Keymon custom theme

20 april 2011

For the DVD Blend&Paint ( page on the Blender e-shop ) , I wanted to have on the screen a feedback of what I'm doing with the keyboard while recording. I was fortunate to find the software 'Keymon' ( for Linux ) that immediately suited my needs. But, I wanted to tweak it because I didn't liked the Gfx aspect.

Of course, the developpers developped a theme system ( 4 theme come preinstalled ). The things I did is to modify one of them ; easier than to start from scratch a new one ; I changed the 'modern' one. The mouse icon is based on Faenza icon set.

Here another preview screenshot :

Download :

You can download the archive here :
keymon-theme.zip

Install :

I just didn't found a way to create my own theme folder because the Gui didn't show it in the 'preferences' panel , so I customised one of the 4 default theme "modern" to do my customisation. Copy with right-permission the folder inside the archive over this one :
/usr/share/pyshared/keymon/themes/modern

This will overwrite the original 'modern' theme

License : GNU GPL v3 to respect the Faenza license.
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html

(Ps: if anyone know how to transform it into a independent theme, use the comments to give your tips and links, I would be happy to update this page and submit this theme to the Keymon developpers )

Classified in : Software & Hardware

blog post by David Revoy

7 comments

1. jikz

wednesday 20 april 2011, 09:36

Got it!

1: Create new folder in /usr/share/pyshared/keymon/themes
(Copy an existing one and rename it)

2: Edit them

3: Make sure config file reflects your theme

4: Do this magic command: (makes symbolic link, make the python folder match your install amd theme name your theme.)

sudo ln -s /usr/share/pyshared/keymon/themes/yourtheme /usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/keymon/themes/yourtheme

5: Cross fingers when you open Key-Mon

--seem to be having permissions issues now though...

http://twitpic.com/4n3gbc

2. Tobias

wednesday 20 april 2011, 10:34

Have you tested Screenkey? I like it more, but afaik doesn't have mouse support.

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/10/screenkey-desktop-recording-tool-displays-key-presses-on-screen/

3. REVOY David

wednesday 20 april 2011, 13:19

@jikz : oh thanks for the tips !

@Tobias : Thanks for the link , and cool to have it here for other users who need an alternative solution. I tested it, but I found it a bit to obtrusive for my needs ( in the DVD Blend&Paint I already use a bottom black label for text entries )

4. blendercomp

wednesday 20 april 2011, 16:45

Wow! This was much needed! I've just finished making a set of more than 10 hrs of videotutorials and this would have been very helpful had I known about this three weeks ago. Still this is a cool tool that I will use in my future projects.

5. jikz

thursday 21 april 2011, 10:26

Blender inspired theme : http://twitpic.com/4nhhs7

6. REVOY David

thursday 21 april 2011, 11:28

@Blendercomp : yeah it's a good tool, and stable ! On all recording of B&P , no crash and no bug with other apps.

@jikz : oh a new theme ! original and colorful

7. Steven Powers (SMP)

friday 22 april 2011, 05:06

Thanks for the tip.

David Revoy