Keyviz is a free, open-source tool that visually displays your keyboard and mouse actions in real time. Perfect for tutorials, streaming, and demos on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
💫 More than an input indicator — your secret weapon for stunning demos
Have you ever watched tech creators' screencasts where keyboard actions appear on screen like magic, clearly showing every shortcut and click? This effect not only adds a professional touch to videos but also makes it easier for viewers to follow along. The tool behind this effect is a keyboard and mouse input visualizer — and the best-looking, most capable one out there is Keyviz.
Keyviz is a free, open-source, real-time keyboard and mouse input visualization tool. Whether you're an educator, content creator, or live streamer, it makes your workflow more intuitive and efficient. Let's take a full tour of this awesome tool that makes your keystrokes "dance" on screen.
🔍 1. What is Keyviz?
Keyviz is a cross-platform open-source application that displays your current keyboard and mouse actions on screen in real time, making it easy to show your workflow during demos or screencasts. It's ideal for teaching, online training, and live streaming, helping viewers clearly understand each step of your process.
Even better, Keyviz supports highly customizable styling, so you can tweak the appearance of the overlay to your liking — including adding flashy animation effects to make your actions more engaging. Built on the Flutter framework and primarily written in Dart, Keyviz boasts strong cross-platform support, running on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
✨ 2. Key Features
🎯 2.1 Real-Time Visualization
Keyviz can display your currently pressed keys in real time as well as mouse click actions (including single clicks and drags), and even supports combo keys (such as Cmd+Click, Alt+Drag, etc.). Every single action you take is shown clearly on screen.
🎨 2.2 Stunning Visuals & Customization
Compared to other key visualizers (like KeyCastOW), Keyviz looks far more impressive. Instead of just showing key icons, it brings the entire keyboard to life on your screen — more visual and intuitive. You can customize:
- 🎛️ Key style, color, border, icon, and symbols.
- 📍 Display position (top, bottom, left, right, or custom).
- ⚡ Animation effects and display duration.
- 📏 Size and opacity.
🔧 2.3 Smart Filtering
Keyviz offers a key filtering feature, allowing you to display only specific keys or combinations. This prevents every single keystroke from cluttering the screen while you're typing — perfect for demonstrating shortcuts without being overwhelmed by regular input.
🌐 2.4 Cross-Platform Support
Built on the Flutter framework, Keyviz supports the three major operating systems: Windows, macOS, and Linux. No matter what device you use, you'll enjoy a consistent experience.
💝 2.5 Free & Open Source
As an open-source project, Keyviz is completely free to use, and you can modify or improve it yourself. A vibrant community is constantly working to enhance and update the tool.
🎯 3. Use Cases
Keyviz has a remarkably wide range of applications, covering almost any scenario where you need to show your workflow:
👨🏫 3.1 Teaching & Training
For teachers and trainers, Keyviz is a powerful instructional aid. It helps students clearly see each step — especially software shortcuts and techniques — significantly boosting learning efficiency.
🎥 3.2 Content Creation
If you're a video creator producing software tutorials, game streams, or tech talks, Keyviz makes your content more professional and easier to follow. By visualizing keystrokes, viewers can effortlessly keep pace with your actions.
👥 3.3 Team Collaboration
In remote team collaboration, when you need to demonstrate a process, Keyviz helps colleagues clearly understand what you're doing, reducing communication overhead and boosting efficiency.
📊 3.4 Presentations & Talks
During product demos or technical presentations, using Keyviz to display your workflow keeps your audience focused on your content rather than guessing which key you pressed.
⚖️ 4. Comparison with Similar Tools
Before Keyviz came along, there were already some key visualizers on the market, like KeyCastOW. So what makes Keyviz stand out?
First, in terms of visual appeal, Keyviz clearly wins. KeyCastOW merely displays simple key icons, while Keyviz renders keys in a much more beautiful, modern style — as if a real keyboard were floating on your screen.
Second, Keyviz offers richer customization options, letting you adjust the display to match your personal taste and needs — perfect for content creators looking to build a personal brand.
Finally, Keyviz's cross-platform support is something many similar tools lack. No matter your OS, you'll get a consistent experience.
That said, Keyviz isn't without flaws. Its 2.0 version is still in alpha and may have stability issues, such as misaligned mouse click displays and configuration changes not taking effect. However, these are expected to be ironed out in future updates.
🚀 5. Tips & Best Practices
To get the most out of Keyviz, here are some practical tips:
🎨 5.1 Personalize the Look
Use Keyviz's customization options to match the key display to your video style or brand colors. For example, if you have a brand color palette, you can set your keys to match — boosting brand recognition.
🔍 5.2 Set Sensible Filter Rules
Configure key filters based on your scenario. For shortcut demos, filter out regular letter keys and only show function and combo keys; for programming walkthroughs, you might want to display everything.
📌 5.3 Pick the Right Position
Place the key display in a screen corner or somewhere that doesn't block important content so it doesn't steal the spotlight. The bottom-right or bottom-left usually works best.
⏱️ 5.4 Adjust Display Duration
Tune the key display duration to match your pace. Too short and viewers can't keep up; too long and the screen gets cluttered. A good rule of thumb is around 2–3 seconds.
🤝 5.5 Combine with Other Tools
Keyviz pairs well with other screen recording tools (such as OBS or Camtasia) to create professional-grade tutorial and demo videos.
📥 6. Download, Installation & Configuration
⬇️ 6.1 Downloading Keyviz
Keyviz offers two versions:
- Stable (1.0): Windows only.
- Beta (2.0): Cross-platform (Windows, macOS, Linux).
For most users, we recommend downloading the latest stable build from the official Keyviz website (https://mularahul.github.io/keyviz/) or the GitHub project page (https://github.com/mulaRahul/keyviz).
🔧 6.2 Installation
Windows users:
- Download the installer (.exe) or the portable version.
- Run the installer and follow the prompts.
- If you get a missing .dll error, you may need to install the Visual C++ Redistributable.
macOS users:
- Download the .dmg file.
- Open the package and drag Keyviz to the Applications folder.
- Grant Keyviz the required permissions under System Preferences → Security & Privacy → Accessibility.
Linux users:
- Download the appropriate .deb or .rpm package for your distro and install it using your package manager.
⚙️ 6.3 Basic Configuration
Once installed, launch Keyviz — you'll find its icon in the system tray. Right-click the icon and select "Settings" to open the configuration panel:
- Style: Set key appearance, color, size, and more.
- Behavior: Adjust display duration, position, animation effects, etc.
- Filter: Define which keys to display.
- Mouse: Configure mouse click visual effects.
After configuring, you're ready to go. Keyviz will automatically display your keyboard and mouse actions on screen in real time.
✅ Wrapping Up
Keyviz may seem simple, but it's a remarkably powerful tool that solves a key pain point in content creation, teaching, and demos — showing your workflow clearly and intuitively. While its use cases are somewhat niche, for those who need it, it's a real game-changer for productivity and content quality.
As an open-source project, Keyviz is constantly evolving. With more users joining and more contributors pitching in, its features will keep growing and its stability will keep improving. If you regularly record tutorials or give presentations, give Keyviz a try — and let it help you create more professional, easier-to-follow content.
Trying new tools takes a bit of a learning curve, but the efficiency boost and quality improvement are often well worth it. Especially in today's increasingly digital world, mastering a demo aid like Keyviz can help you stand out in content creation and knowledge sharing.
Note: This is the English translation of the original Chinese version.