Screencast Keys

Screencast Keys

The Screencast Keys addon allows us to see what keys we press in the 3D view. This comes in handy when we are recording a tutorial. For this purpose this addon seems to be the best one so far for Blender 2.8.

How to use the Screencast keys addon?

It is pretty simple to use. Just go to the N-Panel, open the Screencast Keys TAB and check the Screencast keys checkbox. And if you want more, there are some cute options as well.

Options in the N-Panel

ScreenCast Keys in the N-Panel
ScreenCast Keys UI
  • Color. To change the color of the text generated by ScreenCast Keys.
  • Shadow Color. At first I thought this doesn’t work, but the shadow is so small you barely see it. Most likely you want to put it on black which gives you a bit of on idea of an outline. Don’t forget to give in a value under A (alpha).
  • Font Size. Depending on the resolution of you screen I suppose you might want to set this around 25.
  • Display Time. How many seconds the text still stays there when after last action.
  • Origin. Related to what the text needs to show up. Didn’t see much difference yet. Region seems to be best.
  • Offset. To move the text to the Left/Right of the viewport or move it Up/Down.
  • Last operator. What operator was completed last time.

Options in the Preferences

Screencast Keys Preferences
Screencast Keys Preferences

We find all these settings also in the preferences, so that we don’t have to set our preferences every time. So all we have to do is going to the N-Panel and mark the checkbox Screencast Keys. There is another, similar addon called Shortcut_VUr.

Where to download the Screencast Keys addon?

The screencast Keys addon is available on Github. Installation of the add-on goes like usual. On Github, click on the link screencastkeys.zip. Save it, and in Blender you go to Edit > Preferences > Addon > Install. Browse to the .zip file, press Install. Then activate the addon and save preferences.