Typewriter

A bash script that simulates typewriter-style text output with customizable typing speeds and indentation.

Features

• Variable typing speeds from extremely fast to extremely slow
• Customizable text indentation
• Supports both direct text input and stdin
• Natural-looking random delays between characters
• ANSI color support for error messages
• Handles multi-line text with proper line breaks

Installation

# install into /usr/share
cd /usr/share
# Clone the repository
sudo git clone https://github.com/Open-Technology-Foundation/typewriter
# symlink to local bin
sudo ln -fs /usr/share/typewriter/typewriter /usr/local/bin/typewriter
# symlink for lazy typers
sudo ln -fs /usr/share/typewriter/typewriter /usr/local/bin/tw

Or as a one-liner:

sudo sh -c 'cd /usr/share && git clone https://github.com/Open-Technology-Foundation/typewriter && ln -fs /usr/share/typewriter/typewriter /usr/local/bin/typewriter && ln -fs /usr/share/typewriter/typewriter /usr/local/bin/tw'

Usage

typewriter [OPTIONS] text||<stdin

Options

• -s, --speed SPEED: Set typing speed

  • Available speeds: xxxfast, xxfast, xfast, vfast, fast, normal, slow, vslow, xslow, xxslow, xxxslow
  • Default: normal

• -i, --indent INDENT: Indent text by specified number of spaces

• -V, --version: Display version information

• -h, --help: Show help message

Environment

TW_SPEED If present, specifies SPEED default value (default 'normal')

TW_INDENT If present, specifies INDENT default value (default 0)

Examples

Direct text input:

typewriter -s fast "This is a test."

Using stdin:

echo "This is from stdin" | typewriter -s xxfast

With indentation:

typewriter -s slow -i 4 "This is a test with 4-space indent."
# OR
TW_SPEED=fast
TW_INDENT=4
tw "This is a test with 4-space indent."

Multi-line text:

typewriter "First line\nSecond line\nThird line"

Speed Reference

Speed	Min Delay (ms)	Max Delay (ms)
xxxfast	0	0
xxfast	1	3
xfast	3	7
vfast	7	15
fast	15	25
normal	25	40
slow	40	55
vslow	55	70
xslow	70	85
xxslow	85	95
xxxslow	99	99

Requirements

• Bash 5.0 or later
• Linux/Unix environment
• Basic Unix utilities (shuf, printf)

License

This project is licensed under the GPL3 License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Author

Gary Dean garydean@yatti.id