Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Keyman VS Onboard on-screen keyboard

Compare Keyman VS Onboard on-screen keyboard and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Keyman logo Keyman

KeyMan is a leading typing and language learning platform that helps you to learn more than 600 different languages on your mobile or web browser.

Onboard on-screen keyboard logo Onboard on-screen keyboard

An onscreen keyboard useful for tablet PC users and for mobility impaired users.
  • Keyman Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-28
  • Onboard on-screen keyboard Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-13

Keyman features and specs

  • Multilingual Support
    Keyman provides support for a wide range of languages, especially those that are not well supported by standard keyboard layouts, enabling users to type in their native scripts.
  • Customizable Layouts
    Users can create and customize their own keyboard layouts tailored to their specific language needs, which can be beneficial for languages with complex characters or scripts.
  • Cross-Platform Compatibility
    Keyman is available on multiple platforms, including Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and Linux, ensuring consistent typing experience across different devices.
  • Community and Support
    A strong user community and ample support material are available, providing resources and assistance for users to get the most out of Keyman.
  • Integration with Other Applications
    Keyman can be integrated into other applications, enhancing its functionality and providing a seamless typing experience across different software.

Possible disadvantages of Keyman

  • Learning Curve
    New users might find it challenging to learn and adapt to custom keyboard layouts, especially for complex scripts.
  • Occasional Technical Issues
    Users may encounter bugs or technical issues, especially when running custom scripts or layouts, which might require troubleshooting.
  • Resource Intensive
    Running Keyman, particularly with custom layouts or in environments with limited resources, can be demanding on system resources and may affect performance.
  • Limited Offline Use
    Some features or resources might only be accessible with an internet connection, limiting full functionality in offline scenarios.
  • Compatibility Issues
    Occasionally, there can be compatibility issues with certain applications or operating system versions, which might require additional support or workaround solutions.

Onboard on-screen keyboard features and specs

  • Accessibility
    Onboard provides an essential accessibility feature for users with physical disabilities, allowing them to input text without a physical keyboard.
  • Customizability
    The on-screen keyboard offers a high degree of customizability with options to change layout, size, theme, and key labels to suit different user preferences.
  • Integration
    Onboard integrates well with the Ubuntu desktop environment and other distributions, ensuring smooth usage alongside other system tools.
  • Ease of Use
    It is designed to be user-friendly, with intuitive settings and simple instructions, making it easy for non-technical users to operate.
  • Predictive Text
    Includes a predictive text feature that suggests words as you type, improving typing efficiency and speed.

Possible disadvantages of Onboard on-screen keyboard

  • Resource Usage
    Due to its graphical nature, Onboard can consume more system resources than a physical keyboard, which may affect performance on older or less powerful machines.
  • Screen Space
    Taking up part of the screen can be inconvenient, especially on smaller displays, reducing the available space for other applications.
  • Limited Features Compared to Physical Keyboards
    While Onboard offers basic keyboard functionality, it lacks some features and tactile feedback that physical keyboards offer, potentially hampering prolonged use.
  • Dependency on Pointer Device
    Relying heavily on mouse or touchpad input can be a limitation for users with difficulties using these devices, potentially necessitating additional accessibility tools.
  • Potential Compatibility Issues
    While generally well-integrated with Ubuntu, there might be occasional compatibility issues with other software, especially non-mainstream applications.

Keyman videos

KEYMAN - The new way to organise your keys. [Unboxing & Review]

More videos:

  • Review - Texas Star 667V Repair Review (Keyman)

Onboard on-screen keyboard videos

No Onboard on-screen keyboard videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Add video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Keyman and Onboard on-screen keyboard)
Games
100 100%
0% 0
Web Frameworks
0 0%
100% 100
Mouse Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Ruby Web Framework
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Keyman and Onboard on-screen keyboard. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Keyman should be more popular than Onboard on-screen keyboard. It has been mentiond 9 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Keyman mentions (9)

  • Looking for a keyboard I can buy either online or at some kind of store that will allow me to type phonetic symbols
    Keyman is very popular among linguists, if you still prefer a keeb that will input IPA Unicode by itself, you can get a QMK compatible keyboard (like this), but you'll need to program it, as in write the code yourself. Source: about 2 years ago
  • How to type with "historical" noto sans fonts on word?
    SIL's Ukelele is a popular app for creating custom keyboard layouts on macOS. SIL also recommends Keyman if you're looking for a cross-platform app for creating custom keyboards. Keyman already supports thousands of languages so they might already have a keyboard for the languages you need. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Trying to insert letters with diacritics
    While I haven't used it myself, I have heard that Keyman is highly flexible and extensible, so it may allow OP to create a layout in its own format that has the desired behavior. Keyman was originally a commercial product, but SIL (which had long advocated its use) acquired it in 2015 and made it free shortly thereafter. The original developer seems to still be part of the team working on it for SIL. Source: about 3 years ago
  • Tam Thư〈三書〉writing system for Vietnamese: Input Method Editor (IME) package is done.
    For Tam Thư, specifically the phonetic Latin Quốc Ngữ and Ký Âm, I'm working off of an existing keyboard distribution platform called Keyman. It's free and open source with good developer's guide. For my case, Vietnamese typing is a bit complicated with many key sequences that makes modifications to a base glyph, and Keyman is a fit tool for that in my experience. It also follow the principle of "write once, run... Source: about 3 years ago
  • Tam Thư〈三書〉writing system for Vietnamese: Input Method Editor (IME) package is done.
    Because Tam Thư is in fact 3 writing systems combined, I made 3 separate IMEs/keyboard layouts for each of them: 2 phonetic keyboards for Latin Quốc Ngữ and Ký Âm Tự using Keyman, and 1 logographic keyboard for Hán Nôm (think of it as Vietnamese Kanji, you can read more about its history here) using Rime. This results in the user having to install both Keyman and Rime + my IME package for each of the two. Then... Source: about 3 years ago
View more

Onboard on-screen keyboard mentions (4)

  • Korean (Hangul) on-screen virtual keyboard for Linux.
    With the archaic xvkbd, layout switcher didn't work for me. I also found some custom layouts for onboard, but was unable to download/use them. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Steam Deck - Steam Deck Client Update: Notifications and Input fixes - Steam News
    Https://launchpad.net/onboard is exclusively what I use in desktop mode. Pinned it to my favorites. Source: about 3 years ago
  • Onboard virtual keyboard switches layout while writing
    Report the bug here https://launchpad.net/onboard. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Challenge: Use KDE Plasma ONLY With Touchscreen
    Do you mean this one: https://launchpad.net/onboard? What do you like more about it in comparison to Maliit? Source: over 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Keyman and Onboard on-screen keyboard, you can also consider the following products

Trash Typer - Trash Typer is an enjoyable typing game specially designed for children.

Florence Virtual Keyboard - Florence is an extensible scalable virtual keyboard for GNOME.

Spider Typer - Spider Typer is an enjoyable typing game specially designed for kids to learn to type.

Free Virtual Keyboard - Free Virtual Keyboard is a free, lightweight, multilingual and finger friendly virtual keyboard.

Desert Typing Racer - Desert Typing Racer is a Single-player, Typing and Racing video game in which the objective of the player controls a car and try to reach on the finish line by eliminating all the opponent cars.

Comfort Keys Pro - Virtual keyboard, automation, shortcuts, flexibility, advanced clipboard management.