Author: grant

Techne (Emacs Friendly Keyboard): Operations Keys

The most important keys on any keyboard for an Emacs user are the Operation Keys (I made up that term). Without them Emacs would be useless. For Techne (the new name for my Emacs keyboard project) I decided to use symbols instead of letters for them.

The operations cluster is on both the left and right side of the keyboard. Yes, that is a full twenty keys just to make life happier in Emacs! I love keyboards so dedicating twenty keys to a critical task is perfect for me. These sections live on a eight row by sixteen column layout so there is plenty of room. It’s bottom left corner is position (1,1) (Row, Column) increasing as you go up and to the right (ala Cartesian coordinates). In the table I wrote the key name and then the symbol. The picture only includes the symbol.

Legend: C# (column number)

Row Four Five Six Seven Eight
Two Hyper ⬖ Super ⬙ Meta ⬗ Control ⬘ Space ⭕
One Alt ⎇ GUI ⃟ Ultra ◆ Shift ⇧ Enter ⎆

16-10-26-01_Left_Operations.png

Ultra is: C-m-S-H. Emacs can handle that including the Shift modifier along with it. In case you haven’t encountered it yet, here is how to get all of the Emacs modifiers on a modern USB keyboard.

My symbol choices started with Sun’s meta symbol. After playing around with that, reading Xah’s page on Unicode input symbols, searching for and comparing symbols with PopChar and playing around with a ton of combinations I ended up here. It is nice because it settles on the diamond theme.

Chapter 101. Managing Layer Panel Options 10:23

  • Isolation mode will be useful for working with individual keyboard-layers while still being able to see how things look overall
  • Double-click on an object to go into isolation mode automatically
    • Use that back arrow in the top-middle thing
    • Exit by double-clicking on the artboard
  • Select an object with the Direct Selection tool and search for it in a layer and it will list all instances it can find
  • Merge selection layers
  • Flatten every layer into a single layer
  • Select N things and collect in a new layer
  • Release to layers
    • Sequence: NA
    • Build: NA
  • Make the layer a template
  • Option-Show/Hide will hide/show everything but that layer
  • Out line others: WOW
    • Option-command click to do it too
    • Preview all layers to show them again
  • Lock Others
    • Option-Click
  • Paste Remembers Layers: Neat
  • There are general options for the layer panel itself
    • Show Layers Only
    • Make layers big
    • Do I need sub-layers shown?

Chapter 100. Layer Panel Options 4:26

  • Double-click layer name to change it
  • Each layer’s options are configured individually
  • Template Layer
    • Not designed to print
    • Designed to guide you
  • You can disable a layer from printing
    • Make it easy to read on a computer and also printed
    • Instructions on how to do something
  • Preview a whole layer
  • Dim images

Chapter 99. Generating Layers And Moving Objects 5:34

  • Two workflows in AI
    • Path of logic and order
      • Watch what you are doing
      • Organize the document up front
    • Having fun with the journey
      • Don’t watch what you are doing logically
      • End up with complicated document in one layer
  • Layers → Properties → Flatten Artwork
    • Flatten all layers
    • Cool!
  • In the Layer panel you can expand that layer to show all of the objects that live inside of it
    • Groups are containers so they are expandable
  • If you aggressively utilize Groups for all of you Objects then even if you did place everything in one layer you can easily pull out group(s) of objects into a new layer.
  • For each layer you choose a color of the bounding box for when you select something in that layer
    • This helps you make sense of making selections in a multi-layer document
  • When you make selections in one layer a little filled square appears on the right side of the layer. If you drag that box into a another layer that will move those objects into that layer.
  • Paste-in-place → many uses
  • Cannot wait to set up the keyboard using AI

Chapter 98. Layer Basics 4:31

  • Layers useful but more critical for raster programs
  • Layers are for control
  • Visibility shows and hides objects
  • Locks enable and disable ability to select objects in layer
  • Objects have stacking order
    • Object → Arrange → Send to Back
    • Control Z-Order in layer itself
  • Next order is panel itself: panel stacking order in layers Panel

Chapter 89. Adding Fonts With TypeKit 4:54

  • TypeKit Fonts
  • Fonts create the mood for the word
  • There are thousands of fonts and yet people are always looking for more
  • New feature of AI is to access the TypeKit Fonts (TKF)
  • Adobe Garamond is based on Garamond
    • Adobe Garamond Premier Pro is based on Robert Slimbach visited a museum, looked at Garamond’s metal punches and type designed, and based on that refined the existing Garamond. That is the difference.
  • TypeKit gives you access to all Adobe fonts. Wow.
  • Inexhaustible source of fonts for any medium