Author Topic: KBHack - keyboard layout/legend designer (Read 8683 times)

Matt3o · « **on:** Fri, 28 September 2012, 13:19:26 »

I started working on a software (codenamed KBHack for obvious reasons) which should help design layouts, keycaps colors and legends. It is web based (ie: it runs on your browser) and I'd like to release it under a GPL licence so anyone can contribute to it.

It is still in a very early development stage but it already capable of doing something like this:

It also supports multiple key styles

And more can be easily added.

You can alter key size, color, legend, font, you name it

It's not ready for public consumption yet, but I'd be more than happy to receive your suggestions and wishlist in this initial phase.

Already in my to-do:
- Upload custom legend/images
- Images along text
- Multiple legend per key
- Export in JPG/PNG/SVG
- Support common color codes (eg: SP ABS/PBT colors)
- Multiple fonts support
- Direct link to a custom design
- ISO layout

If there's be enough interest I'll keep developing it and I'll push it to a public repository (such as Github), otherwise I'll keep it for myself

jwaz · « **Reply #1 on:** Fri, 28 September 2012, 13:33:43 »

I wan't to try this out, will we be able to do weird ergonomic layouts?

Matt3o · « **Reply #2 on:** Fri, 28 September 2012, 13:38:27 »

Quote from: JesuswasaZombie on Fri, 28 September 2012, 13:33:43

I wan't to try this out, will we be able to do weird ergonomic layouts?

yes, if there's enough interest for such a thing

jwaz · « **Reply #3 on:** Fri, 28 September 2012, 13:40:30 »

please please please!

TheProfosist · « **Reply #4 on:** Fri, 28 September 2012, 13:41:13 »

WANT! can it do the crazy stuff that I do like my Custom 7bit Layout?

Matt3o · « **Reply #5 on:** Fri, 28 September 2012, 13:45:47 »

Quote from: TheProfosist on Fri, 28 September 2012, 13:41:13

WANT! can it do the crazy stuff that I do like my Custom 7bit Layout?

indeed. the layout is completly free. You can have all alpha with 1.25 if you are so inclined

alaricljs · « **Reply #6 on:** Fri, 28 September 2012, 13:46:27 »

Shoot, I think JWAZ went for the jugular, I was going to be gentle and ask if it supported ISO.

Matt3o · « **Reply #7 on:** Fri, 28 September 2012, 13:49:57 »

Quote from: alaricljs on Fri, 28 September 2012, 13:46:27

Shoot, I think JWAZ went for the jugular, I was going to be gentle and ask if it supported ISO.

ISO is definitely in my to-do for version 1.0. Ergo layouts are more complex, maybe in v2.0.

SmallFry · « **Reply #8 on:** Fri, 28 September 2012, 14:49:08 »

This is way cool!

davkol · « **Reply #9 on:** Sat, 29 September 2012, 06:44:49 »

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GMC · « **Reply #10 on:** Sat, 29 September 2012, 07:16:29 »

Pure layout possible?

Matt3o · « **Reply #11 on:** Sat, 29 September 2012, 07:28:14 »

Quote from: davkol on Sat, 29 September 2012, 06:44:49

Github! Please!

yep, soon on github

Quote from: GMC on Sat, 29 September 2012, 07:16:29

Pure layout possible?

yes. you have full control over the number and size of keys and rows. You can do virtually any layout. Pure, race, HHKB, ... The most common layouts will be pre-configured, so if you need a custom build your best option is to start from the closest default layout and edit the key parameters. I'll try to post some video tutorials too.

GMC · « **Reply #12 on:** Sat, 29 September 2012, 07:45:31 »

Very cool. Should make mockups really slick.

Calade · « **Reply #13 on:** Sat, 29 September 2012, 12:27:54 »

Looks and sounds great, can't wait to try it out!

Matt3o · « **Reply #14 on:** Sun, 30 September 2012, 07:21:59 »

First screencast just to tease you a bit.

aeta · « **Reply #15 on:** Sun, 30 September 2012, 07:31:35 »

Wow thats awesome

Cindori · « **Reply #16 on:** Wed, 24 October 2012, 04:05:04 »

Can't you release it? And maybe have this thread moved to "Making stuff" category for better exposure.

I think koreans would be all over this stuff.
Is it done in java?

Matt3o · « **Reply #17 on:** Wed, 24 October 2012, 06:04:22 »

it's plain javascript + html5 (it works only on decent/modern browsers). I'll release it as open source project as soon as I reach beta stage

SmallFry · « **Reply #18 on:** Wed, 24 October 2012, 07:16:35 »

Have you Git'd this yet?

Matt3o · « **Reply #19 on:** Wed, 24 October 2012, 10:05:40 »

I've been busy with work lately, but I'll release this on github really soon. Thanks for the interest!

The_Beast · « **Reply #20 on:** Wed, 24 October 2012, 10:14:55 »

Quote from: Matt3o on Wed, 24 October 2012, 10:05:40

I've been busy with work lately, but I'll release this on github really soon. Thanks for the interest!

This is super cool.

You should put in a color accurate selection of SP ABS and PBT color rings on a drop down/preset colors type list

absyrd · « **Reply #21 on:** Wed, 24 October 2012, 10:26:05 »

Nice work. Very interested to see how this develops!

Matt3o · « **Reply #22 on:** Wed, 24 October 2012, 10:29:36 »

Quote from: The_Beast on Wed, 24 October 2012, 10:14:55

You should put in a color accurate selection of SP ABS and PBT color rings on a drop down/preset colors type list

yes, that's in the work. would be nice to have a good picture of all the colors (as I don't have a color ring, and they always seem sold out). There's a picture of them on SP site, but it's really bad quality.

if anyone is listening, I would need a picture of the color samples on a pure white surface. It needs to be really white, one sheet of paper is not enough as the background surface may shine through. Even better would be to have a reference for pure white+black+cyan+magenta+yellow printed with a good printer on quality paper.

TheProfosist · « **Reply #23 on:** Sun, 04 November 2012, 01:33:01 »

Glad this is coming alog would make my life a ton easier.

Cindori · « **Reply #24 on:** Mon, 05 November 2012, 16:29:54 »

bump

Matt3o · « **Reply #25 on:** Tue, 06 November 2012, 01:40:34 »

I'm doing this in my spare time and for free, please be patient

davkol · « **Reply #26 on:** Tue, 06 November 2012, 17:14:29 »

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MissMurd3r84 · « **Reply #27 on:** Fri, 30 November 2012, 06:40:18 »

*cough*Bump *Cough*

Matt3o · « **Reply #28 on:** Fri, 30 November 2012, 08:25:11 »

sorry guys I was busy with this http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=35842.msg726160#msg726160 lately and I don't have time for 2 side projects

Anyway the group buy will be handled by samwisekoi so I'll have some spare time back

Marclgw · « **Reply #29 on:** Wed, 19 December 2012, 21:19:41 »

Definitely interested in this designer.

SmallFry · « **Reply #30 on:** Wed, 19 December 2012, 21:25:52 »

Code please!:)

tauburn · « **Reply #31 on:** Wed, 19 December 2012, 21:46:37 »

looks really cool. it would certainly make ordering keysets from suppliers easier since you can simply show them exactly what you want.

deepthawt · « **Reply #32 on:** Wed, 09 January 2013, 21:46:17 »

*bump*

codymaust · « **Reply #33 on:** Fri, 11 January 2013, 11:19:52 »

Quote from: SmallFry on Wed, 19 December 2012, 21:25:52

Code please!:)

Matt3o · « **Reply #34 on:** Fri, 11 January 2013, 12:01:42 »

I'm back on it. My monitor died during the holidays and RMA took a lot of time.

Expect some news in the coming days.

JPG · « **Reply #35 on:** Fri, 11 January 2013, 12:06:43 »

Interested here!

reverkiller · « **Reply #36 on:** Fri, 11 January 2013, 15:02:02 »

I saw this and thought it would be fun to code it myself, so I did:

http://pstalcup.1.ai/keyboard/

Its garbage and inferior but I heard a rumor that being the first to the market is a good strategy

This was intended to be a fun coding exercise. I'll be figuring out how to export as PNG pretty soon, if you're interested in that.

metalliqaz · « **Reply #37 on:** Fri, 11 January 2013, 15:32:00 »

Looks cool but none of the buttons do anything for me

JPG · « **Reply #38 on:** Fri, 11 January 2013, 15:37:31 »

Quote from: reverkiller on Fri, 11 January 2013, 15:02:02

I saw this and thought it would be fun to code it myself, so I did:

http://pstalcup.1.ai/keyboard/

Its garbage and inferior but I heard a rumor that being the first to the market is a good strategy

This was intended to be a fun coding exercise. I'll be figuring out how to export as PNG pretty soon, if you're interested in that.

Works, but can't add rows or make it larger!

reverkiller · « **Reply #39 on:** Fri, 11 January 2013, 15:54:07 »

Quote from: metalliqaz on Fri, 11 January 2013, 15:32:00

Looks cool but none of the buttons do anything for me

Oh yeah. The way you select things is you click on the key you want to modify, and change it.

Sorry if it sucks I coded it in about 4 hours just to pass the time before I go back to school

davkol · « **Reply #40 on:** Fri, 11 January 2013, 16:03:29 »

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reverkiller · « **Reply #41 on:** Fri, 11 January 2013, 16:10:58 »

Quote from: davkol on Fri, 11 January 2013, 16:03:29

Quote from: metalliqaz on Fri, 11 January 2013, 15:32:00
Looks cool but none of the buttons do anything for me

It appears to work in Chrome, but not in Firefox. FFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-!!!!!!

eep I'll boot up firefox and firebug and figure it out

deepthawt · « **Reply #42 on:** Fri, 11 January 2013, 19:52:12 »

nice!
Works great in Chrome
I like this 'bigass enter', 'short right shift', big backspace and the ? and the / and \ keys on the same line

nifty

nice work on the layout design tool

domoaligato · « **Reply #43 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 12:09:38 »

Could this have a option to export to gh60.xml/layout formats?
This could be really cool web based toolkit for the gh60.

Matt3o · « **Reply #44 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 12:50:21 »

I started working on hasu's code just now and I think an online firmware builder would be awesome

CPTBadAss · « **Reply #45 on:** Thu, 25 April 2013, 12:54:57 »

People are always asking about this in the IRC chat, I'd love to see a version pushed out to the community. There seems to be a lot of interest for this.

domoaligato · « **Reply #46 on:** Fri, 26 April 2013, 01:39:02 »

The youtube video of this in action looks amazing.

Melvang · « **Reply #47 on:** Fri, 17 May 2013, 01:09:27 »

Any updates on this project Matt? Although an online firmware generator would be AMAZING for us non coding types.

Matt3o · « **Reply #48 on:** Fri, 17 May 2013, 02:02:02 »

so many on going projects

slowly... I'm getting there

0100010 · « **Reply #49 on:** Thu, 27 June 2013, 22:05:49 »

This is not a bump.

News:

Author Topic: KBHack - keyboard layout/legend designer (Read 8683 times)