How from "Window.bind(on_key_down" get ! ? or another chars

[Radosław Głębicki]

Hi.

How I can get exactly character what I have on keyboard when I pressed shift+1 or another combination. Now I get:

(<kivy.core.window.window_sdl2.WindowSDL object at 0x7f3db38fc040>, 49, 30, '1', ['shift'])

There is no information (ASCII table) about "!"

With regards

Radek Glebicki

[elli...@cox.net]

What are you trying to do?  The keyboard provides the information on the key.  If you want the resulting text, I recommend using the TextInput widget.  

Kivy Keyboard Input: Key Events vs Text Input

Quick clarification on keyboard handling in Kivy:

Use key events (on_key_down) for:

• Keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+Z)

• Game controls (WASD, arrows)

• Physical key/location-based logic

Use TextInput for:

• Typing into text fields

• Proper keyboard layout handling (QWERTY, AZERTY, IME)

• Unicode characters

• Dead keys and compose sequences

In short: key events are for keys, text input is for characters.

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Subject: [kivy-users] How from "Window.bind(on_key_down" get ! ? or another chars

 

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[Radosław Głębicki]

I did, but how it works if I want to use shortcut for Button as ex.: alt + !. And then on another keyboard key "!" is on diff. key so this shortcut doesn't work proper way?

Radek Glebicki

[elli...@cox.net]

If you can map your hotkeys to the unmodified key, then things will work reliably.  
For example on a US keyboard rather that say alt + !,  use alt+shift+1

Keyboard mappings are not standardized.  SDL is handing it for kivy.  

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From: kivy-...@googlegroups.com <kivy-...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Radosław Głębicki <glebicki...@gmail.com>

Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2026 8:14 PM

To: Kivy users support <kivy-...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: [kivy-users] How from "Window.bind(on_key_down" get ! ? or another chars

 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/kivy-users/5ba5d3c6-c740-477b-bd40-ded19869007en%40googlegroups.com.