Ricardo Fabara CaminoMar 17
Merritt

I added diacritics support to Plasma Keyboard!

https://merritt.codes/blog/2026/03/13/2026/_plasma-keyboard-funding-diacritics

Now I can more easily write German words as I continue learning it, such as: über, schön, and Straße!

Also, I can sprinkle my lovely symbols in my writing without having to resort to the compose key or copy-pasting — isn't that great‽ 😁

#kde #plasma #linux #diacritics

Mar 13 at 6:41pmWeb
Show threadhazelnot Mar 13
@Merritt oh damn, I didn't know you could even have this kind of functionality as a flatpak! This is very cool, I'll check it out!
Show threadChairmanderMar 13
@Merritt I never knew I needed this but now that I do I cannot wait. Super cool stuff!
Show threadBeurtMar 13

@Merritt
Nice!

Side question: what are you using to show the key pressed? I was using the amazing keymon, but it is not working anymore.

Show threadMerrittMar 13
@Beurt I installed "Show Me The Key" to create the demo video. Now we need to add showing such key-pressed overlay to Spectacle recordings! 🔥
Show threadBeurtMar 14
@Merritt
Key pressing, and mouse pressing, keymon was awesome!
Show threadFellMar 14
@Merritt But can it type the elusive uppercase ß? How else are you going to yell "SCHEIẞE!!"? (just kidding, nobody actually uses that character because standard German keyboards can't type it easily)
Show threadWhiteHotaruMar 14
@fell at least on phone keyboards it is easily available behind the upper s. If the kids are able to use it, it might get a broader adoption, who knows? @Merritt
Show threadAurelDelMar 14
@fell @Merritt <Compose key> + S + S = ẞ
Show threadMerrittMar 14
@AurelDel @fell <Hold S> → 1
Show threadNicoMar 14
@Merritt That's wunderbar! 😀
Show threadSomurasMar 14

@Merritt I did this for Spanish, to be able to have accents in vowels like á, é, í, ó, ú and to add support for ñ.

It was actually much easier to do than I originally thought expected. I kinda wish there was a way to make it more public for people who want to have Spanish typing in an English keyboard. 🤔

Show threadBogdanMar 16
@Merritt this is why I support Merrittocracy! Would it be possible for an app to expose to plasma-keyboard a limited set of valid characters for the current focused field (numeric for phone number input, alphanumeric + some special chars for email addresses & domain names)? Could I use this as emoji / unicode input? Favorite chars/ charsets?
Show threadMerrittMar 16
@bogdanbiv Yes, most toolkits provide a way for an app to specify what a textfield should support (e.g. digits only, email characters, etc). Qt for example: https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/qml-qtquick-textinput.html#inputMethodHints-prop
TextInput QML Type | Qt Quick | Qt 6.10.2

Displays an editable line of text.

Show threadBogdanMar 16
@Merritt Sorry for being unclear - is there a way for a QT app to expose to plasma-keyboard that the input mask is in X-Y range/ pattern/ charset. From QT6 docs it's unclear if that field description is available to [virtual] plasma-keyboard. I hope this makes more sense. Also, discord and mastodon, other web-based social networks allow for emoji input. Emoji input should be available to all desktop apps as well, text editor, konsole. I'll get out of your ears/ hair and go bugging someone else.
Show threadBogdanMar 16
@Merritt Forgot to provide credit:
found out about your contrib: http://youtube.com/post/Ugkxp7AsdYcq8kVU4moMqLBz5bMh0p9qQS72?si=8pwidXWP9Vro0ncT and https://phoronix.net
Post from LinuxNext

KDE Plasma 6.6.3 Fixing Direct Scan-Out When Using Fractional Scaling https://www.phoronix.com/news/KDE-Plasma-6.6.3-Fract-Scan-Out Written by Michael Larabe...

YouTube
Show threadMerrittMar 17
@bogdanbiv I'm not sure about how other GUI toolkits do it, but the way those hints are applied by Qt can indeed be read by plasma-keyboard.