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
I'm still under the opinion that the extra options really need to be placed in a separate set. If it can't reach MOQ on its own, it has no place being forced onto others. ANSI, WKL, and ISO are the most common keyboards by a mile.
The box itself wasn't particularly good looking - it was (like the NES and PS1, before and after it) bland and intended to be inoffensive, during an era when video games in general, and Nintendo in particular, were trying hard to escape demonization and become a legitimate family activity.
And, for me, at GMK prices, it has to be a keyset I'll actually use every day, not something I'll keep on a backup board I don't often pull out. If it doesn't have a really good look, I'm not willing to pay that high price tag. If it had the color combinations we see in the popular SA sets, I'd jump all over it. 1976, Pulse, Nuclear, Dasher/Dancer, Electric, etc - those are pretty sets. SA is a well-liked profile, but it's the colors that are drawing people to those sets - I mean, I would bet that less than a third of the buyers of the SA drops have actually used an SA set irl. Profile aside, those sets look great. And SNES isn't particularly pretty. (I know this is an aesthetic thing which can be a matter of opinion, but this is my reading of the GMK drop failures.)
This set is similar - it doesn't catch the eye; the only appeal, really, is GMK's reputation. As far as design is concerned, simple and bold are all the rage these days; this set is both busy and bland at the same time. I'm really looking forward to a GMK set with a really nice looking color combination.
(A note to all you keycap designers: email GMK! Signature Plastics takes ages and can't keep a deadline. It might be time for them to see that there's legitimate competition.)
Colorway preferences are really just that - preference. I think 1976, Pulse, Nuclear, and a lot of those colorways are more like something I'd have as a decoration as opposed to something I use on a day-to-day basis. Meanwhile, my GMK sets are used everyday. Again, a big thing these all have in common are that those sets are significantly cheaper than GMK sets.
One of the big problems that happened recently with GMK sets, specifically on Massdrop, was the handling of the Triumph Adler drop. It was pretty famous for having keys with colors that weren't fully mixed due to being one of the first GMK sets with custom colors and the shipping problems from GMK and Massdrop causing a ton of scratched and lost keycaps. This is probably a sore point to a lot of people who received their sets.
I think this set is eye-catching and one of the more 'colorful' sets I've gotten behind (this and SNES). It kind of makes sense that these are harder to get behind than the SP-produced sets considering the stark difference in price though. If the price points were exactly the same, I think that GMK sets would be just as popular, if not more so, than some of the SP sets considering the reputation that GMK has. Sucks for those of us that enjoy them though.