TYPIST(1)

💖 TYPIST(1) 💖

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, and let me tell you about Typist — it's a typing tutor, and it has lessons for alllll the different keyboards and languages. yes it's a whole man page. no it is not boring, i promise. 🦋

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🌸 NAME 🌸

Typist — a typing tutor with lessons for different keyboards and languages ✨

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

gtypist [OPTION]... [SCRIPT]...

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💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so GNU Typist is a typing tutor that ships with several lessons for different keyboards and languages. and the slay part?? you can write your own new lessons super easily. it's giving "make it your own." 🎀

here's the whole flag lineup, no skips:

• -h, --help — print help and exit 👋
• -V, --version — print version and exit
• -b, --personal-best — track personal best typing speeds (default=off). keeping receipts on your own glow-up fr fr 📈
• -e, --max-error=FLOAT — the default maximum error percentage; valid values are between 0.0 and 100.0 (default=3.0)
• -n, --notimer — turn off the WPM timer in drills (default=off). no clock, no pressure 💀
• -t, --term-cursor — use the terminal's hardware cursor (default=off)
• -f, --curs-flash=P — cursor flash period P*.1 sec; valid values are between 0 and 512; this is ignored if -t is specified (default=10)
• -c, --colours=F,B — set (F)orground and (B)ackground colours, where available (default=7,0) 🎨
• -s, --silent — don't beep on errors (default=off) 🤫
• -q, --quiet — same as --silent (default=off)
• -l, --start-label=LABEL — start the lesson at the given label
• -w, --word-processor — try to mimic word processors (default=off)
• -k, --no-skip — forbid the user to skip exercises (default=off). no shortcuts, we're doing the work 🫶
• -i, --show-errors — highlight errors with reverse video (default=off)
• -a, --sync-ahead — try to sync ahead (i.e. h_s if you type hs) (default=on) ⭐
• -S, --always-sure — do not ask confirmation questions (default=off)
• --banner-colors=F,B,P,V — set top banner colours: (F)oreground, (B)ackground, (P)ackage and (V)ersion (default=`6,0,5,1')
• --scoring=MODE — set scoring mode; valid values are "wpm" (words per minute) and "cpm" (characters per minute) (possible values="wpm", "cpm")
• --no-welcome-screen — don't show the beginner tutorial message at start-up (default=off)

and lowkey the most important part: if you don't supply a script-file, it defaults to the gtypist.typ that came with this software. and if you do specify a script, the path $GTYPIST_PATH gets searched for script files. 🔍

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🍓 EXAMPLES 🍓

to run the default lesson in english gtypist.typ:

gtypist

to run the lesson in spanish:

gtypist esp.typ

to instruct gtypist to look for lesson bar.typ in a non standard directory:

GTYPIST_PATH="/home/foo" gtypist bar.typ

to run the lesson in the file /tmp/test.typ, starting at label TEST1, using the terminal's cursor, and run silently:

gtypist -t -q -l TEST1 /temp/test.typ

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😭 REPORTING BUGS 😭

found a bug?? tell the devs, they wanna know: report bugs to <bug-gtypist@gnu.org>. bestie behavior honestly 💜

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👑 COPYRIGHT 👑

Copyright © 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 Felix Natter, Mihai G??tejescu

Created by Simon Baldwin License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>

This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

okay that last bit is the serious one — NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. free to change and redistribute, but absolutely no promises. no cap. 🙈

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🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

the full documentation for Typist is maintained as a Texinfo manual. if the info and Typist programs are properly installed at your site, the command

info Typist

should give you access to the complete manual. go read it, it's the director's cut ✨

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and that's the whole vibe — this was GNU Typist 2.10.1, dated February 2025, and yes it's literally called TYPIST(1). go type something, you're gonna ate. 💖⌨️