The typewriter effect is one of those animations that shows up everywhere. Text intros, YouTube openers, documentary titles, hacker style terminal scenes, quote cards on Instagram. Letters appear one by one, a small cursor blinks at the end, and the whole thing just feels alive.
After Effects already has a preset built in, and applying it takes about ten seconds. The only real work is adjusting the speed, which is a two step process once you know the trick.
Here is the full method, start to finish.
Start With a New Composition
Open After Effects and create a new composition. Go to Composition and then New Composition, or just press Ctrl+N on Windows or Cmd+N on Mac.
For most projects, 1920×1080 at 30 fps works fine. If the text is going on Reels or Shorts, set it to 1080×1920 instead. Give the composition a length of around 10 seconds so you have room to work with while testing.
Set your background color if you want. A dark background with light text tends to sell the typewriter look better, especially if you are going for the terminal or console feel.
Add Your Text
Select the Text tool from the toolbar at the top, or press Ctrl+T (Cmd+T on Mac). Click anywhere on the composition and type your text.
Keep the first test short. Something like “Hello world” or a single line is enough. Once the effect is working, you can swap in the real copy.
Choose a Typewriter Style Font
The font matters more than people expect. A typewriter animation on a rounded modern sans serif looks off. A monospaced or slab serif font sells it instantly.
I am using American Typewriter Bold here. It has the slightly uneven, stamped look of real typewriter keys, and the bold weight keeps it readable at small sizes. Courier New, Special Elite, and IBM Plex Mono are solid alternatives if you don’t have American Typewriter installed.
Set your font size and color in the Character panel. Bigger is usually better for a title card. Around 100 to 150 px on a 1080p composition is a reasonable starting point.
Apply the Blinking Cursor Typewriter Console Preset
Now go to the Effects and Presets panel. If you don’t see it, open it from Window and then Effects & Presets.
In the search box, type “typewriter” or “blinking cursor”. Look for the Blinking Cursor Typewriter Console preset. Once you find it, drag it directly onto your text layer in the composition or in the timeline. Both work.
Press the spacebar to play. The letters should now type themselves in with a cursor blinking at the end.
Slow Down the Typing Speed
The first thing everyone notices is that the default speed is far too fast. The whole line types out in under a second, which is fine for a code terminal but useless for a title you actually want people to read.
Fixing this is simple. Click on the text layer in the timeline to select it, then press the U key on your keyboard. This is the shortcut that reveals every keyframe on the layer, so you don’t have to hunt through nested properties to find them.
You will now see the keyframes laid out on the timeline. Grab the last keyframe and drag it to the right. The further you drag, the slower the typing gets. Drag it to around the two second mark and play again. Keep adjusting until the pace feels natural.
If you want the animation to start later, select all the keyframes together and slide the whole group to the right instead of moving them individually. Moving them one at a time changes the speed. Moving them together changes the start time.
Pressing U twice quickly shows every modified property on the layer, not just the keyframed ones. That is handy when you want to see everything the preset changed.
Change the Cursor Shape
The preset adds a cursor at the end of the text, and you are not stuck with the default. Select the text layer and open the Effect Controls panel.
Inside the effect properties you will find a setting for the cursor character. Change it to whatever fits your design. A solid block cursor gives you that old command line look. A thin vertical bar feels more modern. An underscore sits low and reads as classic typewriter.
You can also adjust how fast the cursor blinks. A slower blink feels calmer. A faster blink adds urgency, which works well for tech and gaming content.
Remove the Cursor Completely
Sometimes the cursor is a distraction, especially when the text is part of a larger layout with other moving elements.
In the Effect Controls panel, find the checkbox that turns the cursor on and off, and uncheck it. The letters will still type in one by one, just without the blinking cursor following them. This is the version I use most often for lower thirds and subtitle style text.
Small Touches That Make It Look Better
A few extra things worth doing once the basic effect is working.
Add a sound effect. A typewriter key click layered under the animation makes a huge difference. Free typewriter clack sounds are easy to find, and lining the audio up with the keyframes takes a minute.
Hold the final frame. Let the finished text sit on screen for at least two seconds before it cuts or fades out. People need time to actually read it.
Try a slight fade out at the end instead of a hard cut. Set two Opacity keyframes on the text layer, 100 percent to 0 percent over about 15 frames, and it feels much cleaner.
If you have multiple lines of text, put each line on its own layer and stagger the start times. One line finishes typing, the next one begins. Trying to type multiple lines from a single layer usually looks cramped.
That’s the whole thing. Create a composition, type your text in a typewriter style font, drag the Blinking Cursor Typewriter Console preset onto the layer, press U to reveal the keyframes, and drag them apart until the speed feels right.
The cursor shape and blink rate are yours to adjust in Effect Controls, and you can switch the cursor off entirely if the design is cleaner without it. Once you have done it once, the whole setup takes under a minute.