How to Record Terminal
Record Terminal with readable 18pt font and keyboard overlay. Guide for CLI tutorials, DevOps walkthroughs, and development setup recordings.
When you’d need to record Terminal
DevOps and deployment tutorials
Record SSH sessions, Docker commands, Kubernetes operations, CI/CD pipeline debugging. Terminal workflows are impossible to teach with screenshots — the sequence of commands and their output matters.
Development environment setup guides
Record the full setup process — installing Homebrew, Node.js, Python, configuring PATH, setting up SSH keys. New developers follow along step by step instead of copy-pasting from a doc and getting stuck.
Git workflow walkthroughs
Record branching, rebasing, cherry-picking, and conflict resolution in the terminal. Show the commands AND the output to demonstrate what each git operation actually does.
Script and automation demonstrations
Record shell scripts in action — show the script content, run it, show the output. Explain error handling, conditionals, and loops with real execution, not theoretical code blocks.
Recommended settings
Things to know
- •Terminal's default font size is 10-12px in SF Mono — completely unreadable in a recording
- •Command history (up arrow) shows previously typed commands that may contain passwords, tokens, or server addresses
- •Environment variables displayed by printenv or env can contain API keys and secrets
- •Terminal's default white-on-black theme has poor contrast after video compression — some gray text vanishes
Step-by-step
- 1
In Screenify Studio, select Window Capture and pick the Terminal window.
Enable keyboard overlay — Terminal is entirely keyboard-driven, and viewers need to see every key you press.
- 2
Open Terminal. Immediately increase font size: Terminal > Settings > Profiles > your profile > Text > Font > change to 18-20pt. Default 12pt is the #1 reason terminal recordings are unwatchable. Increase it now.
- 3
Choose a high-contrast color scheme. Go to Terminal > Settings > Profiles. 'Homebrew' (green on black) or 'Pro' (white on dark gray) record better than the default 'Basic' (black on white). Avoid any theme where gray text appears — it vanishes after compression.
- 4
Clear sensitive data from view: type `clear` to wipe the screen. Check your command history — press up arrow a few times to see if previous commands contain passwords, API keys, or private server addresses. If so, `history -c` clears the history for this session.
- 5
Start recording. Type commands deliberately. After pressing Enter, WAIT for the output to finish before typing the next command. Rapid-fire commands with cascading output is unwatchable.
For SSH and scripting sessions
- 6
For multi-command workflows, prepare a cheat sheet of commands you'll type. Copy-paste complex commands rather than typing them live — typos in terminal recordings break the flow and require awkward corrections.
- 7
If showing file editing (vim, nano), zoom the terminal window to fill most of the screen. Terminal text editors at partial window width have ~60 characters per line, which is cramped for code.
- 8
For SSH sessions, connect before recording. Typing `ssh user@192.168.1.100` live exposes the server address. Connect first, then start recording when you're already in the remote session.
Pro tips
Keyboard overlay is non-negotiable for terminal recordings. Ctrl+C (interrupt), Ctrl+R (reverse search), Ctrl+A (beginning of line), Ctrl+E (end of line), Tab (autocomplete) — these are invisible without overlay. Viewers see text appear and commands cancel with no indication of what you pressed.
18-20pt font, no exceptions. Terminal's default font is designed for your 27-inch monitor at arm's length. Your viewers are watching on a laptop screen, on a phone, on a compressed YouTube video. 12pt becomes a blurry green smear. 18-20pt stays readable at every viewing size.
Pause after every command output. You type `docker ps`, output appears in 0.1 seconds, you immediately type the next command. Viewer sees output flash for a frame and disappear under the next command's output. Wait 3-5 seconds after output appears so viewers can read it.
Use `clear` between logical sections. After completing one task (installing a package, configuring a service), type `clear` before starting the next. This gives viewers a visual reset and prevents the screen from becoming a wall of scrolled output with no context.
Common mistakes
Default font size (10-12pt). This is the single biggest mistake. Your terminal recording is 30 minutes of tiny green text that nobody can read. Go to Settings > Profiles > Text > set font to 18pt minimum. Do this before anything else.
Exposing secrets in command history or environment variables. Pressing up arrow shows previous commands including `export API_KEY=sk-abc123...`, `ssh root@production-server`, or `mysql -u admin -p'realpassword'`. Clear history with `history -c` before recording. Never run `env` or `printenv` on camera.
Typing commands at full speed. You type 80 WPM. Terminal renders the command instantly. Viewers see a blur of characters appear and a wall of output follow. Type at 50% speed, or paste prepared commands and explain them before pressing Enter.
Not clearing the screen between sections. After 5 commands, the screen is full of mixed output — previous commands' output, current command's input, error messages from 3 commands ago. Viewers can't tell which output belongs to which command. Use `clear` liberally.
Related apps
Related guides
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