YAKC - Yet Another Key Caster

YAKC (Yet Another Key Caster) is a free, open-source, cross-platform keystroke visualizer and mouse-click overlay. It shows the keys you press and the mouse buttons you click as clean, customizable on-screen popups, in real time — ideal for screencasts, live streams (OBS, Twitch, YouTube), video tutorials, presentations, screen recordings and pair programming.

One tool for Windows, macOS and Linux (X11 and Wayland) that shows any keyboard layout or language automatically — a modern, actively maintained alternative to platform-locked keycasters like KeyCastr (macOS only), Carnac (Windows only), screenkey and showmethekey (Linux only).

Your keys and clicks, shown live on screen — fully customizable.

Why the rewrite?

The Electron version needed Node.js, a native iohook build per platform, and shipped a full browser runtime. The Tauri rewrite is a single small binary (~10 MB) with:

• Zero JavaScript dependencies — the UI is plain HTML/CSS/JS, no npm, no bundler, no framework.
• Any keyboard language, automatically — keys are translated by the operating system itself (Windows ToUnicode, macOS CGEventKeyboardGetUnicodeString, Linux xkbcommon). The old hand-written per-language layout files are gone; QWERTZ, AZERTY, Turkish, Cyrillic, … all just work.
• Full platform parity — every feature works on Windows, macOS, and Linux on both X11 and Wayland.

Features

• Two display modes:
  • text (default) — behaves like a text editor: only the characters you type appear, Backspace really deletes, shortcuts and navigation keys stay hidden
  • raw — every key shows: modifiers (CTRL + ALT + H), ⌫, arrows, F-keys, …
• Held keys don't spam — they show a counter: a (x13)
• Display key & mouse clicks (optionally with coordinates)
• Highly customizable popups (size, opacity, colors, font, corner radius)
• Any screen corner + pixel offsets, on any monitor
• Smooth fade-out transition
• Settings GUI — configure everything at runtime, applies live
• Global hotkey to toggle capturing (default Ctrl+Alt+Y)
• Tray icon: toggle capturing, open settings, quit
• Text-to-speech — hear each keystroke spoken aloud; adds an audible layer that's handy for accessibility, screencasts, tutorials and language practice
• Process filter: only capture while selected apps are focused

YAKC vs. other keystroke visualizers

Most keycasters only run on one operating system. YAKC is the one that works everywhere — including Wayland, where most Linux options still fall short.

	YAKC	KeyCastr	Carnac	screenkey	showmethekey
Windows	✅	—	✅	—	—
macOS (Intel + Apple Silicon)	✅	✅	—	—	—
Linux · X11	✅	—	—	✅	✅
Linux · Wayland	✅	—	—	⚠️ limited	✅
Mouse clicks	✅	—	—	—	✅
Any keyboard language, automatic	✅	✅	—	⚠️	✅
Editor-style "text" mode (Backspace deletes)	✅	—	—	—	—
Text-to-speech	✅	—	—	—	—
Runtime settings GUI	✅	✅	✅	—	✅
Open source	✅ MIT	✅	⚠️ inactive	✅	✅

_{Reflects each project's primary, out-of-the-box support; details vary by version and community forks. Corrections welcome via PR.}

In short: if you want a single keystroke display that looks and behaves the same on Windows, macOS and Linux (X11 and Wayland), in any language, with mouse clicks and a live settings UI, YAKC is currently the most complete choice.

How it works per platform

	Windows	macOS	Linux (X11)	Linux (Wayland)
Key/mouse capture	WH_KEYBOARD_LL hook	CGEventTap	/dev/input (evdev)	/dev/input (evdev)
Layout translation	OS (ToUnicode)	OS (UCKeyTranslate)	xkbcommon	xkbcommon, keymap fetched from the compositor — exactly the layout you configured in your desktop settings
Overlay	native	native (above fullscreen apps)	native	via XWayland¹
Text-to-speech	SAPI (built in)	AVSpeechSynthesizer (built in)	speech-dispatcher (offered automatically²)	speech-dispatcher (offered automatically²)

¹ Wayland compositors forbid regular apps from self-positioning always-on-top overlays, so YAKC renders its overlay through XWayland (available on effectively every compositor, including GNOME and KDE). Two sub-features are affected by Wayland's security model, which hides this information from all applications: global mouse coordinates (hidden on Wayland rather than showing wrong values) and the process filter for native-Wayland apps (off by default).

² If text-to-speech is enabled but no engine is installed, YAKC offers to install it for you — one click + your password.

Installation

Package managers

Platform	Command
Windows (winget)	winget install iammodev.YAKC
Arch Linux (AUR)	yay -S yakc

Direct download

Grab a package from the releases page and install it the usual way for your OS:

Platform	Package	Install
Windows	.msi / -setup.exe	double-click, next-next-finish
macOS (Intel + Apple Silicon)	_universal.dmg	open, drag YAKC to Applications
Debian/Ubuntu	.deb	double-click, or sudo apt install ./YAKC_*.deb
Fedora/openSUSE	.rpm	double-click, or sudo dnf install ./YAKC-*.rpm
Any Linux	.AppImage	make executable, run

Both x64 and ARM64 builds are provided for Windows and Linux; the macOS .dmg is a universal binary that runs on both Intel and Apple Silicon.

That's the whole installation — everything else is prompted. On first launch YAKC checks what it needs and simply asks:

• Linux: "YAKC needs permission to read your keyboard and mouse devices — set this up now?" → click Yes, type your password into the system prompt, done. Keys start appearing seconds later, no log-out, no terminal.
• macOS: "YAKC needs the Accessibility permission — open System Settings now?" → click Yes, flip the switch next to YAKC, restart the app. (Apple doesn't allow apps to grant this themselves.)
• Windows: no setup at all.
• Text-to-speech (any platform, only if you enable it): if an engine is missing, YAKC asks "Install it now?" → click Yes, type your password. Windows/macOS voices are built into the OS.

Build from source

Prerequisites: Rust and the Tauri system dependencies for your OS (on Linux: webkit2gtk-4.1, libxkbcommon; TTS additionally wants speech-dispatcher headers at build time).

git clone https://github.com/iammodev/YAKC.git
cd YAKC
cargo install tauri-cli
cargo tauri build        # bundles in src-tauri/target/release/bundle/
# or, during development:
cargo tauri dev

No Node.js, npm, or any JavaScript toolchain required.

Note: on rolling-release distros (e.g. Arch) the AppImage bundler's bundled strip chokes on modern system libraries — build with NO_STRIP=true cargo tauri build there. Ubuntu (and the CI runners) are unaffected.

Usage

1. Start YAKC. A tray icon appears; pressing any key shows a popup.
2. Right-click the tray icon → Toggle Capturing, Settings…, or Quit.
3. Press the toggle hotkey (default Ctrl+Alt+Y) to start/stop capturing from anywhere.
4. Open Settings… to change anything at runtime — appearance, position, monitor, behavior. Saving applies live.

Configuration

Settings live in config.json — edit them via the Settings window or by hand:

• Linux/macOS: ~/.config/dev.iammodev.yakc/config.json (Linux), ~/Library/Application Support/dev.iammodev.yakc/config.json (macOS)
• Windows: %APPDATA%\dev.iammodev.yakc\config.json
• Portable: a config.json next to the executable takes precedence (old Electron-style layouts keep working — stringly-typed numbers are accepted).

Key	Description
displayMode	text (default): like a text editor — only typed characters, Backspace deletes, shortcuts hidden. raw: every key including modifiers and symbols.
keyboardLayout	Linux only: xkb layout override (us, de, tr, …). Empty = auto-detect from the compositor/session. Legacy values english/german still work. Other platforms always use the OS layout.
showOnMonitor	Monitor index to display popups on (0 = first)
popupTextMaxWidthInPercentage	Max popup width as % of screen width
popupOpacity	Popup opacity, 0.0–1.0
popupFadeInSeconds	Fade transition duration
popupRemoveAfterSeconds	Remove inactive popup after X seconds
popupInactiveAfterSeconds	After X seconds of no input, the next key starts a new popup
popupFontSize / popupFontFamily / popupFontWeight	Popup text font
popupFontColor / popupBackgroundColor	Popup colors
popupBorderRadius	Corner radius (0 = sharp)
showKeyboardClick / showMouseClick / showMouseCoordinates	What to display (mouse coordinates are unavailable on Wayland and hidden there)
onlyKeysWithModifiers	Only show keys pressed together with Ctrl/Alt/Meta
showSpaceAsUnicode	Show space as ␣
textToSymbols	Special keys as symbols (Tab → ↹, Backspace → ⌫, …)
textToSpeech / textToSpeechCancelSpeechOnNewKey	Speak keystrokes aloud
position	top-left, top-right, bottom-left, bottom-right
topOffset / bottomOffset / leftOffset / rightOffset	Pixel offsets from the anchored corner
filter / filterProcessName / filterCheckEverySecond	Capture only while listed processes are focused
toggleCaptureHotkey	Global capture toggle, e.g. Ctrl+Alt+Y (needs ≥ 1 modifier)

FAQ

What is YAKC? YAKC (Yet Another Key Caster) is a free, open-source keystroke visualizer: it shows the keys you press and the mouse buttons you click as on-screen popups, so viewers of a screencast, live stream or presentation can see exactly what you're doing.

Which operating systems does YAKC support? Windows, macOS and Linux — including both X11 and Wayland. The macOS build is a universal binary (Intel + Apple Silicon); Windows and Linux ship x64 and ARM64 builds.

Is there a keystroke visualizer that works on Wayland? Yes — YAKC. It reads input via evdev and translates it with your compositor's own keymap, so it works on Wayland compositors such as GNOME (Mutter) and KDE (KWin), where many older keycasters don't.

What's a good KeyCastr, Carnac or screenkey alternative? YAKC. KeyCastr is macOS-only, Carnac is Windows-only, and screenkey is Linux/X11-only — YAKC gives you the same on-screen keystroke display on all of them, with one configuration and one consistent look.

Does it show mouse clicks too? Yes — mouse buttons (and optional coordinates) alongside your keystrokes.

Does it work with OBS, for streaming and screen recording? Yes. YAKC draws a transparent, click-through, always-on-top overlay that OBS, other capture tools and screen recorders pick up like any other on-screen content.

Does it support my keyboard language or layout? Yes, automatically. Characters come straight from your operating system (or, on Wayland, your compositor), so QWERTY, QWERTZ, AZERTY, Turkish, Cyrillic, Greek and more all work with zero configuration.

Is YAKC free and private? Yes. It's MIT-licensed, fully offline, and never stores or transmits anything you type.

How do I install it? winget install iammodev.YAKC on Windows, yay -S yakc on Arch Linux, or grab an installer for your OS from the releases page. See Installation.

TODO

• Reliable solution for all/common keyboard layouts (OS-native translation)
• position (top-left, top-right, bottom-left, bottom-right)
• topOffset, bottomOffset, leftOffset, rightOffset
• GUI to easily configure at runtime
• Add hotkey for start/stop listening to keystrokes
• Add unit tests
• Drag and drop the popup to the desired position (needs a temporary non-click-through mode)

Buy me a coffee

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you find any issues or have suggestions for improvements, please open an issue or submit a pull request. (Keyboard-layout files are no longer needed — the OS handles every language.)

Security Assurance

YAKC is free and open source. YAKC operates independently without any network interactions. Your private information, including passwords, is never stored or shared by YAKC, guaranteeing your safety and privacy.

Please Exercise Caution: When using YAKC for activities like presentation, recording or streaming, be mindful not to inadvertently share sensitive information. Always ensure your privacy and the security of any confidential data.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

---

_{Also known as / related searches: keystroke visualizer · key caster · keycast · on-screen keyboard display · show keys on screen · keystroke overlay · keypress display · mouse click visualizer · screencast keystrokes · OBS keystroke display · streaming key overlay · presentation key display · Wayland keystroke visualizer · cross-platform keycaster · KeyCastr alternative · Carnac alternative · screenkey alternative · showmethekey alternative · keystroke display for Windows, macOS and Linux.}