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
Bought four of these caps: amethyst, jade, turquoise and rose. Turquoise snapped in two immediately upon installation. The amethyst and jade had a snug fit but went on to my board without incident. The rose cap was little loose but is the best fit of the bunch. Funny thing is that I accidentally put the rose on sideways at first and that seemed to have a better fit then it’s actual orientation.
I had the 3 caps on my board for a day, and just popped them off to get a comparison picture with the broken turquoise for a support ticket. To my dismay I found the amethyst cap has 2 cracks running up the stem. So while it “fit” initially the pressure on sitting on my board was too much. :(
I’m feeling a bit cursed right now between this and the Constellation Jelly Key.