ℂKey - Customisable Keyboard 4+

James Froggatt

Designed for iPad

    • 5.0 • 3 Ratings
    • Free

Screenshots

Description

This app is no longer supported. If you like the concept, please check out my new app, Keybuild! It's a ground-up rewrite, with a ton more customisation options.

Build your own keyboard - you choose the keys!

Great for maths & science work, fans of more obscure keyboard layouts, or just better expressing yourself.

Scroll down for an overview of the premade layouts and a detailed feature breakdown.

NOTES

• Add the keyboard by navigating to Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> Keyboards -> Add New Keyboard…
• Unicode characters may not display correctly in some fonts.
• Check out the subreddit at reddit.com/r/ckey/

OVERVIEW

• Add keys to your keyboard, which can type any text of any length.
• Organise related keys into multiple pages (‘panes’).
• Includes handy editing features and plenty of options.
• Built-in unicode character picker for finding new characters to add to your keyboard.
• Editable text view for trying out your keyboard designs.

DEFAULT LAYOUTS

• QWERTY, Dvorak, Dvorak Left Handed
- Layouts inspired by the originals, with an original collection of symbols.
- Use a reduced number of keys to accommodate smaller screens.
• Symbols: contains some more rarely used symbols not present on the standard layouts.
• Maths: a layout designed for general maths, with digits, pi & infinity, and a wide set of operations.
• Formal Languages: an example of a more complex, specialist layout.
• Superscript & Subscript
• x/y: all unicode fractions.

FEATURES

Keyboard:
• Your keys - the main content of the keyboard.
• Multiple panes, to organise related keys.
• A space key.
• Control keys: backspace, keyboard picker, dismiss, return.
• Alternate key forms.
- Hold a key to type it's alt form.
- Use the alt key to temporarily switch the forms around.
- Alternate forms could be capital letters, inverse operations, or something completely different.
• Swipe left on the pane list to give your keys more room in longer typing sessions.
- Swipe in from the left edge to bring the list back.

App:
• Edit panes and keys in a view resembling the keyboard itself.
- Tap a key to change what it types:
+ Keys can type any number of any unicode characters, multiline text supported.
+ Optionally use a custom keycap, instead of showing the key's output.
+ Edit the alt mode version of the key by tapping with alt mode enabled.
- Hold a key to bring up the edit menu:
+ Edit [with 1 selected] - bring up a larger version of the key editor.
+ Swap [with 2 selected] - switch the positions of two keys.
+ Gather [with >1 selected] - collect the selected keys at one spot.
+ Remove alt - remove the custom alt state, making the key match its normal state in alt mode.
+ Duplicate - quickly clone a key.
+ Cut, copy, and paste - use their established meanings (the pasteboard is shared between panes).
+ Delete - deletes a key.
+ Insert - inserts a key at the spot of the current selection.
- Enter edit mode for serious changes:
+ Drag (before selecting anything) to reorder.
+ Tap keys to select/deselect them, then hold one to bring up the edit menu and perform a batch change.
- Hold the + button to add a batch of keys, by splitting text into its individual characters (or unicode scalars).
- Set the number of rows and columns in each pane by tapping the pane editor's title.
• The unicode character map allows you to add a character to a key directly, or copy one to the clipboard.
- Enter a search, or jump to a common region or known unicode codepoint.
- Hold a character to view details.
• Editable text view, for checking out how characters look at different font sizes and weight, or just testing your latest keyboard design.
- Switch through iOS keyboard types.
- Set the keyboard's return key type.
- View the keyboard in light & dark variations.
- Set text font, alignment, and size.
• Export individual panes, or your whole keyboard, for sharing or backup.
- Creates a .ckey file (uses .plist format).
- Use iOS's ‘Open In…’ feature to load the file back into the app.
• Additional options to customise the look and feel of the keyboard.

What’s New

Version 1.11

This app has been updated by Apple to display the Apple Watch app icon.

Version 1.11 - big fixes come in small updates.

The big things:
• Unicode search results now appear live! :D
- Known issue: presses may act oddly while search results are being added. :(
• Are you a pro spy, needing to take notes while hiding in cupboards? Fear not, for key clicks can now be muted!
• Fixed the keyboard's dark appearance!
- Sorry to any users who encountered this regression for not being able to fix this sooner; I'll try to be more careful in the future to prevent this sort of issue making it out in the first place.

The notable things:
• Added a jump option to the popup that displays after long-pressing a search result, to show the result in context.

The little things:
• Editing a pane's name now temporarily hides the pane's visibility toggle, to give more room.
• Improved the reliability of the keyboard's ‘hide pane list’ swipe gesture. (Specifically, the background behind the list now also captures the swipe)

The foreshadowing:
• I've identified that most of the keyboard's loading time is not down to loading data, but constructing/rendering the views. Armed with this knowledge, I'm more prepared than ever to achieve snappy load times!
• I'm planning on bumping the version number up to 2, in one of the next couple of updates. This should come with a big increase in customisability.

Ratings and Reviews

5.0 out of 5
3 Ratings

3 Ratings

slowthly ,

brilliant

realise this is now unsupported but it's still really good - not ideal for typing because of the grid layout, but just easily made a full keyboard of regex shortcuts, which are so annoying to type with the native iOS keyboard, so if you need something along those lines it's great (typing open and closed brackets and moving the cursor inside and similar features would make it perfect though). And it's free! Will definitely be trying the new paid version, seems to have loads more features. Thanks for the app!

hvbk zzv ,

Absolutely Bug free.

This app had me confused first few times but once you get the hang of it, it works amaizingly.
However, I would like to suggest some improvements, if it isn’t toomuch hassle. Instead of being able to output the symbols (like command and shift) could we also be able to use the function of the keys? Furthermore, i don’t really like having the spacebar on the right so could you maybe let us customise the layout of the keys?

Developer Response ,

Thanks for the review! I agree on all points, and have been working to create a keyboard builder with a truly customisable layout, without the limitations of this app. Turns out to be quite a hard problem, but it's one I still really want solve. It'll use a redesigned backend and UI, so this app will remain as-is for compatibility. Keep an eye out!

App Privacy

The developer, James Froggatt, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy.

Data Not Collected

The developer does not collect any data from this app.

Privacy practices may vary based on, for example, the features you use or your age. Learn More

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