This section gives usefull information of how Touch-It manages keyboard rendering.

• Size, position and zoom
• Image rendering
• Image creation
• Margins
• Active regions
• Localization
• Keystrokes
• Screen position

Related links Packaging, Setup - Templates.

To allow end user to adjust keyboard to its monitor resolution and thus to use any templates, Touch-It works with zoom functions. Real size and position become (almost) obsolete notions.

Related link Default - Images.

Touch-It uses different algorithms to render images and texts. Before creating an image, you should figure out which of them fits your needs.

Stretching

This figure shows the result when different zooms are applied.
The rendering is fine up to 100% of the image size.

Optimization

The bevel and shadow effect are preserved, whatever is the size of the button.

Create a round rectangle from a spheric image.

Repeat

The image is repeated.

The No cut options ensure that all images are 100% in view. The result is then centered in the key.

Difference between Cut and No cut features.

Related links Default - Images, Default - Text, Guidelines.

Images can be either PNG, JPG or BMP of any color depth.

32 bits alpha channel of PNG images is fully supported. This allows to have keyboards and keys of any shapes, partially transparent and with shadows.
Note that many drawing tools are capable of creating PNG images. However not all of them manage the alpha channel. Some simply replace it by a white (or background) color. Our preference goes to the freeware GIMP.

For pictograms (glyphs) of 24 bits or lower, the transparency is (optionally) created using the bottom-left pixel as the transparent color. Note that this color should be used only for the background or the resulting image may look altered. Don't use this feature with 32bits png images. The alpha channel would be recreated with less accuracy.

This figure shows the transparency
generation from the bottom-left pixel.

BMP Pictograms of 1 or 8 bits grayscale have their color modified to match the font color assigned to the key.

This figure shows the same 8 bits grayscale
image with its color according to the font color.

This image has the main part (the sphere) centered in the canvas.
All spheres can be easily placed on the same radius.

The full image is centered in the canvas. Spheres are no longer on the
same radius. All keys should be moved separately without the use of
guidelines to obtain the same rendering than the figure above.

Related link Default - Images, Default - Colors.

Margins define the usable area of the key to display texts or glyphs. If the text does not fit this area, it is truncated.

Different margins are applied whether the key is up or down. This allows to shift the text position to give the final 3D effect.

Up and down image effect.

When using stretched pictograms, margins should be set to ensure a bound rectangle proportional to the image size. Note that the pictogram size depends only on the image up margins. Margins for image down are used only to shift its position.

Margins set to keep the image proportional.

Active regions

Related link Toolbar - Project.

The active region (clickable) of the key is generated from the alpha channel. No part whithin your bound image should be fully transparent or the click may have no effect once in a while. To avoid this behaviour, add a semi-transparent background to your image shape (~3% opacity).

This figure shows the Internet Explorer icon converted to a png image. Without
rework, some parts of the image are inactive. Adding a semi-transparent
background doesn't change the look of the image but make it entirely clickable.

Related links Text key, ABC key, Unicode.

Touch-It uses keyboard scancodes insteed of hard coded characters. This makes the same templates usable in any western languages. (Asian languages may require some rework.)

Available layouts depend on the Windows regional settings.

Related links Send keystrokes (Key list), Text key, ABC key.

Touch-It can send simple characters and strings but also any keystrokes. You can then reproduce any standard shortcut and create new key combinations.

The text above sends the text copyright© Chessware SA.
The copyright symbol is created using the ansi code 0169.

Open the Multiline editor and press the Record keystrokes button to add key code with up/down event. A down key is represented in red starting with a dot [.KEYNAME]. A key released in green starting with a semicolon [:KEYNAME].

If you manually edit the states, be sure to release the key. If not, the key will still be seen as pressed after the macro is terminated and the result of the next mouse click or keyboard key may be unpredictable.

It is also possible to include unicode characters in the text. Just open the Unicode table , select the right symbol and press the Paste to focused window.

Standard shortcut samples
Open the Windows explorer + E	[.LWIN][.E][:E][:LWIN]
Cut (copy, paste)	[.CTRL][.C][:C][:CTRL]
Save (in your favorite editor)	[.CTRL][.S][:S][:CTRL]
Custom shortcuts
Scroll up three lines	[.UP][:UP][.UP][:UP][.UP][:UP]
Mixing shortcuts and text
Add comment marks (double slash) at the beginning of the line and scroll 1 line down	[.HOME][:HOME]//[.DOWN][:DOWN]

Related links Packages, Drive key, Open keyboard key, Position key.

• Appbar: The keyboard stands on an edge of the screen.
• Corners: The keyboard stands in a corner of the screen.
• Floating: The keyboard can be moved freely on the screen or between monitors.

Appbar, corners or floating keyboard.