Keyboard Functions. Modified from code by Martin. Original 'Color Typewriter' concept by John Maeda.

Click on the window to give it focus and press the letter keys to type colors. The keyboard function keyPressed() is called whenever a key is pressed. keyReleased() is another keyboard function that is called when a key is released.

 
int max_height = 20;
int min_height = 10;
int letter_height = max_height; // Height of the letters
int letter_width = 10;          // Width of the letter

int x = -letter_width;          // X position of the letters
int y = 0;                      // Y position of the letters

boolean newletter;              

int numChars = 26;      // There are 26 characters in the alphabet
color[] colors = new color[numChars];

void setup()
{
  size(200, 200);
  noStroke();
  colorMode(RGB, numChars);
  background(numChars/2);
  // Set a gray value for each key
  for(int i=0; i<numChars; i++) {
    colors[i] = color(i, i, i);    
  }
}

void draw()
{
  if(newletter == true) {
    // Draw the "letter"
    int y_pos;
    if (letter_height == max_height) {
      y_pos = y;
      rect( x, y_pos, letter_width, letter_height );
    } else {
      y_pos = y + min_height;
      rect( x, y_pos, letter_width, letter_height );
      fill(numChars/2);
      rect( x, y_pos-min_height, letter_width, letter_height );
    }
    newletter = false;
  }
}

void keyPressed()
{
  // if the key is between 'A'(65) and 'z'(122)
  if( key >= 'A' && key <= 'z') {
    int keyIndex;
    if(key <= 'Z') {
      keyIndex = key-'A';
      letter_height = max_height;
      fill(colors[key-'A']);
    } else {
      keyIndex = key-'a';
      letter_height = min_height;
      fill(colors[key-'a']);
    }
  } else {
    fill(0);
    letter_height = 10;
  }

  newletter = true;

  // Update the "letter" position
  x = ( x + letter_width ); 

  // Wrap horizontally
  if (x > width - letter_width) {
    x = 0;
    y+= max_height;
  }

  // Wrap vertically
  if( y > height - letter_height) {
    y = 0;      // reset y to 0
  }
}