Kelk User Guide

Kelk is a calligraphy studio in your browser. You type a word, Kelk shapes it with a calligraphic font, and you then place, stretch, join, colour and export every word as artwork.

This guide follows the way you work: sign in, learn the screen, make your first line, then look up any tool, panel or dialog. Every picture is labelled. Real screenshot means it was captured from the running Kelk screen. Illustration means a simple diagram that shows an idea, because calligraphy results depend on your fonts and are not shown as screenshots here.

1 · Getting started

Sign in

1. Open Kelk in your browser (kelk.sinasoft.us). The login screen appears, with the Kelk name, the Beta label and the line Ultimate calligraphy studio.
2. Type your Username and Password.
3. Tick I have read and accept the Terms & Conditions. Click the Terms & Conditions link to read them first.
4. Click Log In.

Two-step verification. If you turned on two-factor authentication (2FA) for your account on the administration site, Kelk asks for one more thing after your username and password: Enter the six-digit code sent to your email. Type the code from the email and click Verify (or press Enter). No email? Check the spam folder, or click send a new code. Back to login returns to the username and password.

Under the Log In button you will find:

• Forgot password? — type the email address of your account and click Send reset email. You receive an email with a link to choose a new password.
• Register — no account yet? Click it to create one.
• Administrate your account — already have an account? Click it to manage your account and subscription.
• Plans and pricing — shows what each plan includes.
• Kelk home page — opens kelk.sinasoft.us.
• Questions/comments? — write to kelkadmin@sinasoft.us.

Install Kelk as an app

Kelk can be installed on your computer or tablet like a normal program. It then opens in its own window, gets an icon on the desktop, Start menu, Dock or Home screen, and starts faster, because the app files are kept on the device. It is the same Kelk with the same account, and it still needs the internet to shape your text, save to the Cloud and export.

• Chrome or Edge on Windows, Mac or Linux: click the ⤓ button at the top right of Kelk (it appears only while the browser offers installing), or use File > Install Kelk as an app in the Classic menu, or the install icon at the right end of the browser’s address bar.
• Safari on a Mac: File > Add to Dock (the ⤓ button reminds you).
• iPad or iPhone (Safari or Chrome): tap the Share button — in Safari it is in the toolbar, in Chrome at the right end of the address bar — then Add to Home Screen. Kelk’s ⤓ button shows these steps too.
• Android tablet: in Chrome open the menu (⋮) and choose Install app or Add to Home screen.

Updates arrive by themselves: when a new version is published, Kelk shows its usual new version notice, and Refresh now loads it. To remove the app, uninstall it the way you remove other apps (in Chrome or Edge: the app window’s menu > Uninstall). If you lose your internet connection while working, Kelk tells you, and tells you again when it is back.

What you see right after login

Kelk may show a Tip of the Day and, if your administrator has set one up, a short announcement. Close them with Got it or the ✕ button. A What’s New list is always available from the About section. If an administrator has prepared AutoOpen files, they open one after another automatically.

Log out safely

Click your user name at the top right and choose Log out. (The same menu has Account Administration, which opens your account, subscription and two-factor settings on the Kelk server in a new tab.) If you have unsaved work, Kelk asks whether to Save, Don’t save or Cancel. When you log in again you get a clean workspace, so the next person never sees your artwork.

2 · The screen

The rulers on the top and left show millimetres. The X/Y box shows where your pointer is. Drag a guide out of a ruler whenever you need a reference line.

The two side panels

Each section has a ? button at its right. It opens a full help page for that section.

Interface style: Modern or Classic

The ⇄ Modern / ⇄ Classic button to the right of the font size box in the top bar switches the interface style; it shows the style in use, and each click switches to the other one. Modern is the default. Modern is the look described in this guide: a floating toolbar and two side panels. Classic adds a traditional menu bar (File, Edit, View, Text, Arrange, Spacing, Help) under the top bar. Every menu item does exactly what its toolbar button or hotkey does, shows its hotkey, and shows a tick for the ON/OFF settings (Kerning, Defaults, Auto Dot, guides, grid). The side panels stay available in both styles, and the View menu opens the two panels. In Classic the bottom toolbar is not shown (administrators keep one small button, FastAPI Alternate Shapes), because everything it did is in the menus; File > Cloud functionalities… opens the Cloud dialog; the menus also show a tick next to the tool that is active (Selection, Pan, Zoom and so on). To get the complete bottom toolbar back in Classic, tick View > Show the full bottom toolbar. Menu bar: hide or auto-hide. The small tab under the menu bar hides it and shows it again. View > Menu bar offers three choices: Always visible; Auto-hide, where the bar is out of the way and slides in when you touch the top edge of the canvas, then slides away when you leave it or close its menu, so the canvas keeps its full height; and Hidden, where only the small tab remains. The hotkey action Classic menu bar: show / hide (Preferences → Hotkeys) switches between always visible and hidden. The choice is remembered in this browser. Classic needs a window at least 900 px wide; in a narrower window Kelk shows Modern. The choice is kept in this browser and is not saved in project files.

3 · Your first line of calligraphy

Write a word and put it on the page

Goal: a word on the baseline, ready to adjust.

1. Pick a font, a style and a size in the top bar.
2. Click the baseline (the dashed line) so it is selected. New text attaches to the selected baseline.
3. Open the Text group on the bottom toolbar and click Edit Text (the big T).
4. Type your text in the box. Right-to-left scripts type from the right.
5. Click Apply. Kelk asks its shaping server for the correct letter forms and places each word on the line.
6. Tick Auto apply if you prefer Kelk to apply every change a moment after you stop typing.
7. To go through several lines or words one after another, press Tab (next) or Shift+Tab (previous) in the box: Kelk applies what you changed, clears the box and brings in the next baseline — or the next word, if you started from selected items — without closing the dialog. The Prev / Next buttons do the same. The box also follows the canvas: click a baseline (or select several) and Kelk applies your changes, then shows the selected baseline(s) in the box. Hotkeys with Ctrl or Alt (and function keys), such as Kern, Justify or Add dots, work on the line shown while the dialog is open.

From here, use the toolbar and panels to refine the piece. Everything you do can be undone with Undo (Ctrl+Z).

4 · The toolbar, tool by tool

The toolbar sits at the bottom of the page. Click a group name and its tools appear above it. Click the group again to close it. Hover a tool to see its name. To see a full explanation of any tool, use the Help tool (section 11).

File

View

History and Edit

Paste while an item is selected puts the copy right after it, and the rest of the line makes room (when Kern is on). Delete removes the selection together with the dots and diacritics attached to the deleted letters and words. Shift+Delete removes only the items and leaves their dots and diacritics on the page. A selected baseline is deleted with everything on it (Kelk asks first); Shift+Delete removes only the line and keeps its words as free items.

Arrange

Text

Spacing

Use Hide/Show Toolbar (the small ▾ tab at the bottom) when you want the whole page visible.

Auto-hide the toolbar. If you would rather not click the tab each time, switch on Auto-hide the toolbar (Preferences, the checkbox next to the other toolbar options; or right-click the little tab; or the hotkey action Toolbar: auto-hide ON/OFF). The toolbar then disappears and gives the canvas the whole window. Move the mouse to the edge where the toolbar is docked to bring it back: the very bottom edge of the window, the strip just under the top bar, or the far left or right edge. It stays while you use it, including its sub toolbars, and slides away a moment after the mouse leaves. The tab still hides it completely, and clicking the tab also shows an auto-hidden toolbar. Auto-hide is not used on touch screens, which have no mouse to move to an edge, and it is remembered in this browser.

Moving the toolbar. The grip (⋮⋮) at the start of the toolbar can be dragged: move it toward the top, bottom, left or right edge of the window and let go. A gold outline shows where the toolbar will land, and Esc cancels. At the left and right edges the toolbar becomes a vertical strip, and the sub toolbars open beside it. Double-click the grip (or use the hotkey action Toolbar: put back at the bottom in Preferences → Hotkeys) to return it to the bottom. The place is remembered in this browser. In windows narrower than 900 px the toolbar always stays at the bottom, and the show/hide tab sits at the edge where the toolbar is docked.

5 · The side panels, section by section

These are the real panels. Long ones scroll inside the frame.

Project

Save writes to the file this artwork already belongs to without asking. Save As always asks where. A new artwork behaves like Save As the first time. In Chrome and Edge a save goes straight back to the file. In Firefox and Safari each save downloads a new copy. You can also drag a Kelk project file onto the window to open it.

Cloud Projects

Your projects are stored in your account, in folders. See section 8 for the details.

Gallery. The Gallery button under Cloud Projects opens the shared gallery: browse other artists' work by artist and subject. Share to gallery sends your current project with a title, a subject you choose, a description and an optional display name; the administrator approves it first. For each item you choose whether others may only look or may open a copy; with look only you can give named people access later (for example after they pay) in My items. Without access, Ask the artist for the full project sends the artist a message.

Sample projects. The Sample projects button, right of Share to gallery, shows the sample artworks that come with the app, folder by folder. Click a folder to go in (Up or the path bar to come back) and press Open on a sample; it loads like a project file and the dialogs close. Save it under your own name if you change it.

Glyph

New line adds a baseline: with nothing selected it goes after the last baseline; with a baseline selected it goes right after that one (after the lowest, if several are selected) and the baselines below it, with their items, move down by one line space. A new line is also created automatically when text wraps. Clear canvas removes the artwork.

Transform

Select an item to type exact position, size and angle. A single glyph shows Width and Height in mm. Images and groups show scale. Keep proportional locks the two together. Reset scale to original returns to the first size. Duplicate and Delete work on the selection. ←↑→↓ nudge by 1 px, with Shift by 10 px. Double-click a glyph to unlock its resize and rotate handles.

Fill & Stroke

• Color: one solid colour, in CMYK fields or with the swatch.
• Pattern and Image: fill the letter with a pattern or a picture.
• Pen trace: a hand-inked look with natural changes in ink density. Each glyph gets its own texture. Press Regenerate for another look.
• Gradient: Linear (start colour, end colour, angle) or Radial (centre and radius). Switch on a middle colour if you want one. Stroke has its own gradient.
• Empty: no fill.
• Stroke has colour, gradient and width. Opacity sets transparency.

With a baseline selected, a change applies to everything already attached to it. With letters selected, it applies to those letters.

Effects

Drop Shadow (colour, blur, X/Y offset, opacity). Inner Shadow / Glow stays inside the letter: a dark colour reads as engraved, a light one as a glow. Bevel / Emboss adds a highlight and a shadow along an angle. Extrude adds a stack of offset copies for a flat 3D depth. Any combination can be on together.

Insert Image / PDF / SVG

• Image: a free-standing object. Move, resize, rotate, attach to a line, set opacity.
• PDF: one page is turned into an image. A single-page PDF is inserted at once. A multi-page PDF shows a page picker. Use Prev/Next in Transform to change pages later.
• SVG: path shapes arrive as editable outlines, so you can join, merge and fill them. Convert rectangles, circles and text to paths in your vector editor first.

Page Setup

Choose a paper size or type Width and Height in mm. Orientation swaps them. Existing artwork keeps its position when you change the size. Left, Right, Top and Bottom margin (mm): Right and Left set where new baselines end on each side (and where right-to-left text starts); Top and Bottom are the free space at the top and bottom, and the starting baselines of a new page are centred between them. Existing baselines are not moved. It also holds the default font, default baselines, kerning, and the spacing and size steps used by the toolbar.

Baseline length (mm), in Page Setup next to Default baseline count, is the length of every new baseline (New line, New, the starting baselines); its right end sits at the Right margin. 0 keeps the automatic length (page width minus the margins). Existing baselines are not changed. Baseline angle, next to it, rotates every new baseline by that many degrees about its centre (0 = horizontal).

Below-dot distance (% of size), in Page Setup, makes every dot added below a letter sit the same distance under its baseline (to the top of the dot), as a percent of the baseline’s point size. 0 keeps the automatic placement just under each letter. It applies to letters that sit on a baseline.

Workspace Style

This section is about your own workspace and is never saved in a project, so opening somebody else's project never changes it. Workspace theme changes the look of the app (panels, toolbars, rulers, baselines, selection colours). Classic Dark, Light and High Contrast come with Kelk. Click Save current as… to keep your own workspace theme; your themes are still there after a refresh. Below the theme you can change the area around the page, ruler colours and measurement tool colours. These are display settings and never change your artwork.

Canvas Style

This section belongs to the page and is saved with the project, so whoever opens it sees the page the way its author set it up. Canvas theme sets the page background and page border colours in one step; Save current as… and Delete theme here work on canvas themes only, completely separate from workspace themes. Below it you can change the page background (colour or image, with opacity) the canvas border, baseline colours and thickness, and the colour of a selected glyph (these are part of the canvas theme). After you open a project, Clear canvas and New bring your own settings back.

Guides & View

• Baselines are the dashed lines text sits on. Click one to select it, then drag it up or down or use the arrow keys.
• Baseline length. A selected baseline has a round handle at each end. Drag one to change the length; the other end stays where it is. Baselines can have different lengths. You can also type the length in mm in Transform → Baseline. The status bar shows the left end, right end and length while you move or resize a baseline. Undo restores the length and position exactly.
• Alignment guides never move text. Drag one out of a ruler, or insert a Rectangle, Circle, Diamond or Bezier curve. Drag a guide back off the page, or press Delete, to remove it.
• Clear all guides removes them all. Guides and baselines are never exported.
• Fill guideline with text and Clone around pin point are described in section 6.

Preferences

Undo levels sets how many steps are kept. Save defaults with project file makes a project carry your settings. Save undo/redo history with project file keeps Undo working after you reopen a file, but makes the file larger. Load from Account and Save to Account store your preferences on the server so a new computer gets them with one click. Your Fill & Stroke templates are stored with your preferences.

Toolbar click action. When “Open toolbar menus when the mouse hovers over them” is on, you can choose for each toolbar group one tool that runs when you click the group button. Choose None to keep a plain click doing nothing extra. Touch controls (this device) is described in section 12.

Hotkeys

See section 10.

Export and About

6 · How to…

Put text inside a shape (Fill guideline with text)

Goal: words scattered along and inside a guide shape.

1. Open Guides & View. Click Rectangle, Circle, Diamond or Bezier curve to add a guide shape. Drag and resize it where you want it.
2. Click Fill guideline with text….
3. Choose the Guideline shape, paste your text, and set the Number of words. Start with 10 to 20 to preview quickly.
4. Set the Angle range, the Size range (percent of the current point size) and the Colors.
5. Tick the Effects that may be picked at random for each word: Plain color, Pen Trace – Ink, Faceted or Speckled.
6. Click Fill.

Without a guide shape, the dialog tells you to add one first.

7 · Dialogs

What’s New

Terms & Conditions

Edit Text, Symbols, Diacritics, Alternate Shapes

Diacritics and Alternate Shapes open as dialogs too. Diacritics shows the marks of the current font. Alternate Shapes lists the other available shapings of the selected text. Both need a loaded font and a selected item.

Cloud Projects and New Folder

Click Save to Cloud. Type a project name when asked. + New Folder shows a name box and a Create button. Section 8 has the full steps.

Notifications

A new notification also plays a short sound with the bell number, a different one for a shared project, a message, a suggestion or bug report, and gallery news. Switch it off with Play a sound for new notifications in the right panel. (Browsers stay silent until you have clicked on the page once.)

In Notifications, tick the ones you do not need and press Delete selected, or press Delete all. The Cloud dialog closes by itself after you open a project.

In Notifications, New message writes to another user. Next to the bell, the Guides button (📖) offers three choices: Search the guide (type what you want to do, for example “how do I rotate a baseline”, and the matching part of this guide is shown), Quick rules, one short page with the rules behind everything Kelk does, or this complete User’s Guide. The two guides open in a new tab. In the Classic interface all three are in the Help menu.

Save changes?

Before Log Out, New, Clear Canvas, opening another project, or refreshing the page after an update, Kelk asks Save, Don’t save or Cancel if you have unsaved work. Closing the tab shows the browser’s own warning.

Help pages

8 · Saving, cloud projects and sharing

AutoOpen

If a project is saved as AutoOpen (or AutoOpen1, AutoOpen2…) in your top-level cloud folder, Kelk opens them one after another after you log in, each for a short time. Your administrator can also provide AutoOpen files for everyone.

9 · Export

Glyphs, groups, images, PDF pages, item backgrounds and the page border are included. Guides, baselines and lock icons are never exported.

10 · Keyboard shortcuts

Set your own shortcuts

1. Open Hotkeys in the right panel.
2. Click the button next to a tool (it says Not set if free).
3. Press the key, with Ctrl, Alt or Shift if you like. It is saved at once and replaces the old one.
4. Click the ✕ next to a shortcut to clear it. Reset hotkeys to defaults restores the originals.

11 · Help inside Kelk

Ask Kelk what something is

1. Open File and click the ❓ Help tool. The pointer turns into a question mark.
2. Click an object on the page (a glyph, baseline, guide, image) to read how it behaves. Click a toolbar button to read its help. Nothing is changed.
3. Click another tool, such as Select, to leave Help mode.

Also use the ? beside every sidebar section, the tooltips on hover, Tip of the Day and What’s New in About.

12 · Using Kelk on a phone or tablet

Kelk works on touch screens. This section lists what is different from a computer with a mouse.

Gestures

The touch action bar

A small bar floats above the toolbar. It replaces the keyboard and the right mouse button.

The screen on a small device

• On screens narrower than about 760 px the top bar scrolls sideways. The menu, bell, User’s guide, settings and your user name (with Log out) come first so you can always reach them; slide the bar to reach the font boxes.
• The left and right panels open as full-width sheets. Close one to see the page again.
• The bottom toolbar shows icons only. Tap a group to open its tools.
• Text boxes use a larger 16 px text, so the page does not jump in zoom when you tap one.
• When the on-screen keyboard is open, the panel ends above the keyboard and the box you tapped is scrolled into view.
• When you open an artwork whose page is bigger than the screen, Kelk zooms out so the whole page is visible.

13 · Troubleshooting

Kelk — Ultimate calligraphy studio, a product of Sinasoft Consulting Group LLC. This guide describes app version 3.326.4.