Feedback on Keyman 15.0 Alpha

Overjoyed at this new feature. Just what our projects need!

I would like to increase the font size (and font) of the characters on the key-caps of the phone touch-layout. I tried to do this through the ā€œKeyboardā€ ā†’ ā€œFontsā€¦ā€ menu dialog box, but it didnā€™t seem to change the size when I compiled the keyboard and tried to install it on my android phone.

Is there a different way to do this, or did I just mess up doing it the right way? :slight_smile:

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My understanding is that the Fonts menu in Keyman Developer is purely for the developer as he/she develops the keyboard. I think itā€™s the Keyman 15 app on your phone that needs adjusting for font size. I havenā€™t tried Keyman 15 yet, but I think thatā€™s right. Also, the font would need to be included in the keyboard package (kps file should include it).

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Font scaling is probably best handled in a custom CSS. This can be included in the keyboard with the &kmw_embedcss system store. You will want to take care to handle various screen sizes and device scales, which can be controlled with CSS media queries. Testing can be a bit of a pain if you donā€™t have access to a wide range of devicesā€¦

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The font size have changed?

I know this will not in any way affect the keyboardā€™s performance, but I prefer the font size in 15.164-alpha to the one in 15.169-alpha.

Screenshot_20211216-210125~2
15.164-alpha (normal font size, I like this)

Screenshot_20211216-124952~2
15.169-alpha (large font, I donā€™t reallyā€¦)

Hmm, this was not intentional ā€“ we were working on font size for tablets where there were some inconsistencies. Looks like we have a regression from https://github.com/keymanapp/keyman/pull/5906.

Can you give some detail on the situation in which you are using the keyboard?

  • Is it in the app, the emulator, Keyman Developer web debugger, or elsewhere?
  • What is the device, and Android version you are using?
  • Is this the published version of obolo_chwerty?
  • Have you specified a font and/or size in the .keyman-touch-layout file?

With that detail, weā€™ll re-open this and work to fix it. Itā€™s not simple because of the wide variety of devices we are dealing with!

  • Iā€™m using the keyboard in the app.
  • Tecno POP3, Android 8.1
  • The keyboard in the 1st image (top) is the published version, while that in the 2nd image is not yet published. Both versions used to display with those small fonts until 15.165 and 15.169. I canā€™t tell the behaviour in 15.166-8; I havenā€™t tested those.
  • Iā€™ve specified a font but not size. The keyboard font is NotoSans Regular. Iā€™m not aware font size could be specified.

Thank you for the additional feedback ā€“ thatā€™s helpful.

I will work on resolving this before release. I will try to get the patch in before beta but definitely we will fix before 15.0 stable is released. About to go on break for Christmas/New Year so will be January at earliest.

Tracking this at https://github.com/keymanapp/keyman/issues/6076

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I am trying to replicate this here on a virtual device but am not getting the same results. You can see what @Darcy got at bug(web): font size is still wrong after #5906 Ā· Issue #6076 Ā· keymanapp/keyman Ā· GitHub ā€“ I see the same thing. So something is different between what you have and what we have. Can you confirm the screen resolution and size of the Tecno Pop 3?

Iā€™m awfully sorry, my phone is Pop 2, Android 8.1, not Pop 3. I noticed it later but I thought thereā€™s no much difference. So sorry. I can send you the current version (unreleased) of the keyboard if that would help.

Double-tap or long-press to select duplicates the word instead of selecting it.

Keyman 15.0.188 for Android
Android 8.1
Tecno POP 2

I think the basic specs are very similar, so it probably doesnā€™t change anything in our testing. It would be good to see your keyboard as I am not reproducing the issue in the way you experience it.

See https://github.com/keymanapp/keyman/issues/6177 ā€“ can we track this there?

Thank you for sharing the project. Iā€™ve replicated the font size here. It turns out that this was inconsistent in earlier versions of Keyman for Android, as your phone was being treated as a tablet. So the font size is more consistent in Keyman 15 as your phone is being treated as a phone :). We are hoping to dramatically improve the whole look and feel and customisability of the on screen keyboard in Keyman 16, so can you live with the change in font size for now?

I can, since Iā€™m expecting more fixes/improvements in 15 beta.

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Great, thank you! Weā€™re getting very close to beta ā€“ had to delay a little as we had a set of issues with text selection that needed careful attention.

Ok. Just one more thing, in case that might help in any way:
This keyboard doesnā€™t have a phone layout; only a tablet layout. So, phones use the tablet layout.

I was just wondering today why my phone was being treated as tablet, then I remembered the design.

Keeping my fingers crossed for 15 beta. More strength to the Keyman team.

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Yeah, that doesnā€™t impact Keymanā€™s tablet detection code ā€“ itā€™s a completely separate issue. Tablet detection is fraught because Android doesnā€™t actually define what a tablet is. We may improve on this in future versions with specific form factor dimension breakpoints (based most likely on horizontal physical size of screen), and map tablet to >= 7 inches or something like that.

The issues with text selection and editing have (finally!) been fixed ā€“ a big job across 3 platforms (web, iOS, Android)! They should land in release 15.0.204

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We have now published 15.0 beta. Please post any additional feedback in the new community topic at Keyman 15 Beta Feedback :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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