Spb Full Screen Keyboard 3.

0 Skin Format Description

Spb Full Screen

Keyboard 3.0
Skin Format Description

Abstract:
This document describes creating skins for Spb Full Screen Keyboard 3.0. Spb Full
Screen Keyboard is a full screen input method for Pocket PC.

Created By: Alexander Shtuchkin

Creator Email:
Creator Address:
Created On:
Last Changed On:
ashtuchkin@softspb.com
Spb Software House
Vozrozhdeniya 4, Saint-Petersburg
198904 Russia
Phone: +7 812 324 49 44
July 8, 2005
July 9, 2005

Copyright 2002 Spb Software House Created July 08, 2005

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Spb Full Screen Keyboard 3.0 Skin Format Description

Table of Contents
Table of Contents..................................................................................................2
Overview.............................................................................................................2
Graphics File........................................................................................................2
Text file...............................................................................................................3
List of commands.......................................................................................4
Creating New Skin................................................................................................5

Overview
The Spb Full Screen Keyboard skin consists of two files:
• Graphics file.
• Description text file.
These files are packed into one redistributable package. After installing to PocketPC,
they will be placed in \Program Files\FullScreenKeyboard\skins\<Skin Name>\
directory.

Graphics File
Simplest graphics file is a 720x320 image which consists of three parts: normal,
pressed and the mask. Example:

Each button corresponds to a certain color in the mask. All the area filled with this
color is considered to be the area of the button. When a user presses a button the
program finds all the points colored as the pressed one and turns them into the
“pressed” state (a picture from the pressed part will be taken for these points).
Make sure to create a unique RGB code for each button.
VGA skins have the same structure, but every part is twice as big (480x640 instead of
240x320). The program automatically determines the size of the skin and behaves
accordingly.
For keyboards that require two or more pages for describing the buttons (usually
bilingual keyboards with different character sets) you should create a multipage skin.
Multipage skins are formed by placing additional pages under the first one (see
SimpleVGA skin in the Skin Making Set).

Copyright 2002 Spb Software House Created July 08, 2005

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Spb Full Screen Keyboard 3.0 Skin Format Description
The picture can be in one of 3 formats: PNG (.png), BMP (.bmp) and Zipped BMP (.zip
or .bz). To create Zipped BMP you should just pack BMP file with WinZip or compatible
program.
To make the package smaller and make skin loading faster, it is recommended to use
16-bit Zipped BMP format.

Text file
Each skin should also contain a text file that describes what color in the mask
corresponds to a certain character or action. This is a simple text file (ASCII or
Unicode).
It is recommended to use existing text files and modify only picture files. It will save
you a lot of time and efforts.
Each key in the text file is described by a pair of lines. The first line contains an RGB
description (the code) of the color that represents the button in the mask. The second
line contains all possible characters that can be entered by this key depending on its
current state. Here is a sample part of such a file (a part of a Swedish language skin
file was taken as very significant):
240 48 224
tT

Here the numbers in the first line represent RGB code of the color. There is one
restriction to these numbers – each component should be in form R, G, B = 8*n (this
is because internally all colors are stored as 16 bit and only 5 higher bits from each
component is taken).
The second line contains a character "t", which is produced by this key in normal
mode, and a character "T", produced by the key in shift mode. No more modes are
assumed for this key; therefore in any other mode the key will produce only "t"s and
"T"s.
48 144 248
uU««ũŨúÚùÙüÜûÛ

The next pair of lines describes another key. As above, the first line contains an RGB
code. The second line contains symbols produced by this key in 14 (!) modes. Here
they are:
u Key
U Shift+Key
« Fn1+Key
« Fn1+Shift+Key
ũ Shift+Fn1+Key
Ũ Shift+Fn1+Shift+Key
ú Fn2+Key
Ú Fn2+Shift+Key
ù Shift+Fn2+Key
Ù Shift+Fn2+Shift+Key
ü Fn3+Key
Ü Fn3+Shift+Key
û Shift+Fn3+Key
Û Shift+Fn3+Shift+Key

As you can see, switching between modes is provided by series of pressing Shift and
functional keys. There can be an unlimited number of functional keys, though most
national keyboards get by with three. It is strongly recommended to set the same

Copyright 2002 Spb Software House Created July 08, 2005

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Spb Full Screen Keyboard 3.0 Skin Format Description
diacritic marks for all letters (if available) in one mode (in our example Fn3 and Fn3
Shift provide umlaut for U, I, O, A).
In particular situations there can be three symbols provided by a key, e.g.:
16 176 32
åÅ+

In this case the "+" symbol will be produced in Fn1 and Fn1 Shift modes, and å and Å
in all other modes (with Shift and without).
Certain keys do not produce symbols but provide additional functionality (Enter, Shift,
Fn, Tab, Backspace, etc). They are described by command codes. Each key is
described by one line, the first three numbers of which is an RGB code, and the fourth
is a command code, e.g.:
80 96 144 -258
72 32 40 -257
96 240 96 -8

where -258, -257, and -8 are command codes. Here is a list of all commands:

List of commands
-272 Caps
-256 Shift
182 Enter
-37 Left
-39 Right
172 Tab
-8 Back
-257 Fn
-3 SIP button. It is just a place holder. A standard SIP.
-257 … -271 Fn1 through Fn15
-95 Next Page (for multipage skins)
-96 Previous Page (for multipage skins)
-100 … -105 Page1 throuth Page 5 (for multipage skins)
-14 Edit box. Not a button, just points to the place where Edit box
should be placed. In case there is no such color, Edit box is placed
in standard place (the same as in Standard skin).

Copyright 2002 Spb Software House Created July 08, 2005

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Spb Full Screen Keyboard 3.0 Skin Format Description

Creating New Skin

To create new skin please follow these instructions:
1. Create a new subfolder in \source folder with the name of your new skin.
2. Create/copy picture and text files.
3. Create/copy settings.bat and replace the name and technical name of your
skin. Also you can set the name of picture and text files if they are different
from the technical name. Do not forget about the extension of the picture file.
Technical name may not contain spaces.
4. Execute \source\build_skin.bat with your skin folder as the parameter. This
creates packages in \release folder. Alternatively, you can execute
\build_all_skins.bat, which builds packages for all the skins in \source folder.

Copyright 2002 Spb Software House Created July 08, 2005

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