# Keyboard and terminal settings

These controls describe **Inkline 0.4.18**. Terminal shortcuts and direct USB
Send have different behavior, described below. Physical Folio/USB checks remain
separate from automated report and input tests.

Each new terminal prints a short shortcut guide with a small Goblin logo and the
current Caps Lock setting before starting the shell. Switching back to an open
terminal preserves its contents and does not repeat the guide.

Tap **AppLoad → Inkline**, or press **Opt+RightAlt+T** to open Inkline on the tablet.
AppLoad is part of the standard install; after reboot, three quick power-button
clicks enable its menu.

Hold the separate **Opt** key, between Ctrl and Alt on the Folio, and press
**1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0** for **F1–F10**. This uses the keyboard's Meta
modifier. On USB keyboards, the shortcut follows the active layout's Meta key;
physical function keys continue to work normally.

Hold the **right Alt/Option** key for these other shortcuts:

| Right Alt/Option + | Result |
| --- | --- |
| Tab | Escape |
| Up / Down | PageUp / PageDown, sent to the program |
| Left / Right | Previous / next terminal |
| Space | Open or close Settings |
| 1–9 | Select terminal slot 1–9 |
| Backspace | Ask to quit Inkline |
| C / V | Copy selection / paste clipboard |
| X | Copy selection and explain how to cut in the editor |

**Left Alt+Space** opens or closes the Unicode keyboard. The number shortcuts use the physical top number row. USB numeric keypads keep
their usual behavior. Left Alt remains available for ordinary terminal input,
including Emacs Meta commands, except for Alt+Space. Ctrl, Shift, and Alt can combine with Opt's
function keys.
Right Alt is reserved for the listed shortcuts, including on layouts that call
it AltGr; other keys retain their layout's normal input.

On the **US Type Folio**, **right Alt/Option + 0** types `+`. The right-hand
modifier no longer turns the number row into function keys.
Hold **right Alt/Option** and press the **minus key
immediately left of Backspace** (marked `-`, `_`, and `=`) to type `=`.
With input method **Off**, **Shift+6** types a literal `^`: typing `c^2` produces
those three characters. The Folio's standalone accent keys are converted to
literal punctuation before Inkline's selected input method processes them.
US-International still composes accents when explicitly selected; pasted and
committed Unicode text is preserved.

## Direct USB keyboard sending

In **Settings → USB → Send → Keyboard + pen → Open typewriter**, editing stays
local until you tap **Send**. On the Send page, keys operate the receiving laptop
without updating the local buffer. Terminal shortcuts and input methods are
bypassed, including Caps Lock-to-Control and Opt+number function-key remapping.
The host handles key repeat. Tap **Editor** with a finger to stop live sending.

For a US Folio, choose a **US keyboard layout on the laptop**. Inkline translates
the Folio's printed symbol keys to US HID reports: `0` / `)` / right Alt+`0` give
`0` / `)` / `+`; the key left of Backspace gives `-` / `_` / `=`. Its accent keys
send literal `~`, `"`, backtick, apostrophe and `^`. Modifiers and releases stay
paired with the physical key, even if Shift or right Alt is released first.
These are direct press/release reports, with no text queue or per-key redraw.

The Send page also lists RAM documents and files you can tap to send in sequence.
Document speed and Unicode profiles affect those sends; ordinary keys remain
unpaced and interrupt the document queue. USB networking defaults to On and can
coexist with keyboard and pen HID. Typewriter requires an unfolded Type Folio;
pen and eraser events go only to USB while fingers operate its controls.

## Nine terminals

Left and Right wrap through nine numbered slots. Visiting an empty slot starts a
shell. Each slot keeps its own programs, working directory, live screen and
graphics, and background terminals continue receiving output. The Settings
button shows the active terminal among the number currently open, with a slot label when slots are nonconsecutive; when the bar is hidden, a brief label appears after
switching terminals.

Swipe **two fingers left** for the next terminal or **right** for the previous
one. Each swipe changes one slot and wraps through the same nine slots as the
keyboard. One-finger dragging remains text selection.

Type `exit` or press Ctrl+D at a shell prompt to close that terminal. Inkline
switches to another open terminal, or returns to notebooks after the last one
closes. **Right Alt+Backspace**, **Ctrl+Shift+Q**, and the **Quit** button ask
before closing all terminals. The prompt starts on **Cancel**. Press Escape to
cancel, or select Quit with Tab/Right and press Enter to confirm.

## Caps Lock, battery, and the bottom bar

Tap the rightmost **Settings** button or press **right Alt/Option+Space**. Tab or Up/Down
moves keyboard focus; Left/Right changes a value, and Enter or Space activates it.
A **solid black fill and filled circle** mark the active choice. A **dashed outline**
marks keyboard focus, independently of the chosen value. Escape closes Settings. Touch also
works throughout the panel.

- **Caps Lock key:** choose Control (the default) or Caps Lock. In Control mode,
  hold Caps Lock while pressing a letter, such as Caps Lock+C for Ctrl+C. This
  applies inside Inkline; the choice does not change notebook keyboard settings.
- **Bottom bar:** choose Shown or Hidden. Its four sections are Esc, battery
  status, Quit, and Settings. Hiding it gives its rows back to the terminal;
  right Alt/Option+Space still opens Settings. Ctrl+Shift+B is passed to the
  terminal unchanged for programs such as Emacs.

Inkline reads battery state from Linux's read-only power-supply interface once
per minute and does not write it to storage. Run `inkline-battery` for percentage
and charging state, `inkline-battery --percentage` for a single compact value,
or `~/inkline battery`. The installer adds that compact value to Inkline's
no-color Bash prompt while leaving shells outside Inkline alone.

## Wi-Fi settings and command

Wi-Fi is page 4 of Settings, after Command shortcuts and USB. Opening the page
starts a scan without writing storage. `●` marks the connected network and `◆`
marks a saved profile. Focus or tap a network, then choose Connect. A saved
profile switches without saving the firmware configuration. An open or WPA
Personal network asks for explicit confirmation or a masked password and is
saved once, after connection succeeds. A failed password is removed from the
in-memory configuration. Forget has a separate confirmation and one save.

Passwords are kept in RAM, sent to `inkline-wifi` through a private pipe, and
then sent directly to the root-only `wpa_supplicant` socket. They are never put
in command arguments, Inkline logs or shell history. Enterprise, WEP and
SAE-only networks are visible but unsupported in this preview.

From a shell, use `inkline-wifi list` to scan or `inkline-wifi pick` for the
numbered interactive picker. `~/inkline wifi ...` is an equivalent launcher
alias. `inkline-wifi status`, `disconnect`, and the non-interactive forms shown
by `inkline-wifi --help` are available for scripts.

Keyboard, input-method, font-size, and bottom-bar preferences are stored in
`~/.config/inkline/settings.ini` and survive restarts. Display tuning stays in RAM.
Font changes remain in RAM and are saved when Inkline exits normally.
Only a changed preference writes this file; typing, graphics and switching
terminals do not save it. Ordinary Caps Lock's on/off state starts off each time.

Right Alt+Up/Down sends page keys to the current application. Inkline keeps no
terminal scrollback, so two-finger vertical motion has no saved history to show.
This bounds each slot's terminal memory; full-screen applications retain their
usual alternate screen.

## Text size

**Pinch with two fingers** to resize text from **6 to 48 pixels**. Pinching has
about half its previous proportional response and moves in **one-pixel steps**
for finer control. Settings' minus and plus buttons still adjust by two pixels.
The size applies to all nine terminals, and existing shells receive a resize
without restarting. A cancelled pinch restores the previous size.

Keyboard zoom combinations have been removed from both Alt keys. Punctuation
and ordinary Alt input now reach the running program.

## Text selection and clipboard

Drag one finger, the pen, or a mouse across text. When an application requests
mouse input, hold Shift to select locally with the pen or mouse instead.
The selected cells invert.
Dragging past the top or bottom scrolls history; a tap clears the selection.
Hold **right Alt/Option+C** to copy and **right Alt/Option+V** to paste. Soft-wrapped
lines copy as one line, and Unicode characters remain intact. The clipboard is
shared by all nine terminals and is cleared when Inkline exits. It is private to
Inkline, not the notebook application's clipboard.

Applications can set or query this clipboard through **OSC 52**. The clipboard
holds UTF-8 text up to **128 KiB**; oversized writes are rejected without
truncating or replacing existing contents. Its contents and selection are never
saved to disk. Programs in any open terminal can query it, including a remote
program when the connection forwards OSC 52. Paste respects bracketed-paste and
kitty clipboard paste-event modes and strips unsafe control bytes. An explicit
paste can contain multiple lines; at an unbracketed shell prompt these can run
as commands.

**Cut needs the editor's cooperation.** The terminal displays output but has no
way to delete the corresponding document text. **Option+X** copies a terminal
selection and displays this explanation. Use the editor's own Cut command to
remove text; an editor with OSC 52 clipboard integration can send that cut text
to Inkline. OSC 52 itself does not request deletion.

## Asian and accented input

Open **right Alt/Option+Space → Input method**. Tap a method or select it with Up/Down and
Enter. **Off** restores direct keyboard input. The selection is saved for all
terminals; each terminal keeps its own unfinished composition.

| Method | Entry |
| --- | --- |
| Romaji | Japanese hiragana, such as `nihongo` → `にほんご`; no kanji conversion |
| Pinyin | Chinese syllable candidates, such as `ni` + Space → `你` |
| Zhuyin | GoblinView's basic Bopomofo keyboard mapping, such as `su` + Space → `你`; not a complete Taiwanese IME |
| Wubi 86 | Chinese shape-code candidates, such as `a` + Space → `工` |
| US-International | Common dead-key accents, such as `'e` → `é` and `~n` → `ñ` |

The strip above the bottom bar shows composition and numbered candidates.
**Space/Enter** selects the first candidate, **1–9** or a tap selects another,
and **[ / ]** (also `, / .` or `− / =`) changes pages. Zhuyin gives its letter
keys priority, including digit keys assigned to Bopomofo; tapping candidates
works there too. **Backspace** edits composition; **Escape** cancels it. Ctrl/Alt
commands still reach the running program. Switch to Off for literal ASCII entry.

The engine and dictionaries are adapted from GoblinView. The dictionaries load
on demand in RAM; there is no typing history, learned dictionary, or input cache.
Inkline privately loads OFL-licensed Noto CJK, Noto Symbols 2, GNU Unifont and
Unifont Upper without changing system fonts or creating a font cache. Noto
keeps ordinary text and common symbols readable; Unifont supplies broad
last-resort BMP and supplementary-plane coverage. Some rare glyphs can still
be absent because no practical single font covers all Unicode characters.

## Typewriter editor

Open **Settings → USB**, select **Send keyboard** and a receiving-computer
profile, then choose **Open typewriter**. The large area is a local text editor.
Physical and Unicode-keyboard input edits its document; while **live** is on,
each committed character also goes to the connected computer. **Pause live**
stops USB output while editing continues. Copy, cut, paste, cursor keys,
finger/pen selection, and two-finger scrolling operate on the local document.

**Files & send** opens the document screen:

- The Path field accepts any filename. Load and Save read or write UTF-8 and
  do not require a `.txt` extension.
- Choose 5, 10, 20, 40, or 80 characters per second, then tap **Send entire
  document**. The same button becomes **Stop sending document** during output.
- **New** clears the RAM editor and gives it no persistent name.
- **Back to editor** resumes normal editing. **Exit typewriter** on the editor
  returns to USB Settings; it is the normal way out of Typewriter.

Ordinary editing, selection, scrolling, acknowledgements, and opening or
closing these screens do not write the document to flash. **Save** writes it
explicitly. On a normal Inkline exit, a changed named document is written back;
an untitled document uses `~/.inkline-typewriter-draft` as a hidden recovery
name. A forced kill or power loss can lose changes made since the last save.

The command-line sender is `keyboard-send`:

```sh
inkline-usb send-keyboard
keyboard-send --file notes.txt --profile windows --cps 20
keyboard-send --stop
inkline-usb network
```

`~/inkline type` and `inkline-type` remain compatibility aliases.

## Wired USB keyboards

Connect the keyboard through a suitable USB host adapter or hub. Inkline uses
Qt's keyboard discovery, so no event-device number needs configuration. The same
shortcuts and Caps Lock setting apply to Folio and USB input. USB hotplug,
keyboard LEDs and layout-specific combinations remain physical acceptance checks.
When the keyboard occupies the USB port, use the tablet's Wi-Fi address for SSH.

The installer preserves open terminals during an update.
Quit and reopen Inkline once to start the new version. The older release stays
on storage for the existing process and rollback.

## E-paper updates

The **E-paper updates** row changes both output batching and the stock firmware
waveform used for Inkline's full-screen region:

| Profile | Firmware mode | Behavior |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Fast | Animation | Immediate interactive redraws and 16 ms output batching. Lowest delay, with more visible ghosting. |
| Balanced | UI | Clear UI updates, 4 ms interactive delay and 32 ms output batching. |
| Crisp (default) | Content | The cleanest grayscale waveform, with 12 ms interactive delay and 60 ms batching. Physical updates take longer. |
| Mono | Mono | Fast black-and-white text with 24 ms output batching. Graphics lose their gray shades. |
| Saver | UI | 40 ms interactive delay and 120 ms batching, requesting fewer updates during bursts. |

The setting applies to the whole Inkline window and all nine terminals. It stays
in RAM and returns to Fast when Inkline closes. Fast or Balanced suits typing;
Crisp suits static graphics and dense pages; Saver suits long command output
when immediate feedback matters less.

Inkline also keeps one grayscale surface per open terminal. Libghostty marks
changed rows, so typing redraws those rows directly instead of rebuilding and
comparing the whole screen. On the reMarkable 2 test device, a dirty text-row
render averaged about 0.37 ms while a dense full 1840 × 1280 render averaged
about 554 ms. The physical e-paper update follows that application render.

## Text darkness and minimum contrast

In Settings (right Alt/Option+Space), drag **Text darkness** with a finger, pen
or mouse. Keyboard users can focus the slider with Tab or Up/Down and adjust
with Left/Right; Home/End selects the endpoints. 50% preserves the original
rendering. Normal text is already black; higher values darken its smoothed
edges without changing glyph positions, graphics, backgrounds, or app colors.

**Minimum contrast** prevents terminal foreground and background luminance from
being too close. 0% disables the floor; higher values move only the text color
toward black or white until the requested gap is reached. Backgrounds and
graphics are unchanged.

The surrounding terminal previews both changes. All preferences stay in RAM
when you lift your finger, close Settings, switch terminals or suspend. Changed
values are saved together on normal Inkline exit (including a service stop);
unchanged sessions write nothing. A forced kill, crash or power loss can lose
changes since launch. Darkness defaults to 50%, minimum contrast to 35%, and
the update mode to Crisp; explicitly saved values take precedence.

## Power button and sleep

Press and release the tablet's physical power button to suspend, and press it
again to wake. A high-contrast sleep panel stays on the e-paper display until
the terminal is restored after wake. If an inhibitor refuses suspension, the
terminal returns immediately. Inkline and its shells remain in RAM. No notebook
handoff or settings save occurs during sleep; network connections may need to reconnect.
The launcher ignores the wake press and release to avoid immediately sleeping
again. Leave about two seconds after waking before requesting another sleep.
After an upgrade, quit and reopen Inkline once: an already running old launcher
retains its previous sleep inhibitor until it exits.

## Unicode keyboard and pen mouse

**Left Alt+Space** opens a category-based Unicode keyboard. Tap a character
to type it; drag vertically or use the wheel, arrows and page keys to browse.
Tab changes category. Typing a hexadecimal codepoint followed by Enter inserts
that character. F2 opens Settings; Escape or Done closes the keyboard.
The catalog follows Qt's Unicode version and excludes control characters,
unassigned values, surrogates and noncharacters. Font coverage varies.

The pen sends left-button mouse events when the program has enabled terminal
mouse reporting. Hold Shift to select local text instead. Otherwise pen drags
select text normally. Switching sessions or losing focus releases a held
button in the original terminal.

See [global program shortcuts](global-shortcuts.md) for Opt+RightAlt bindings and
emergency recovery, and the [PDF manual](Inkline%20Manual.pdf) for a complete guide.

Global launchers use the separate Folio Opt key; on USB keyboards its equivalent
is Windows/Command (Super). Settings → Command shortcuts is page 2 of Settings.
The terminal launcher, custom commands and held emergency recovery all require
Opt+RightAlt. Ordinary Ctrl+Alt remains available to Emacs. After upgrading, quit
and reopen Inkline to load the new input handling and Settings page.