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Keylume

Stylish on-screen keyboard
For screen recordings and live demos
DownloadBuy license
compatible with macOS 14.0+ (Sonoma and later)
The Keylume app interface showing a full MacBook layout

Full Apple Keyboard

Every key is there, including media keys, arrows, and modifiers. Matches the look of a real Apple keyboard.
Most keystroke visualizers only show modifier combos or skip function keys. Keylume shows the whole keyboard.

Stylish and themeable

Keylume comes with many built-in themes, and an intuitive theme editor to create your own style.

Share themes

Save themes, share them with others, import themes other people made.

Shows up when you need it

Pops up automatically when screen recording starts, and hides when recording stops. Detects recording within a second.
Triple-tap fn to toggle manually.

Stays out of your way

Hover and tap fn to enable Auto-hide on hover. This allows the keyboard to fade out and let clicks through.
Drag to reposition, resize freely. Remembers where you left it.

App ignore list

Some apps record silently in the background (backup tools, PiP utilities). Add them to the ignore list so the keyboard doesn't pop up every time they run.

Remote control

Show, hide, or toggle the keyboard remotely through a URL scheme or command-line interface. Control it from scripts, shortcuts, or other apps.

Pro Features

Included in the 14-day free trial. After that, a license keeps them unlocked.

Click to type

Click keys on the on-screen keyboard to send actual keystrokes. Works for typing shortcuts without reaching for the physical keyboard.
Helpful when projecting a screen and only having access to a pointer device.

Input Sources

Reads your system keyboard layout and updates key labels to match.
The keyboard switches automatically when you change languages or layouts like Dvorak.

Key layers

Hold a modifier and the labels update to show what each key will produce.
Hold Shift to see uppercase letters and symbol row characters. Hold Option to see special characters and accented letters.

Custom layer editor

Create custom layers that show up when you hold modifiers. For example, a layer that shows assigned apps or shortcuts when you hold cmd.
Helps with remembering shortcuts and visualizing modifier combos.

Pricing

Keylume starts with a 14-day free trial automatically, no payment details needed.

After the trial, the app continues to work in Free mode where Pro features are disabled.

A license costs €8, one-time purchase, for life. It can be activated on up to 5 personal Mac devices.

Activating a 6th Mac automatically deactivates the oldest one, so the license can be used indefinitely as you change machines.

Remote control

Other apps and scripts can show, hide, or toggle the keyboard remotely.

URL scheme:

# shell
open -g "keylume://show"
open -g "keylume://hide"
open -g "keylume://toggle"
open -g "keylume://reset"
open -g "keylume://store"
open -g "keylume://remove"
open -g "keylume://edit"

Distributed notifications:

// Swift
extension Notification.Name {
    static let keylumeShow = Notification.Name("com.lowtechguys.Keylume.show")
    static let keylumeHide = Notification.Name("com.lowtechguys.Keylume.hide")
    static let keylumeToggle = Notification.Name("com.lowtechguys.Keylume.toggle")
    static let keylumeReset = Notification.Name("com.lowtechguys.Keylume.reset")
    static let keylumeStore = Notification.Name("com.lowtechguys.Keylume.store")
    static let keylumeRemove = Notification.Name("com.lowtechguys.Keylume.remove")
    static let keylumeEdit = Notification.Name("com.lowtechguys.Keylume.edit")
}

let DNC = DistributedNotificationCenter.default()
DNC.post(name: .keylumeShow, object: nil)
DNC.post(name: .keylumeHide, object: nil)
DNC.post(name: .keylumeToggle, object: nil)
// ...

Temporary layers

The show and toggle commands accept key mappings that override what keys display while the keyboard is visible. The overlay clears when the keyboard is hidden. Pass query parameters where the key name maps to a value.

Values can be:

  • plaintext: Save, Undo
  • SF Symbols: s:arrowtriangle.up
  • app icons: a:com.apple.Safari
  • Add blank=1 to blank out unassigned keys.

Navigation Layer

# Show keyboard with custom keys: Y=home, UHJK=arrows, I=end
open -g "keylume://show?
    y=s:arrow.left.to.line&
    u=s:arrow.up&
    h=s:arrow.left&
    j=s:arrow.down&
    k=s:arrow.right&
    i=s:arrow.right.to.line&
    blank=1
"

Store, edit, and remove layers

  • store saves a custom layer without showing the keyboard
  • edit updates individual keys on an existing layer
  • remove deletes a stored layer

All three commands require the modifiers parameter.

rcmd app switcher layer

# Store an rcmd layer
open -g "keylume://store?
    q=a:com.apple.Safari&
    w=a:com.apple.mail&
    modifiers=rcmd&
    name=App Switcher"

# Add a key to the rcmd layer
open -g "keylume://edit?
    modifiers=rcmd&
    e=a:com.apple.Notes"

# Remove the rcmd layer
open -g "keylume://remove?modifiers=rcmd"

Export and import layers

Export custom layers to JSON and import them back, either from the settings UI or through the URL scheme.

# Export all layers to a file
open -g "keylume://export?file=/tmp/layers.json"

# Import layers from a file, merging with existing layers (default)
open -g "keylume://import?file=/tmp/layers.json"

# Import and fully replace layers with matching modifiers
open -g "keylume://import?file=/tmp/layers.json&replace=1"

Command-line interface

Keylume ships with a keylume CLI that wraps all of the above into shell commands. Install it from the menu bar menu, which symlinks it to ~/.local/bin/keylume.

# Basic controls
keylume show
keylume hide
keylume toggle

# Show with a temporary layer
keylume show --app q=Safari --app w=Chrome --symbol e=pencil --blank

# Position and auto-hide
keylume show --position bottom --width 800 --hide-after-ms 3000

# Store a permanent layer
keylume store --modifiers ralt --app s=Safari --app c=Chrome --name "Browsers"

# Export and import
keylume export --modifiers rcmd -f layer.json
keylume import layers.json

The --app option fuzzy-matches app names against what's installed, so values like Chrome or Notes just work without looking up the bundle ID.

Run keylume --help for the full option list.

Keylume keyboard themes