---
name: "ticker"
subtitle: "An LED-style scrolling ticker for the Mac menu bar, fed from the command line"
date: 2026-05-06
link: "https://github.com/rhsev/ticker"
linkText: "github.com/rhsev/ticker"
source: "Brett Terpstra"
topics:
  - macos-apps
  - tools
tags: [menu-bar, cli, retro, open-source]
description: "Notifications stack and disappear; ticker scrolls through the menu bar at 20fps in 5×7 dot matrix, and the motion is what catches your eye."
---

The author's case for ticker: motion catches the eye, notifications don't. ticker scrolls a queue of messages through a configurable-width menu bar slot at 20fps in a 5×7 dot-matrix font (Adafruit GFX bitmap), advancing one column per frame so it stays pixel-smooth without burning CPU. Drive it from any script with `ticker --send "..."`, `--urgent`, or `--very-urgent` (which interrupts the current scroll). macOS 12+, Apple Silicon or Intel.