Terminal emulator + USB keyboard utility

Your terminal.
On paper.

Inkline is a real terminal emulator and a small Unix workspace for reMarkable 2. It also works like an AlphaSmart: write on the tablet, then let it type live or send the whole document into another computer as a USB keyboard.

Install the preview Try USB typing

v0.4.10 preview / Tested on firmware 3.27.3.0

Goblin, a fluffy black and white Silkie chicken, illustrated in ink — A little less screen. A little more ink.

reMarkable 2Type Folio + USB keyboardsWi-Fi + USB network + USB keyboardKitty + initial sixelGPLv3+

01 / The terminal

Made for a slower screen.
Ready for real commands.

Keep your keyboard.

Use Type Folio or an external USB keyboard. Open Inkline with Opt+RightAlt+T, move between nine terminals, and choose whether Caps Lock acts as Control. Pinch to resize text; swipe sideways with two fingers to switch terminals.

Keep images in RAM.

Inline and shared-memory kitty graphics stay in an adaptive RAM arena. Images use eight gray levels, try lossless JB2 first, and fall back to IW44 when needed. Nothing spills to flash.

Keep your notebooks.

Start Inkline when you need it. Quit to return to the notebook interface. A small shortcut service stays available after reboot; notebooks remain the default.

Your tools, one shortcut away.

Add Emacs, Git, Python, TeX, remote shells and other utilities. Assign Opt+RightAlt+letter to a command in Settings or from the shell. T always opens Inkline.

Explore the utilities ↗

Let the tablet do the typing.

Switch the USB-C port from device networking to an outgoing USB keyboard. Type live with Folio, or send a saved text file into the document open on your desktop. Keep Wi-Fi connected so you can still control the tablet.

Two ways to send your words ↓

Make the screen yours.

Choose an e-paper update mode, text darkness and minimum contrast. Use Japanese or Chinese input, Latin accents, a Unicode picker and a shared RAM clipboard. Settings save on normal exit.

Choose Wi-Fi on the tablet.

Scan and join from Settings page 4, or use the inkline-wifi numbered picker. Saved-network switches stay in RAM; only a successful new profile or confirmed Forget writes the firmware configuration.

inkline-wifi ↗

Wi-Fi

Stay in control.

SSH to the tablet while the USB-C port is busy. Use Wi-Fi to manage files, start a bulk send, or switch USB mode remotely.

USB device network

Install and maintain.

Use the familiar reMarkable USB network for installation, shell access, and copying files when the port is in Network mode.

USB keyboard

Type into a computer.

Switch the same port to a standard keyboard gadget. Folio keystrokes or a complete UTF-8 draft become input in the focused desktop app.

Inkline 0.4.10 on screen

A terminal for text, tools, and graphics.

Current Inkline running on reMarkable 2, plus the Emacs/LaTeX workflow and protocol test.

Inkline 0.4.10 terminal running on reMarkable 2 — **Terminal.** The installed ARM build, with the no-color prompt, battery status, shortcuts, and one of up to nine shell sessions.

Goblin Purrfect showing Unicode text and a formula through Kitty graphics in Inkline — **Kitty graphics in Purrfect.** The e-paper editor displays Unicode text and an equation delivered through the Kitty graphics protocol.

GoblinView overlapping monochrome terminal windows in Inkline — **GoblinView.** Overlapping terminal windows in strict monochrome mode, running on the tablet with `goblin-view -m`.

Emacs showing LaTeX source beside a PDF preview delivered through Kitty graphics — **Emacs, LaTeX, and Kitty.** Source beside its compiled PDF preview. The preview package keeps build files and its image cache in RAM.

Chawan web browser displaying the Inkline website inside the terminal — **Cha.** Chawan 0.4.4 browsing the project site inside Inkline.

Inkline rendering inline Kitty and sixel protocol test graphics — **Graphics protocol test.** Kitty and sixel terminal content rendered by 0.4.10; retained images share the adaptive compressed RAM arena.

The terminal, GoblinView, Purrfect, and Cha frames were captured over Wi-Fi SSH from the installed ARM build. Capture helpers and output stayed in the tablet’s RAM-backed /tmp.

GoblinView

Run overlapping terminal windows in strict monochrome mode, with Kitty graphics passed through to Inkline.

goblin-view -m

Emacs + LaTeX

Edit source beside its compiled PDF. ghostty-tex sends the preview through Kitty graphics while build files stay in RAM.

emacs -nw paper.tex

Goblin Purrfect

Open the writing environment with its e-paper display profile selected automatically on reMarkable 2.

goblin-purrfect edit notes.wp

Cha

Browse the web inside the terminal and let Kitty-capable pages share the same grayscale screen.

cha https://example.org/

Touch controls and shell basics.

Scrollback is disabled to conserve RAM. Swipe two fingers left for the next terminal or right for the previous one. One finger selects text. The pen acts as a mouse when requested by an app; hold Shift to select text instead.

Switch languages. Switch back.

Press right Alt/Option+Space to open Settings, choose Input method, then tap a method or choose it with Up/Down and Enter. Left Alt+Space opens the Unicode keyboard. Romaji enters Japanese hiragana; Pinyin, basic Zhuyin, and Wubi 86 enter Chinese; US-International adds common Latin accents.

For normal US typing, choose Off — direct keyboard in the same menu. Your choice applies to all nine terminals and is saved across restarts. Each terminal keeps its own unfinished composition.

Language switching and typing examples ↗

Bundled Noto and GNU Unifont fallbacks add broad Unicode coverage, including CJK, symbols and historic scripts. Right Option+C/V shares a RAM clipboard between all nine terminals and OSC 52 applications.

02 / Typewriter

Write here.
Type over there.

Typewriter gives the terminal an AlphaSmart-like side: draft in a focused editor, save when you choose, then let the reMarkable act as a USB keyboard for a Mac, Linux, or Windows computer.

Your reMarkableUSB keyboardYour desktop document

Inkline Typewriter editor with live USB output on — **Write and send live.** The local document stays editable while each typed character also goes to the connected computer.

Inkline USB settings with Send keyboard selected — **Choose the port’s job.** Network, outgoing keyboard, or a wired keyboard as input.

Inkline Typewriter file and whole-document send controls — **Send the draft.** Load or save any UTF-8 filename, pick 5–80 characters per second, and stop whenever needed.

USB networking and USB keyboard mode share one physical port, so only one can be active at a time. Wi-Fi SSH remains available while Inkline is typing into the other computer.

Install Inkline and the Python utility. Use Type Folio while the tablet’s USB-C port connects to your computer with a data cable. For these first examples, select a US keyboard layout on the computer and turn Caps Lock off.

Try it / Live typing

Send a few letters.

On the tablet, open Settings → USB (page 3). Choose Send keyboard, then the US / ASCII profile and Open typewriter.
On the computer, open a blank document and click where the text should go. Type Hello from Inkline. in the tablet editor. Each character edits the local draft and is also sent to the focused desktop document while live typing is active.
Tap Pause live to edit only the tablet document; a black PAUSED · USB OUTPUT OFF badge makes the state unmistakable. Tap Exit typewriter to return to USB settings; that button is the normal way out of Typewriter.

To send the same greeting from the command line, close Typewriter first and run these commands in Inkline. The five-second delay gives you time to focus the destination document.

~/inkline usb send-keyboard &&
keyboard-send --text 'Hello from Inkline.' --profile us --start-delay 5

Try it / A saved draft

Write in Emacs. Send the file.

Install the Emacs utility, then create a plain-text draft in Inkline:

mkdir -p ~/writing
emacs -nw ~/writing/letter.txt

Write your letter. Press Ctrl+X, then Ctrl+S to save; press Ctrl+X, then Ctrl+C to exit Emacs. The saved file stays on the tablet. Typewriter can also load and save any UTF-8 filename from its Files & send page.

Connect the computer and open the receiving document. Run this in Inkline to validate the whole file, switch USB mode, then type it at up to ten characters per second. Click the destination during the five-second delay.

keyboard-send --file ~/writing/letter.txt --profile us --dry-run >/dev/null &&
~/inkline usb send-keyboard &&
keyboard-send --file ~/writing/letter.txt --profile us --start-delay 5 --cps 10

The file’s text is typed into the receiving app; formatting and files are not transferred. Keep the source unchanged during sending, then save the receiving document. File sending streams through RAM without temporary spool files or a fixed file-size limit.

Stop, save, or switch back.

In Typewriter, open Files & send to save or load a document, choose 5–80 characters per second, send the whole editor, or stop an active send. The editor stays in RAM until Save or normal Inkline exit; an untitled document uses a hidden recovery name only at exit.

For a command-line send, press Ctrl+C on the tablet to stop. From another Inkline terminal, the first command below stops the sender. The second restores USB networking. Closing Inkline also restores networking.

keyboard-send --stop
~/inkline usb network

Run mode changes on the tablet or over Wi-Fi SSH. The same USB port cannot provide network access while it is acting as a keyboard.

More than ASCII.

Choose a profile that matches the receiving computer: Mac uses Unicode Hex Input for characters through U+FFFF; Linux needs compatible Ctrl+Shift+U input; Windows uses WinCompose. Configure that input method first, then change --profile us to --profile mac, --profile linux or --profile windows. Live Typewriter also supports Inkline’s Japanese and Chinese composition methods.

Host setup and USB details ↗

03 / Current state

A working preview.
With the edges visible.

Inkline is being built in the open. The installation procedure is part of the project, including preflight, verification, recovery, and removal.

See the device test record

Tested

Twenty-two automated checks cover terminal graphics, input, sessions, clipboard, battery reporting, USB text encoding, the Typewriter editor, Unicode fonts and recovery. USB mode switching and network restoration have been exercised on reMarkable 2.

Installation

Version 0.4.10 targets firmware 3.27.3.0. Updates preserve open terminals; quit and reopen Inkline to use the new version. I confirmed Type Folio typing and keyboard launch after a fresh reboot in an earlier release.

Still growing

Kitty Unicode placeholders, animation playback and complete sixel display modes remain unfinished. Sixel is not yet advertised automatically. USB typing in desktop apps, the current Opt+RightAlt launch chord, physical gestures and USB hotplug still need broader hardware testing.

What changed

Inkline 0.4.10

September 17, 2026

An accepted suspend request no longer restores the terminal before the kernel has finished entering sleep.
Every resume transition restarts a two-second monotonic delay. Time freezes during suspend, so the terminal returns only after the tablet remains awake.

Inkline 0.4.9

The sleep image now stays visible throughout reMarkable 2’s deep-to-shallow suspend sequence.
Clock jumps still suppress the wake button, but only the completed systemd suspend operation restores the terminal.

Inkline 0.4.8

The power button now paints a high-contrast sleep screen before suspension and leaves it visible on the e-paper display while the tablet sleeps.
The live terminal returns after wake or immediately if an inhibitor rejects suspension. Twenty-two host checks cover the new display and recovery paths.

Inkline 0.4.7

Scrollback is disabled, and hidden terminals retain compressed eight-level frames instead of raw framebuffers.
Bilevel images first use lossless DjVuLibre JB2; other eight-level images try three JB2 bitplanes. Poor results switch to IW44.
Kitty, sixel, and hidden screens share an adaptive RAM arena that starts empty, grows when memory is available, and evicts old entries under pressure.
Typewriter recovery loads only when opened, Asian input dictionaries use packed storage, and the launcher no longer leaves a wrapper shell resident.

Inkline 0.4.6

Settings page 4 now scans, joins, switches, and forgets Wi-Fi networks.
inkline-wifi list and inkline-wifi pick provide the same controls at the command line.
Scans and saved-network switches stay in RAM. Passwords never enter arguments or logs; successful additions and confirmed removal each save once.

Inkline 0.4.5

The bottom bar now shows Escape, battery state, Quit, and Settings. Right Alt/Option+Up/Down still sends PageUp/PageDown, so the duplicate touch buttons are gone.
Right Alt/Option+Space opens Settings; left Alt+Space opens the Unicode keyboard. Ctrl+Shift+B now reaches Emacs and other terminal programs unchanged.
inkline-battery reports percentage and charging state. Inkline uses its compact value in a no-color shell prompt, and reads battery state without storage writes.
Typewriter now shows distinct high-contrast badges for paused, connecting, live, and whole-document output.

Inkline 0.4.4

Typewriter is now a RAM-backed editor. Load or save any UTF-8 filename, select a send speed, send the full document, stop in progress, or keep typing live. Document edits touch storage only on Save or normal Inkline exit.
The editor now has an explicit Exit typewriter button. The public file and text sender is keyboard-send.
Noto Sans Symbols 2 and GNU Unifont fallbacks add broad Unicode coverage under the SIL Open Font License. The new fonts add about 11.2 MiB installed.

Inkline 0.4.3

Inkline is GPLv3-or-later. Settings → About & licenses shows copyright notices, complete license texts and source information offline. Use the buttons, keyboard, mouse wheel, finger or pen to read them. Browsing notices never writes to storage.
Every download includes the original third-party notices and matching source archives. The package checks that all notices are present.

Inkline 0.4.2

Settings → USB (page 3) switches between networking, outgoing keyboard and receiving a wired keyboard. Typewriter sends Folio input, including Japanese and Chinese composition, to a connected computer. Escape pauses; exiting Inkline restores networking, including after a crash.
Send UTF-8 files with no fixed size limit or temporary spool files. Choose US/ASCII, Mac, Linux or Windows (WinCompose). The single LaTeX-built PDF manual covers USB setup and typewriter use in all nine languages.
Settings → Command shortcuts (page 2) lets you assign a command to a letter. Choose Terminal or Native e-paper app, then Save. Remove asks for confirmation; Reset draft discards edits. T is locked. Only Save and confirmed Remove write to storage. The command-line tool manages the same bindings.
All global shortcuts use Opt+RightAlt, including T and the held Backspace recovery chord. Use the Folio’s separate Opt key; on USB keyboards use Windows/Command (Super). Ordinary Ctrl+Alt remains available to Emacs. Quit and reopen Inkline after upgrading; installation preserves open terminals.

Set up USB keyboard and typewriter ↗

Inkline 0.3.8

Fixed the keyboard launcher's boot installation. Its service file is available before the home filesystem mounts, and startup waits for the application bundle. Updating migrates the old links automatically. A fresh reboot on firmware 3.27.3.0 confirmed automatic launcher startup and keyboard launch.

Inkline 0.3.7

Fixed graphics clearing: the tablet's clear command removes the startup Goblin and other visible Kitty and sixel images.

Inkline 0.3.6

September 15, 2026

Alt+Space opens a scrollable Unicode keyboard, grouped by category. Tap a character or enter its hexadecimal codepoint.
Nine terminal slots, right Alt/Option+1–9 to select them, and an indicator that counts the terminals actually open.
Pen input reaches apps that request mouse events.
Register Opt+RightAlt program shortcuts. Opt+RightAlt+T stays reserved; hold Opt+RightAlt+Backspace for two seconds to recover from a hung app.
One PDF manual includes nine languages, with a language index at the beginning. It is built with LaTeX and ships with the installer.
The power button suspends the tablet and preserves open shells in RAM. Press it again to wake.

The 0.3.5 display changes are included: choose Fast, Balanced, Crisp, Mono, or Saver in Settings.

Read the PDF manual (9 languages) ↗

04 / Make it yours

A shell. Your tools.
On your tablet.

Install the Inkline preview, then add remote shells, editors, Git, and Python.

Install Inkline Browse the utilities ↗