Showing pressed keys on screen while recording

[devkhan]

Is it possible to show what keys are being pressed while recording screen?

Something like this:

Forgive me if its stupid as I really don't know the scope of this project, but I thought that this project provides so many features, it may also be possible to do this.

[Jaex]

Because all recording happens in FFmpeg, ShareX don't have any control on it other than start/stop it, so I can't add key preview or mouse click animations.

[devkhan]

But is it possible to capture the key presses and showing them on screen using some kind of additional functionality added to ShareX via a plugin or library?

[Jaex]

Showing them on screen is bad idea. User already knows what key pressed or where is clicked.

[devkhan]

But what if the screen is recorded for demo purposes (showing shortcuts, key combinations for certain actions)?

There's an example usage in the image I posted.

[JawsomeJason]

@devkhan I agree with the need, but maybe there is an app that can show keys pressed that could run alongside this--likely for accessibility. I'll keep an eye out, as I need this as well.

[devkhan]

@thejase I found a tool for this: https://github.com/Code52/carnac.

[pratham2003]

@devkhan Thanks! Carnac is awesome to use with Sublime Text / Visual Studio Code when building a tutorial that involves text manipulation using multiple cursors! It even supports multiple monitors :D

[Leroy-X]

I like this so much. need it +1

[Philosoph228]

@Jaex I think we can record input actions at first and then lay them after on. :I (or using libav directrly instead to control recording flow)

[Leroy-X]

Maybe can make a separate tool, designed to display keys, just like the two-dimensional code tool, it's cooooool

[AndroidDeveloperLB]

Why is this request closed? It says it's impossible, but I've seen video capturing tools that do capture the mouse and the keyboard. How come ? Please add this feature. I think it can be great. Also wrote about this here: https://github.com/ShareX/ShareX/issues/4490

[AndroidDeveloperLB]

Maybe there is a way to integrate and run this tool automatically: https://github.com/bfritscher/carnac/releases/tag/v3-beta ?

[kamalhm]

anoher +1 for this feature request, would be helpful for demoing

[JulienHeijmans]

Another +1, would love to have that option. We use ShareX to, among others, report bug cases, and having the pressed keys displayed would be very useful for that. Same thing for tutorial and similar videos.

[apobekiaris]

of course this is a must have strange how such a useful and mature tool like ShareX is missing it

[greggman]

@Jaex Thank you for ShareX! @devkhan Thank you for the pointer to Carnac

They work great together!

I'm sure all this is detailed at the Carnac site but

1. the installer is silent (no indication anything happened)
2. running carnac says nothing it just starts working
3. click the carnac icon in the system tray for options

[AndroidDeveloperLB]

Wait, this is all working on the official release?

[greggman]

There are 2 separate pieces of software

1. ShareX which captures the screen
2. Carnac which shows keyboard presses on the screen.

Use Carnac to get keyboard presses on the screen, Use ShareX to capture the screen. Works great!

[AndroidDeveloperLB]

@greggman Oh ok. I thought it got to be finally inside the ShareX app. Carnac (and seems like a lot of other similar apps) has various issues, especially with non-English letters (Hebrew in my case).

[greggman]

Carnac (and seems like a lot of other similar apps) has various issues, especially with non-English letters (Hebrew in my case).

That's disappointing. Looks like you brought it up over there.

I'm sad it's not working for you. Still I'm happy it's separate software. It let's each project move forward easier as they don't have to coordinate. Hopefully someone will come out with a keyboard display that solves your issue.

[AndroidDeveloperLB]

@greggman I don't know .

I think that since it's very common to take screenshots and videos of the screen to explain how to do something, it's important to show not just the mouse, but what the keyboard does too. That's why I was hoping for it inside of this app.

[Leroy-X]

Can we learn from Capture?

[Franck-Dernoncourt]

Demo with Captura:

Hopefully, ShareX will one day add this feature!

[locvnhub]

Showing them on screen is bad idea. User already knows what key pressed or where is clicked.

if you make a video tutorial, this feature is needed

[AndroidDeveloperLB]

@locvnhub Not only tutorials. I use it sometimes to report bugs, but without seeing that I pressed somewhere with the mouse or without seeing which keys are pressed, it has less understanding what's going on.

[prathamesh-gharat]

Yes, consider you are recording a bug in a tool/utility which is specifically related to hotkeys (keyboard shortcuts).

[Jaex]

You guys don't even understand what I wrote... User don't have to see key presses on their own screen, it must be inside recording only.

[Vampire]

That would imho be pretty bad. I'd like to see what is recorded. Because e. g. 1. you see what is obstructed by the overlay and 2. you are reminded that this is on and you for example shouldn't type passwords.

[AndroidDeveloperLB]

@Jaex @Vampire Personally I think both of your comments make sense and that maybe it's best to just have an option for this on the settings.

But sadly we are talking about a feature that isn't being added (it's closed). Do you think it will be added? Will it be re-considered?

[Jaex]

Will it be re-considered?

What you mean re-consider? Literally 30 minutes later this topic is opened I wrote that I'm unable to implement it. If I could I would have done it before this issue is opened. Because obviously I prefer ShareX to be feature rich and I think about all these feature ideas before people even suggest them.

But people always ignore my messages and then keep requesting it for years even I told in initial message that I can't add it.

[AndroidDeveloperLB]

@Jaex Sorry but I don't understand. I see this request as "closed", and yet you talk about adding it ? And now you say that for years you say that you won't add it...

Is there hope in seeing it being added to the app? Either by the original author or others? If so, why not re-open the request here?

The feature can be customized after it's done being added. Both of your ideas seem logical to me. Some people might prefer it being shown while recording and some won't. Default behavior should be based on what most people use (after the feature can be customized to be able to choose which behavior to have). The feature is about the final video.

I personally prefer to have it being shows as you record, but only if it's not so intrusive and overlaps what the video focuses on. For example, if you put your mouse on the regular place that shows what is being pressed, show it on the other side.

[Vampire]

But people always ignore my messages and then keep requesting it for years even I told in initial message that I can't add it.

You say that you can't add it, as ffmpeg does the recording and you cannot influence that. But actually I'd say there are at least two ways. One would be to simply display the overlay on screen within the recording area, so that ffmpeg can also record them. The other would be to just remember during recording at which time indexes to display the overlays and then remux the produced video in a post-processing step, adding the overlay to the recorded video. Those two ways also be the two options mentioned here lately.

[AndroidDeveloperLB]

@Vampire Indeed. I thought that was the plan, no?

[Vampire]

Obviously there is no plan, as the developer of the program says he cannot fix it, actually meaning he either does not want to fix it or he had no idea how to fix it. I now shared how I as developer would naively spontaneously think about fixing this without knowing the sources and hope that it is enough to reopen the issue and implement the feature eventually.

[AndroidDeveloperLB]

@Vampire By "plan" I mean "plan of implementation if the idea ever comes", not that it's the plan of the developer/s.