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 do however agree with the previously voiced comments on QC issues. Given the price one could have expected the quality to be better. I have the same alignment issues as other posters, blurred text on the yellows, some discoloration/finish issues (see images) and a red "ROLL" key with a white "crack".
I like the size of the legends and the alignment errors to not bother me that much. The issues with the finish are more visible to me. Is there something one can do to "polish" them in some way to even out the surface?
It's really not a big deal to me, and since they ALL seem to have that issue, I guess it makes it a " normal" property of the set, if that makes sense. It's obviously not ideal though, it could have been done better. I guess, thinking about it...if all of my keys showed up looking that way, I'd be unhappy with the set, so I do see your point. It really isn't very noticeable to me unless I'm staring at the board (and that specific key). I know they can do it right though because my enter key is perfect, I wonder if they just have trouble with all 1u though. Somehow I feel like, the smaller it is, the more difficult it is to make, but I have no idea.
The cracks and unevenness in your set though, that's DEFINITELY noticeable and would be a deal-breaker for me.
I don't know that I'd shift the blame on to SP just yet though. That honestly reminds me of hest damage, and it's been 100+ in some parts of the country. I know FedEx is better than, say, USPS, when it comes to shipping and climate, but I wonder if it's possible the hest messed it up after shipping from SP, MAYBE even Massdrop?
Sorry you're having issues though. I hope you're able to get things worked out.