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
The legends are nice and crisp, though upon closer inspection you can still notice they're not perfectly aligned. I'd expect MD to get this fixed after the R1 fiasco, but I'm personally not that bothered, you can't really see it from typing distance and it's something that I learned to accept with dye-sub legends.
Regarding the profile, MT3 is not very easy to use from the get-go, the keycaps are very cuppy and punish inaccurate typing with their "sharp" edges. Conversely, they also reward accurate typing, so once you get used to them (about 2 days for me) they become extremely comfortable. The sculpt is perfect, not too aggressive and the flat bottom row makes it easy to use with your thumbs.
The texture of the keycaps is very pleasant as well, it is somewhat coarse and grippy (but not to the point of being obnoxious), which works well with the deep top.
The only issue I have is that my order has been shipped late despite multiple drop delays with poor communication on MD's side.