Handwriting, reinvented
The keyboard was conceived to match the size of human hands. On today's small touch devices, this design is in essence deprecated, no matter how much it is tweaked. We need something new.
Natural interaction
We believe that writing on a mobile device should be as easy as picking up a pen and scribbling on a piece of paper. With the 8pen, words are entered using quick fluid gestures, much like doodling. No more mechanical tapping on tiny virtual keys.
It just feels right
8pen is a replacement of the conventional keyboard that is
- Natural because it mimics handwriting. You enter letters by drawing simple loops
- Fast because these loops fit together. You thus enter words with a simple gesture
- Finally right because these ideas really come into play on small devices
Some facts
- 30 words per minute, and counting!
- Surprisingly easy to learn, and certainly a lot of fun. We have made a game that will quickly get you up and running
- Currently optimized for all languages based on the Latin alphabet, as well as Korean and Hebrew — more on their way
- Typos sharply reduced, and true blindtyping is a reality
Features
8pen rethinks text input from the ground up. This gives us some creative space to also reassess text manipulation and navigation.
Smileys
Smileys are entered just as they look: turn around the center in either anti-clockwise (happy) or clockwise (sad) direction. You can even customize your smileys to produce exactly what you want.
Arrow keys
Navigating text has never been easier. Simply swipe away from the center in either four directions to move the cursor up, down, left or right. Instant and seemless.
Delete and undo, cut and paste
Quickly erase whole words by swiping left. If you change your mind, swipe right to redo the word(s). It also functions as cut-paste: swipe left any number of times to cut text. Paste it back in any app by swiping right. It is fast and intuitive.
Custom gestures
Use custom gestures to quickly enter common phrases such as your name or your e-mail address, or even a whole phrase, such as "Any plans for tonight?".
Languages
The following languages are supported: US English, UK English, Korean, Hebrew, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Portuguese Brazilian, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Icelandic, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Slovene, Hungarian, Romanian, Croatian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian.
Themes
8pen comes with a large selection of colorful themes, to suit all tastes. You can also have it automatically change theme every day. Surely an input method has never looked this beautiful.
QWERTY keyboard
If you don't feel ready to jump all in, 8pen comes shipped with a fully-featured QWERTY keyboard. It is easy to switch back and forth between the two.
Google Voice Typing
8pen comes with integrated Google Voice Typing, which means that you can speak and see the text being inserted in real time, word by word.
What people are saying
Reinventing the keyboard was long overdue and may take some time to adopt. 8pen is exactly right and should be the smartphone standard.
— Jared
It seems you guys made a near perfect man-machine interaction software.
— Michael
This is brilliant and beautiful and inspiring. It's an example of what happens when creative intelligence wears no blinders.
— Cat
Besides being fun to do and learn, [8pen] also creates a sense of grace and beauty every time I use it.
— Lynne
Forward thinking at its finest right here.
— Aasem
Sweet organic genius in a cold, hard digital age. In a culture dominated by cold steel and right angles, 8pen is like nectar for souls who hunger for the natural, the fluid, the organic.
— Lynne
Holding this modern, hyper-technological phone in my hand, there is at least one thing in it, that truly harmonizes with my human mind and body: 8pen. It makes messaging feel far more natural and personal than the QWERTY.
— Lynne
I think I just downloaded the future.
— John
Featured in:
