Support for Alternative Layouts
This is a summary of how alternative layouts have been supported by kits such as Colevrak and Homing. It is not a discussion of alt layout performance and development, but if that interests you I highly recommend starting with Pascal Getreuer’s A guide to alt keyboard layouts (why, how, which one?). It’s a concise and comprehensive overview with links to some great sites that go deeper. He also has a separate Links about keyboards page. The Keyboard layouts doc he recommends explains layout goals and metrics in detail, summarizing the alt layouts discussed here as well as more than one hundred others. Sculpted-profile The majority of custom keycap sets are sculpted-profile (Cherry, SA, MT3, KAT, etc. - more on profiles generally here) so let’s start there. Because each row has a unique keycap shape, alt layouts require a unique keycap for each legend that moves off its QWERTY row. At first there were two The Dvorak layout was patented in 1936 by August Dvorak & William L....
Apr 23, 2024
Anyway, setting it up for use was simple with Windows 7, no issues there. The first thing that struck me was that the backlight on this keyboard is very bright. (Excuse the crappy image quality. Still it should give you an idea of the lighting intensity)
As for typing, it's a little hard for me to compare, since I've never used blacks. I've used reds before, and these switches definitely require more force to press than those. I did a little bit of gaming in Witcher 3, and I was a little surprised at the slight amount of fatigue my pinky finger was getting from holding down the Shift button during horse riding sections. Still, the switches feel consistent. Also, these black switches are surprisingly quiet. I tend to bottom out my keys fairly often, and on my red switch keyboard, doing so reasonably loud (not as loud as my Razer BW Chroma, however). The switches don't feel to mushy, and it's easy to tell that these are mechanical switches and not membrane.
Build quality feels solid - because of the metal plate, there's little to no flex in the keyboard. One issue I didn't like about my Razer BW Chroma is that there's a little bit of wiggle to the keycap when you fully bottom out a key. All of my Cherry keyboards didn't have this issue, and I'm glad to say I'm not getting any keycap wiggle on this keyboard either.
TL;DR: Very good keyboard for the price. Looks great too, and although each key is individually backlit, you're limited to 7 colors, and setting a color requires you to toggle through each one. Build quality is solid, and I'm satisfied with the typing experience so far.
Also for your second question on which looks more professional I would personally say the black since it blends better with most dark professional/office settings but don't let me tell you what you think would look better.