Typespeed: Typing Speed Testing Game for Ubuntu Linux

It is amazing how some people perform at their best, only under pressure. They usually do pretty well in “competitive environments”, and where there’s no pressure, well, they suck, simply out of their natural element ;-).

Now, if you’re one of those individuals, also as an Ubuntu user, looking for a way to improve your typing speeds and searching for a tool that challenges you a bit, then you might wanna “Typespeed”. It’s a console-based simple game where words “fly” around from your left side to the right, and before they reach the right edge (where they get deleted), you must finish typing them!

Although, at first, it’s fairly easy as the speeds aren’t that hard to handle. But the more you type, the more words you get and the faster they come (starting with single words then it kinda starts to fill up your terminal window!

But remember, this is not a typing tutor.

Few main features …

*. It has a few built-in typing modes such as language-based words (English, German, Italian, Finnish, Thai, etc), C# programming language-based ones, Dos commands, and Unix/GNU-Linux commands.

*. When the words get closer to the right edge, they change their colors from Green to light Orange and then turn to Red when they’re about to be deleted.

*. It has a bottom status bar that shows you your current speed (WPM), word count, ranking, mistypes, etc.

*. If you find the default speeds too aggressive, you can change that by entering the “Game Rules” option.

*. Has three built-in training modes (default, classic, and training). If you want the words to come at a constant speed, then you can choose “training” under the “Game Rules” (from its main menu, type “6” and press Enter).

*. It also has a dedicated log showing you your previous ratings, speeds, and other details.

If interested, you can install “Typespeed” in Ubuntu by typing the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install typespeed

To load the game, put the below command in your Terminal window.

typespeed

To start, your Terminal has to have a specific size (80 x 24). The simple solution is to maximize it or try resizing (make it bigger) a bit. When you want to end typing, simply type the “Esc” key, which will take you to its main window.

Some Other Apps/Tools to Improve Typing Speed in Linux

1) Typon

Typon is one of the most popular typing trainer tools available. It’s a terminal-based program that offers advanced tracking capabilities to help you measure your progress over time and see how far you’ve come. As its name implies, it specializes in training users to become better typists. The program features an easy and intuitive keyboard-driven interface, enabling faster learning and ensuring consistency.

You can customize their training experience by allowing them to choose what type of content they want to practice, from quotes from famous people to random sentences or words. You can also compete against your previous best records by aiming for shorter completion times on a particular quote.

To make the most out of Typon, you need to install ncurses first – an open-source library that provides a text-based user interface making it easier for users with less technical knowledge to operate the program. Installation instructions vary depending on the operating system, but overall it’s not too difficult or time-consuming to set up Typon properly.

You can navigate the menu using the number assigned before each name (“1” for starting the game, “7” for quitting, etc). That’s it, enjoy!.

2. cli-typer

Cli-typer is a great option for anyone wanting to improve their typing skills, as it allows users to customize their wordlists and adjust the speed at which they type. To use cli-typer, you first need to have Node.js and npm installed.

Once completed, you can clone the cli-typer GitHub repository and move it into the new directory before installing cli-typer. Once everything is set up, you can start cli-typer from any directory with the ‘cli-typer’ command.

Using switches like -t, -w, and -i will also allow you to configure a basic test for yourself by setting the allowed time in seconds for each line of text typed, giving the number of words per line required, or setting the path to your customized wordlist that has one word per line. With these features and other game modes designed to challenge yourself further, cli-typer is an all-in-one solution guaranteed to increase your typing speed in any Linux Operating System.

3) KTouch

KTouch is an excellent graphical typing tutoring software that was developed by the Kde Education Project. It has multiple features to help users improve their touch typing speed and accuracy. For instance, it has a color-coded keyboard representation highlighting which key needs to be hit next. This helps visual learners unfamiliar with their keyboard layouts understand the layout quickly and easily.

KTouch also provides skeuomorphic analog dials to show how much time you have left, what your characters per minute rate are, and how accurate your typing is with each lesson.

Installation of KTouch on Debian and derivative distributions can be done through apt-get, while installation on Arch-based Linux distributions can be done through pacman. With these setup options, no matter which type of Linux distribution you use, you can quickly get up and running with KTouch to practice your typing skills!

4. tt

tt is a typing test tool that can be used in the Linux terminal. Unlike other tools, it provides no exciting phrases or quotes for you to type out. Rather, it will randomly select fifty words from the top 1,000 most common words in the English language. When users complete a test session with tt, they will receive useful statistics outlining their accuracy and speed as well as general feedback showing how they improved on previous tests.

To install tt you can open a terminal window and enter a few simple commands. Once installed, you can start up tt by entering a command into the terminal shell. For those looking for more custom experiences, users can specify the number of words they want to type at once through the -n switch and specify groups of words with -g.