PictoKeyboard

# PictoKeyboard **A keyboard that works with images — press the picto to type the word!** PictoKeyboard turns your phone's keyboard into a grid of pictures. Tap a picture and it types the word into whatever app you are in — Messages, WhatsApp, email, notes — and says it out loud. It is built for people who find pictures easier than letters, and for the parents, teachers and speech therapists who set it up for them. ## WORKS ANYWHERE YOU ALREADY TYPE PictoKeyboard is a real keyboard, not a separate app you have to copy and paste out of. Wherever a text field appears, the words go straight in. ## BUILT AROUND ONE PERSON Start with the pictogram set the app comes with, then make it theirs: * Add pictures from ARASAAC's library of thousands of symbols. * Use your own photographs — their kitchen, their bus stop, their grandmother. * Write what each picture says, and what it speaks, in Spanish or English. * Group pictures into categories, each with its own colour and border. * Set how many rows and columns fit on screen. * Keep several boards for different places or days. ## SPEAKS AS IT TYPES Every picture is spoken as it is tapped, in its own language. A board can mix Spanish and English, and each word is read in its assigned voice. You can set speaking rate and pitch. ## CALLING FOR HELP Enter one name and one number, and a red bell appears that calls them. It says who it is ringing out loud and waits a few seconds, so an accidental press can be stopped with a second press. Leave it empty and there is no bell. ## FOR PEOPLE WHO CANNOT SEE THE SCREEN Blind mode turns the keyboard into a gesture surface. Swipe up/down between categories, left/right between pictures, and each is spoken as you land on it. Tap to repeat it; double-tap to write it. Two fingers, double-tap, turns the mode on and off from anywhere. High contrast mode uses pure black and white, thicker borders and heavier text for low vision, on the keyboard and setup screens. ## SAYING IT BETTER — EXPERIMENTAL, OFF UNTIL YOU ASK Tapping pictures gives you "I wanting water". Sentence help turns that into "I want water" and reads it aloud. It may add a small word to make the sentence work; one press puts your own words back. It runs on the phone itself, so nothing typed is sent anywhere. It requires a large download, stays off until requested, and can be deleted at any time. ## NO ACCOUNT, AND NOWHERE TO SEND YOUR DATA No sign-up, login or server. Boards, photographs, spoken words and settings stay on the device — never copied to a cloud account. The app reaches the internet only for two downloads: ARASAAC, to search its symbol library and fetch selected pictures (the request carries only your search word); and, only if enabled, the sentence-help model. Neither carries a name, account, identifier, or anything typed on the keyboard. Export a board as a file to move it to another phone or family via WhatsApp, email, Drive or Nearby Share. Photographs travel with it. Importing never overwrites existing boards. Because nothing is stored online, an exported file is the only backup. Keep one somewhere safe. ## SET UP ONCE, THEN LEFT ALONE Put configuration behind a PIN, so the board stays as built while the keyboard remains available. ## OPEN SOURCE PictoKeyboard is open source. The source code is available on GitHub under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. ## ABOUT THE PICTOGRAMS The symbols are by Sergio Palao for ARASAAC, which belongs to the Government of Aragón, and are distributed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA. PictoKeyboard is free and will stay free — the licence is non-commercial, and so is this app.