🎉 YAKC 2.0 — Rebuilt from the ground up in Rust + Tauri
YAKC (Yet Another Key Caster) is an open-source, cross-platform key & mouse click visualizer for streamers, content creators, teachers and presenters. Version 2.0 is a complete rewrite that leaves Electron behind.
Why this is a big deal
The old YAKC dragged a whole browser and a Node toolchain behind it. 2.0 is a single native binary of ~8 MB with zero JavaScript dependencies — it starts instantly and sips CPU and RAM.
✨ What's new
- Works everywhere, equally well — Windows, macOS, and Linux on both X11 and Wayland. No "it's better on this OS"; every feature has a real implementation on every platform.
- Any keyboard language, automatically — YAKC reads the character straight from your operating system (and, on Wayland, the exact layout from your compositor). QWERTZ, AZERTY, Turkish, Cyrillic, Greek — they all just work, with no per-language files to maintain.
- Text-editor display mode (new default) — popups behave like you're typing into an editor: only the characters you type show up, and Backspace actually deletes. Prefer the classic "show every key including modifiers, arrows and ⌫"? Switch to raw mode in settings.
- Held keys don't spam the screen — they collapse into a clean counter:
a (x13). - Settings GUI — tweak colors, fonts, size, opacity, corner, offsets, monitor and behavior at runtime; changes apply live.
- Global toggle hotkey (default
Ctrl+Alt+Y) to start/stop capturing from anywhere. - Frictionless setup — no more typing terminal commands. YAKC asks a simple yes/no and applies what it needs through your system's normal password prompt (input-device access on Linux, text-to-speech engine install, the macOS Accessibility pane).
- Tray icon, process filter (capture only while chosen apps are focused), and text-to-speech for every keystroke.
⬇️ Install
Windows
Download and run YAKC_2.0.0_x64-setup.exe (or arm64 on ARM devices). .msi installers are also provided.
macOS
Download YAKC_2.0.0_universal.dmg, open it and drag YAKC to Applications. The universal build runs natively on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.
Linux
| Distro | File |
|---|---|
| Debian / Ubuntu | YAKC_2.0.0_amd64.deb (or arm64) |
| Fedora / openSUSE | YAKC-2.0.0-1.x86_64.rpm (or aarch64) |
| Any distro | YAKC_2.0.0_amd64.AppImage (or aarch64) |
Arch Linux: install from the AUR — yay -S yakc (or your preferred AUR helper).
That's the whole installation — everything else (input permissions, text-to-speech) is prompted on first launch with a simple yes/no.
🔒 Privacy
YAKC is fully offline and open source. It never stores or transmits anything you type. As always, be mindful not to reveal sensitive information while recording or streaming.
Free and open source under the MIT license. Enjoy! — Aslan Devecioglu