settings GUI is available via --show-settings for interactive configuration. The tool integrates with X11 and runs as a background process, showing keys as they are pressed and fading them after a configurable timeout.

-M, --mouse

Display mouse button clicks

Launch the settings menu

Set display position (top, center, bottom, fixed)

Set window geometry (for fixed position)

Set modifier key display format (normal, emacs, mac, win, tux)

Set background color (hex format)

Set display font

Set font color

Set window opacity (0.0 to 1.0)

Time to display each key

Set key display mode (composed, translated, raw, keysyms)

Do not show system tray icon

Enable debug output

Requires X11; may not work properly on Wayland without XWayland. The tool captures all keystrokes system-wide, which may have security implications. Can be used with slop for custom window geometry selection.

screenkey was created for screencasting and educational purposes, allowing presenters to show keyboard input visually to their audience.

slop(1), xdotool(1)