Can text cursor use emoji?

Yes. Pass any word or emoji as text, such as a star or a heart, and copies trail the pointer.

How do I install Text Cursor?

Text Cursor is part of Charcoal UI Pro. Add the @charcoal registry to components.json with your access token, then run npx shadcn@latest add @charcoal/text-cursor. It copies text-cursor.tsx into components/ui and installs motion, clsx, tailwind-merge.

Is Text Cursor free for commercial use?

Text Cursor needs a Charcoal UI Pro seat, monthly or a one-time lifetime price. A seat covers unlimited personal and commercial projects, including client work, and every future Pro component.

Does Text Cursor work with Next.js?

Yes. It is a client component for React 19 styled with Tailwind CSS 4, so it works in the Next.js App Router and Pages Router, Vite, Remix and Astro.

Can an AI coding agent install Text Cursor?

Yes. Connect the Charcoal UI MCP server (https://charcoalui.com/mcp) to Claude Code, Cursor or any MCP client; get_component returns Text Cursor's props and get_install_command returns the exact command.

Text Cursor

Copies of a word or emoji spawn along the pointer path, facing the direction of travel, then drift up and fade. Mouse only.

Category: Text
Licence: Charcoal UI Pro
Built with: React 19, Tailwind CSS 4, Motion
Dependencies: motion, clsx, tailwind-merge

Examples

Text Cursor

API reference

Prop	Type	Default	Description
`text`	`string`	`"✦"`
`spacing`	`number`	`40`	Pointer distance between spawns, in px.
`lifetime`	`number`	`900`	How long each copy lives, in ms.
`maxItems`	`number`	`24`
`randomRotation`	`boolean`	`false`
`color`	`string`	`"var(--color-ember)"`
`children`	`ReactNode`	—
`className`	`string`	—

About Text Cursor

Text Cursor spawns copies of a word or emoji along the pointer path, facing the direction of travel, then drifts them up and fades them. It is a playful trail for creative pages.

Text Cursor is a text animation for React 19, styled with Tailwind CSS 4 and animated with Motion. It drops into Next.js, Vite, Remix or Astro through the shadcn CLI as a single file you own.

When to use Text Cursor

Brand playgrounds.
Event and celebration pages.
Portfolio hero sections.
Kids and gaming sites.

How it works

Copies spawn every spacing pixels and live for lifetime milliseconds, capped by maxItems. It only reacts to a mouse.

The real text stays in the page for screen readers and search engines; the animated letters are decorative copies marked aria-hidden. With prefers-reduced-motion on, it holds still or settles instantly instead of animating.

Customizing Text Cursor

Every prop is documented in the API reference above with its type and default. The ones you will reach for first are listed here.

The Customize panel next to the preview lets you change text, spacing, lifetime, randomRotation live, and the Code tab updates to match, so the snippet you copy already carries your values.

text (string, default "✦").
spacing (number, default 40): Pointer distance between spawns, in px.
lifetime (number, default 900): How long each copy lives, in ms.
maxItems (number, default 24).
randomRotation (boolean, default false).
color (string, default "var(--color-ember)").

Goes well with Text Cursor

These text pieces share its tokens and motion language, so they sit together on one page without clashing.

Scramble Text: React scramble text: characters cycle through glyphs before locking in
Rotating Text: React rotating text that rolls between words letter by letter and resizes smoothly
Highlight Text: React highlight text: a marker sweep, hand-drawn underline or scribbled circle on scroll
Text Morph: React text morph: shared letters glide to new spots while the rest blur in and out
Split Flap: A React split-flap display: every cell flips through the drum to its letter

Install Text Cursor

npx shadcn@latest add @charcoal/text-cursor

Text Cursor is part of Charcoal UI Pro. One seat unlocks all 300 Pro components, 107 landing-page sections and 100 full templates, for every personal and client project, with updates included. Add the @charcoal registry once with your access token, then the command above copies text-cursor.tsx into components/ui and installs clsx, tailwind-merge.

You own the file you install: no runtime package, no lock-in, nothing to keep in sync. Change it however your product needs.

See Charcoal UI Pro pricing · Pro setup

Frequently asked questions

Can text cursor use emoji?: Yes. Pass any word or emoji as text, such as a star or a heart, and copies trail the pointer.
How do I install Text Cursor?: Text Cursor is part of Charcoal UI Pro. Add the @charcoal registry to components.json with your access token, then run npx shadcn@latest add @charcoal/text-cursor. It copies text-cursor.tsx into components/ui and installs motion, clsx, tailwind-merge.
Is Text Cursor free for commercial use?: Text Cursor needs a Charcoal UI Pro seat, monthly or a one-time lifetime price. A seat covers unlimited personal and commercial projects, including client work, and every future Pro component.
Does Text Cursor work with Next.js?: Yes. It is a client component for React 19 styled with Tailwind CSS 4, so it works in the Next.js App Router and Pages Router, Vite, Remix and Astro.
Can an AI coding agent install Text Cursor?: Yes. Connect the Charcoal UI MCP server (https://charcoalui.com/mcp) to Claude Code, Cursor or any MCP client; get_component returns Text Cursor's props and get_install_command returns the exact command.

Text Cursor as Markdown · llms.txt