Using Flicker in lyrik.fm

Pick Flicker on the Style step: your lyrics are written on in white on black, one phrase at a time, stroke by stroke as you sing, with hard cuts between them and white flashes on the big beats.

What it looks like

• One phrase a card, centred, in big capitals with the small words written smaller between them, each row tilted a little.
• Written on as you sing, stroke by stroke, then held until the cut. Each card has its own lettering: a bigger first letter, letters a little off the line, and now and then a long swash on the last word.
• Hard cuts: a frame or two of black (blank paper in Inverted) between cards, never a fade.
• White flashes: every few cards, on a big beat, the screen flashes to white paper for half a second with the lettering in black.
• Pencil marks, scratches and dust come and go around the edges for a few frames, and now and then a big word gets underlined or ringed. They keep clear of your lyrics.
• The lines wobble gently as they're redrawn on every other frame.
• Strictly black and white. Your cover isn't shown.

Best for

• Rap, rock, dance and darker pop and indie.
• Fairly lively to flat-out songs, roughly 70 to 175 BPM.
• Songs with drops and strong downbeats: it flashes white on them.
• Dark covers suit its mood, but any cover works.

How to make it

1. On the Style step ('Pick a style.'), find Flicker. On a phone, tap the Style tab first.
2. Tap or click the card to see your clip (your first chorus, to start with) written out.
3. Choose a font under Font, a colour under Colour · from your cover, and a Lyric size.
4. Open More ways to tweak it (the More tab on a phone) for Flashes, Scratches, Wobble and Lettering.
5. Press Shuffle for new card layouts and lettering. Undo goes back.
6. Check both shapes, then press Download · from £4.99$5.99€5.99CA$8.99A$8.99.

Midnight is lyrik's own scrawled hand. Salt is a rougher marker hand. Solid is a heavy sans, typed in letter by letter in lower case, with now and then a word in tall capitals.

Available controls

Control	Choices
Font	Midnight, Salt, Solid
Colour	Our pick, Inverted, Main colour, Your colour
Lyric size	Small, Medium, Large
Flashes	Sometimes, Often, Off
Scratches	Some, Lots, None
Wobble	On, Off
Lettering	Natural, Restrained, Expressive
Ad-libs	Show, Hide

Font availability depends on your lyrics. The Ad-libs row needs marked ad-libs.

Flicker sets its own capitals and lays out each card itself, so the panel says 'Flicker chooses the capitals and where the lyrics sit for you.'

Colour

• Our pick is white lettering on black.
• Inverted is black lettering on white paper, and the flashes go black.
• Main colour and Your colour tint the white flashes only. The lettering stays black and white. After Inverted, Main colour and Your colour switch back to white on black and tint the flashes.

Tips for great results

• Short lines read best. Each line goes on one card, and a long line is cut at a natural break. See How should I paste my lyrics?
• Want it calmer? Set Flashes to Off and Scratches to Some or None. The cards still cut from line to line.
• Want it wilder? Try Flashes on Often, Scratches on Lots and Lettering on Expressive.
• For a cleaner, typed look, choose Solid.

16:9 and 9:16

• 16:9 sets each card across the middle of the frame.
• 9:16 stacks each card into a narrower column, inside the area TikTok, Reels and Shorts leave clear.

Languages

• Midnight and Salt can't draw the dots under Yoruba letters, some Igbo marks or the hooked Hausa letters (ɓ ɗ ƙ ƴ). For those songs their chips grey out and the song is written in a hand that has every letter.
• Solid can't draw the hooked Hausa letters and sets some Yoruba marks off centre, so those songs are typed in a plain bold sans instead.
• See Why is a style or font greyed out?

Good to know

• Colour, size and ad-libs carry across if you switch style, and so does energy for the styles that have it. Flicker remembers its own font and rows.
• Shuffle gives every style a new take, not just Flicker.
• Previewing is free. Your first eligible clip is free too; other downloads use credits.

If something goes wrong

• The flashes are too much. Set Flashes to Off, and Wobble to Off to hold everything still. See Reducing flashing and motion in your video
• A word is written in a different hand. Your lyrics use a letter the font doesn't have, so that word is written in one that has it.

Hidden extras

• The artist's big word on each line is always written big, so it pays to pick your big words under Big words in More ways to tweak it.
• On a computer, press S for new card layouts and F to switch shape.