XKBPRINT(1)

💖 NAME 💖

okay so meet xkbprint 🎀, the tool that turns an XKB keyboard description into a printable PostScript picture of your keyboard. It's literally the xkbprint - print an XKB keyboard description energy ✨

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

xkbprint [options] source [ output_file ]

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay bestie, so xkbprint makes a printable or encapsulated PostScript (👑 .eps) description of the XKB keyboard description you point it at with source. The source can be any compiled keymap (.xkm) file that includes a geometry description, or an X display specification. 💅

If you give it an output_file, xkbprint writes there. If you don't, it just swaps the extension of your source file for .ps or .eps, depending on the format you asked for. 🌸

Now the lowkey tricky part 🙈: if the source is a non-local X display, like :0, xkbprint adds the right prefix to the display spec and swaps the colon for a dash. For a local display, it uses server-n, where n is the display number. Iconic naming, no notes 🍓

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🌈 OPTIONS 🌈

• -?, -help — prints a usage message, so you can check what's up anytime 💜
• -color — prints using the colours from the geometry file. By default you get a black-and-white keyboard, so this is the one for main-character colour 🌈
• -dflts — tries to work out default names for any missing components, like keys 🧚
• -diffs — shows symbols only where they're explicitly bound 🔍
• -eps — makes an encapsulated PostScript file 🦋
• -fit — fits the keyboard image on the page. This is the default, so you basically get it for free ✨
• -full — prints the keyboard at full size 👑
• -grid res — prints a grid over the keyboard with res mm resolution 📐
• -if fontName — dumps an internal PostScript type 1 font to your output file, or to fontName.pfa if you didn't give one. > No keyboard description gets printed when you dump an internal font, so don't be confused when you only get the font 🙃
• -label type — picks which labels go on the keys. The valid types are none, name, code, and symbols 🏷️
• -lc <locale> — sets the locale that KeySyms get resolved in 🌍
• -level1 — generates level 1 PostScript 💀
• -level2 — generates level 2 PostScript 💅
• -lg group — prints symbols from keyboard groups, starting at group 🫶
• -ll level — prints symbols starting from shift level level 🔥
• -mono — generates a black-and-white image of the keyboard. This is the default, so it's already giving classic ✨
• -n num — prints num copies 🖨️
• -nkg num — prints the symbols across num keyboard groups 🌸
• -npk num — how many keyboard images go on each page. For EPS files, this is the total number of keyboard images to print instead 🎀
• -o file — writes the output to file 💌
• -Rdirectory — uses directory as the root directory, so every path name gets read relative to it 📂
• -pict which — controls when pictographs get used instead of keysym names. which can be all, none, or common, and common is the default 🎨
• -synch — forces synchronization for X requests. Lowkey a bit of a power move 💪
• -version — prints the program version and exits 🧾
• -w level — sets the warning level. 0 means no warnings and 10 means all of them. Choose your drama 🚨

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🫶 SEE ALSO 🫶

X(7), xkbcomp(1)

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💜 AUTHOR 💜

Erik Fortune, Silicon Graphics 👑

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Bestie, this page came from X Version 11, for xkbprint 1.0.6, and it's documented as XKBPRINT(1). Go print something gorgeous 🦋💅✨