FerrisKeys

FerrisKeys is a cross-platform input visualizer for Rustaceans. Designed for screencasts, live presentations, and teaching environments, it displays real-time keyboard and mouse input with clean, customizable overlays using egui via eframe.

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Features

• Keyboard visualisation with modifier grouping (Shift, Ctrl, etc.)
• Mouse click tracking with overlay icons
• Live theme reloading via config.toml
• Cross-platform: tested on Linux (X11/Wayland) and Windows
  wayland is currently unsupported
• Customizable: Fonts, icons, padding, opacity, display duration

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Releases

Latests releases can be found on the releases page

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Build from Source

Prerequisites

• Rust (2021 edition or newer)
• A compatible Linux or Windows environment
• For Wayland input capture: libinput, udev, and evdev access

Build & Run

git clone https://github.com/CompEng0001/FerrisKeys.git
cd FerrisKeys
cargo run --release

Important

Linux dependencies:

sudo apt install -y \
 libxdo-dev \
 libglib2.0-dev \
 libpango1.0-dev \
 libatk1.0-dev \
 libgtk-3-dev \
 libgdk-pixbuf-xlib-2.0-dev \
 libcairo2-dev \
 pkg-config \
 build-essential

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Configuration

On first run, a config.toml will be generated in the $HOME/.config/ferriskeys/ or %APPDATA%\Roaming\ferriskeys\ directory.

You can view the source here -> default__config.rs

All avaiable fields are:

• timeout_ms - time keys stay on screen once buffer is empty
• window - position/size of window and which monitor,
• normal - alpha
• numeric - numeric
• modifier - alt, shift etc
• editor - del, ins, backspace etc
• navigation - up, down, left, right
• scrollable - page up/down, home ,end, scroll lock
• symbols - !,",£,$, % , [ etc
• escape - escape key
• unknown - unknown keys not mapped yet!
• function - F1 etc
• altfunction - [fn + F1] etc
• mouse - left|right|middle
• space - spacebar

Example

[window]
monitor = 0
position = [2050.0, 500.0]
size = [800, 120]

[styles.normal]
width = 90.0
height = 90.0
icon_size = 0.0
text_size = 20.0
bg_color = "#1e1e30"
fg_color = "#ffffff"

Changes are auto-reloaded on modification — no restart required.

Important

[window] monitor = 0

Is not implemented yet, but will be soon.

Global Config Paths

OS	Path
Linux	~/.config/ferriskeys/config.toml
Windows	%APPDATA%\Roaming\FerrisKeys\config.toml

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Platform Support

OS	Input Backend	Status
Linux	evdev + libinput	Working
Windows	winapi raw input	Working
Raspbian (framebuffer)	n/a	Not supported
macOS	Planned	Not yet supported

Warning

Wayland support is currently limited due to upstream issues in the winit + glutin stack used by eframe.

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Use Cases

• Screencasting and tutorial recording
• Live coding demonstrations
• Accessibility and interaction debugging
• Classroom and teaching support

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Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please:

• File issues for bugs or feature requests
• Submit PRs with descriptive titles
• Format code with rustfmt and use clippy

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License

Licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

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Author

Developed by @CompEng0001