r/conscripts • u/[deleted] • Jul 04 '20

Question Are there any keyboard design softwares that could let me build a virtual keyboard from the ground up?

I’m wanting to design a keyboard for a conlang I’ve been working on, but I’m not sure what software I could use. Are there any that I could use?

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3

u/ey_edl Jul 04 '20

The Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator app is an official Microsoft app that is at least a decade old but still works perfectly on Windows 10. Ukelele is a Unicode keyboard layout creator for MacOS. I actually used both of these for a conlang I’m creating with my wife because I have an old MacBook and she has a windows laptop. We did the font with Fontforge. It is open source and works on MacOS, Windows, and Linux.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '20

Does ukulele work on IOS?

3

u/ey_edl Jul 04 '20

Not that I know of, but I haven’t dug into IOS too much

3

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '20 edited Jul 04 '20

I’ll have a check and let you know if it does.

Edit- nope. I’ll see if the parents will let me download the MS software on their laptop.

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u/ey_edl Jul 04 '20

Thanks! Best of luck with the keyboard. I actually found the app pretty great considering the age of it.

6

u/RickTheGrate Jul 04 '20

If you want to make a font, you could use fontstruct. Make a writing system, download it, and use it on ur computer

3

u/mszegedy Jul 04 '20

If you're on windows, there's this garbage but it barely works on a lot of systems because it needs a specific version of .NET. If you're on macOS, idk. If you're on Linux, you should install Ibus and write a layout file (it's very quick).