Typebar

Typebar is a keyboard overlay for the Mac, made for screen recordings, demos and learning shortcuts. Every key you press lights up on an on-screen keyboard, and a pill names each shortcut from the app's own menus, like Screenshot Selection for Shift Command 4.

The pill shows what you press as keycaps and gives each shortcut the name it has in the app you are using, so the names match what your viewers will find. Typing gathers into one chip, and a shortcut pressed again counts up as ×2, ×3. Show everything or only shortcuts. Choose Keyboard, Pill or Both, each with its own size and place on screen, in light, dark or glass.

Hold a modifier for a moment and the keys relabel with what they do in the app in front. Typebar reads each app's own menus, so it works in every app. There are 20 hand-made packs for the shortcuts menus leave out, and your own keybindings from 11 apps, read from their settings files. Cheatsheets are a list you can search, and you can rename, hide or add shortcuts, pin a sheet and export it as a PNG or PDF.

Presenting with only a pointer? Turn on Click to Type and click keys on the board to type into the app in front. Layers of your own let a held key show keys that open an app, type a snippet or send a shortcut, and the Apps layer puts your running and Dock apps on their first letters.

Ripples show every click, a trail follows a drag, and a halo keeps the pointer easy to find. Spotlight dims every display except a circle around the pointer. Six switch sounds, made on your Mac with no audio files, are off until you turn them on.

There are 40 themes, from Apple keyboards to mechanical caps, glass and neon, and Theme Studio lets you color any key and make your own. Profiles keep a whole setup, and Recording, Presenting and Learning are ready to go.

Typebar can appear by itself while your screen is recorded or shared and go away when it stops. Password fields stay private, and nothing you type is saved or sent anywhere. You can drive it from links, a command line tool and Shortcuts actions.

Free for 24 hours, then $9 once for up to 5 Macs. macOS 14 or later, on Apple silicon and Intel.