Create Your First Typing Demo

In this tutorial, you'll create an animated GIF showing realistic terminal typing. The recording will demonstrate navigating and editing a command before executing it—perfect for creating polished documentation and tutorials.

Your finished recording will show:

1. Typing a command with a typo
2. Using arrow keys to navigate back
3. Correcting the mistake with backspace
4. Running the corrected command

This technique is perfect for creating documentation demos and tutorials. This tutorial takes about 15 minutes.

Prerequisites

This tutorial assumes you have VCR# installed. If not, complete the Getting Started tutorial first (it takes 5 minutes).

You'll need a terminal and about 15 minutes.

Step 1: Create Your Tape File

Create a new file called demo.tape:

Output typing-demo.gif
  
Set Cols 100
Set Rows 30
Set Theme "Dracula"

These lines set up the output file and terminal appearance. We'll add commands next.

Step 2: Add Typing Commands

Add these lines to your demo.tape file:

Type "echo 'Helo, World!'"
Sleep 500ms

Run the recording now to see what happens:

vcr demo.tape

Open typing-demo.gif. Notice how the text appears character-by-character with a realistic typing speed. The Sleep 500ms creates a half-second pause after typing.

Notice the typo—"Helo" instead of "Hello". We'll fix that in the next step by simulating realistic editing.

Step 3: Add Navigation and Editing

Replace your tape file content with this:

Output typing-demo.gif
  
Set Cols 100
Set Rows 30
Set Theme "Dracula"
  
Type "echo 'Helo, World!'"
Sleep 500ms
Left 9
Sleep 300ms
Backspace
Sleep 100ms
Type "ll"
Sleep 500ms
Home
Sleep 300ms
Enter
Sleep 1s

Run the recording again:

vcr demo.tape

Watch the GIF carefully. You'll see the cursor move back with Left 9, delete the character with Backspace, type "ll" to complete "Hello", then jump to the start of the line with Home before executing the command with Enter.

Notice how the Sleep commands create natural pauses that make the editing look realistic. A real person pauses to think while navigating and editing.

Here's the rendered result of the tape above:

Step 4: Customize the Theme

Now let's change the visual appearance. Update the theme line:

Set Theme "Monokai"

Run the recording once more:

vcr demo.tape

Compare the new GIF to the previous one. The terminal now uses Monokai's color scheme instead of Dracula. You've just learned how to control the visual style of your recordings.

Next Steps

Excellent work! You've learned how to:

• Create typing animations with realistic timing
• Simulate cursor navigation and text editing
• Control terminal appearance with themes

Your typing demo technique works great for documentation, but what if you want to capture real command output? The Exec Commands tutorial shows you how to record actual program execution.

Complete Code

Here's the full demo.tape file:

Output typing-demo.gif
  
Set Cols 100
Set Rows 30
Set Theme "Monokai"
  
Type "echo 'Helo, World!'"
Sleep 500ms
Left 9
Sleep 300ms
Backspace
Sleep 100ms
Type "ll"
Sleep 500ms
Home
Sleep 300ms
Enter
Sleep 1s