Using Xerox in lyrik.fm

Pick Xerox on the Style step: your cover is photocopied and cut into a collage, and each line of your lyrics slams in on a torn paper strip, on the beat.

What it looks like

• A punk zine page. Your cover is photocopied into halftone dots and cut into two to four pieces. If there's a person on it, they're cut out with scissors and taped down.
• Torn strips of lyrics. Each line is a torn paper strip of heavy, narrow capitals that slams in on the beat.
• Big words stand out. A line's big word gets its own ink label, and it stretches wider while you hold the note.
• Choruses hit harder. The page flips to a negative print with a third ink, and the camera punches in.
• The bridge goes one-ink. Drops flash for a moment.
• Hand-made motion. It moves on every other frame, like stop-motion.
• Words wait their turn. The rest of the phrase you're singing waits on its strip as a light dot screen, and prints solid as you sing each word.

Best for

• Rap, grime, boom bap, punk-pop, rock and pop.
• Mid to high energy, roughly 65 to 175 BPM.
• Fast verses: it reacts to every word.
• Covers with a person on them, because it cuts them out for the collage. Dark covers print in two inks.
• Not ballads. For a slow, quiet song, try Postscript or Widescreen.

How to make it

1. On the Style step ('Pick a style.'), find Xerox. On a phone, tap the Style tab first.
2. Tap or click the card. Your clip (your first chorus, to start with) plays in Xerox.
3. Choose a 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 the background, energy, capitals and ad-libs.
5. Press Shuffle for a new layout. Press Undo to go back to the take before.
6. Check both shapes with 16:9 YouTube and 9:16 Shorts.
7. When you're happy, press Download · from £4.99$5.99€5.99CA$8.99A$8.99.

Available controls

Control	Choices
Font	Original, Techno, Bold sans, Tabloid
Colour	Our pick, Dark, Two-ink, Main colour, Pop, Muted, Black & white, Pink & blue, Your colour
Lyric size	Small, Medium, Large, Huge
Capitals	ALL CAPS, lowercase
Background	Photocopy, Newspaper, Lyrics only
Energy	Calm, Normal, Hype
Ad-libs	Show, Hide

Font availability depends on your lyrics. Colour choices can depend on the cover, and the Ad-libs row needs marked ad-libs.

There's no row for where the lyrics sit. The panel says 'Xerox chooses where the lyrics sit for you.' Use Shuffle for a different layout.

Tips for great results

• Use a cover with you on it. The scissor cut-out is the heart of the collage.
• Pick the big words. Under More ways to tweak it, open Big words and choose the word on each line that should get its own ink label. Fewer big words hit harder. See How do I choose which word stands out on each line?
• Try Hype for rap. It makes the strips land harder on the beat.
• Shuffle a few times. Each take cuts the cover differently. Your font, colour and size stay as you set them.
• Want it louder still? Xerox Poster sets each phrase as a huge flyer instead of strips.

16:9 and 9:16

• 16:9 spreads the collage across the frame, with the strips stacked over it.
• 9:16 always has a halftone portrait running off the edge of the frame. The strips stack inside the area that TikTok, Reels and Shorts leave clear, and a short word such as 'the' or 'I' usually joins its neighbour rather than standing alone. See Will TikTok, Reels or Shorts buttons cover my lyrics?

Languages

• All four fonts set accented letters and Yoruba marks.
• If your lyrics use the hooked Hausa letters (ɓ ɗ ƙ ƴ), or Igbo letters whose marks would collide in the font, the whole song moves to a matching font that has them. It never mixes fonts within a song.
• ALL CAPS follows your language's rules, so the Turkish dotted İ and Yoruba marks come out right.
• See Why is a style or font greyed out?

Good to know

• Your colour, size, capitals, ad-libs and energy follow you if you switch style. Xerox remembers its own font and background.
• Shuffle gives every style a new take, not just Xerox. See What does Shuffle do?
• Previewing and changing options are free. Check your download price separately, including any first-clip offer.

If something goes wrong

• A font chip is greyed out. Tap it to see which letters it lacks, for example 'This font doesn’t have ẹ ọ, which your lyrics use'. Pick another font.
• The strips feel too busy. Try Calm under Energy, or fewer big words.
• The preview looks soft on your phone and says 'Simplified for your phone. Your download is full quality.' Only the preview is simplified. See The preview is slow or choppy

Hidden extras

• On a selected colour chip (not Our pick or a ready-made set), tap again to swap the colours round. Two-ink goes through other ink pairs too.
• On a computer, press S to shuffle and F to switch between 16:9 and 9:16.