Pricing
One license. Every update in its version.
Pay once for a major version and keep every release of it. No subscription, and no account needed to buy.
New key1.x
Personal license
Input.Observer 1.x
$12one-time, tax included
On sale when Input.Observer is released.
- Every 1.x release
- Key shown here and emailed as soon as payment clears
- Activates offline: the engine never phones home
StrokesPlus donorsNo cost
Donated to StrokesPlus? Your license is on us.
If you ever donated to StrokesPlus or StrokesPlus.net, your Input.Observer 1.x key costs nothing. Claims open here when Input.Observer is released: enter the email address you donated with, and if it is on the donor list, we email you the key.
Checkout and sales tax are handled by Paddle, our reseller. Prices are shown in your currency at checkout.
Questions
Licensing
- What does a license cover?
- Every 1.x release of Input.Observer, for as long as you use it. It is a one-time purchase: no subscription, and nothing stops working when a later version comes out.
- How many PCs can I install it on?
- As many as you personally use. A license belongs to one person, not to a machine, so your desktop, laptop and work PC all run on the same key.
- Can I use it at work?
- Yes. Commercial use is included. An organization buys one license for each person who uses Input.Observer.
- Is there a free trial?
- Yes. Input.Observer works fully for 30 days without a key, with nothing held back. After that it needs a license to run.
- Does activating a key need the internet?
- No. The key is checked entirely on your computer, so activation works offline and never needs to reach this site.
- What happens at the next major version?
- Your key keeps working with every 1.x release. Upgrading to the next major version is optional and priced separately.
- Do I need an account to buy?
- No. Nothing on this site needs an account; the forum uses your GitHub account.
- Can I buy from any country?
- From most. Paddle, our reseller, can't sell where international sanctions or payment-network rules forbid it, including Russia, Belarus, Iran, Cuba, North Korea and Syria. Its checkout tells you when your country isn't covered, and nothing is charged.
Coming from StrokesPlus
- I donated to StrokesPlus. Do I get a key?
- Yes. Enter the email address you donated with in the StrokesPlus donors panel above. If it is on the donor list, we email you an Input.Observer 1.x key.
- Can I bring over my StrokesPlus.net settings?
- Yes. In the configuration app, open the ⋯ menu, choose Import from StrokesPlus.net… and pick your StrokesPlus.net.json file. An encrypted file asks for its password. If you only have a .bin file, start StrokesPlus.net once so it saves StrokesPlus.net.json.
- What carries over, and what doesn't?
- App groups, ignored programs, gestures and their actions, hotkeys, text expansions, global events, exclusion zones and the matching settings come across. Floaters, user libraries, rocker (mouse-button-only) actions, saved macros and themes don't. Anything that can't be fully translated is imported switched off, with a note saying why, so nothing runs half-converted. Imported gestures can match a little differently, so revisit a gesture's match settings if it misfires.
- Will my StrokesPlus.net scripts run as they are?
- Not as JavaScript: Input.Observer has no StrokesPlus.net script engine. The importer translates each action into Input.Observer's own Steps or Script. Lines it can't translate, such as .NET calls, user functions and arrays, are kept as comments marked // SP.net: so you can redo them by hand, in Script or in AutoHotkey v2.
- What about the original StrokesPlus?
- There is no importer for the original StrokesPlus or its Lua scripts. Its gestures and actions need to be set up again in Input.Observer.
Privacy and stability
- Does Input.Observer connect to the internet?
- No. The engine and its plugins make no network connections. Activating a key, previewing styles and running your actions all happen on your computer.
- Does it record what I type?
- No. It reads keystrokes to recognize your hotkeys and text expansion triggers, the same way it reads mouse movement to recognize gestures, but it neither records nor transmits your input. The engine makes no network connections at all.
- Can a misbehaving plugin or script take Input.Observer down?
- Plugins, the style renderer included, are separate programs, never code loaded into the engine. If one crashes or stops responding, the engine carries on and restarts it, and switches it off if it keeps failing. AutoHotkey actions run in their own AutoHotkey process. Steps and Script run inside the engine, each on its own thread, and the stop-all hotkey ends any that run away. Gestures, hotkeys and text expansion keep working while the configuration app is closed.
- How much memory does it use?
- The engine uses about 2 to 4 MB of active memory while its diagnostic console is closed. That is the figure in Task Manager's Memory column. Larger figures, such as commit size, count address space Windows has reserved for the program, not memory it is using. The configuration app is a separate program that frees its memory when you close it. Styles draw in their own process too, so they never add to the engine: a style takes a few hundred kilobytes, plus a drawing surface in graphics memory sized to your screens (about 17 MB at 1920×1080, about 66 MB at 4K), which an option releases after 30 seconds idle. With the Classic line trail, that process doesn't run at all.
Styles
- What is a style?
- The look and sound of your gestures: the trail itself, a matching hint panel and message skin, and three sounds, with dials to tune each one. Six styles are free, including the default, Neon glow. The rest can be previewed in the app and on this site, and bought separately.
- Do styles slow my PC down?
- Styles are drawn on the graphics card by a separate program, Input.Observer.Styles.exe, which does no work between gestures. If you'd rather it didn't run at all, choose Classic line: the engine then draws a plain trail itself, using the least memory and processor time.
Compatibility
- Which versions of Windows does it run on?
- Windows 10 version 1809 or later, and Windows 11, on 64-bit (x64) PCs. Windows on ARM is not supported.
- Does it work with games, Remote Desktop and virtual machines?
- Yes. Ignore groups switch Input.Observer off for the programs you choose, optionally only while they're full screen. The starter set already ignores Remote Desktop, Hyper-V, VMware, VirtualBox, TeamViewer, AnyDesk and Parsec, so your input reaches the remote PC. Some online games forbid automation tools: check a game's rules before using Input.Observer with it.