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
To that end, I think it potentially fitting to have a desk mat that reflects this - somewhat minimalist in design but invoking that same sense of nostalgic futurism expressed through visual form.
For visual inspiration, I'm including some 1980s unused Apple designs which kind of invoke that sense of feeling in me - though you may want to draw inspiration from other sources that invoke that particular feeling in yourself.
And finally, here is a t-shirt from an Apple catalog in 1983. I like the minimalist design. One could imagine a similar minimalist approach using the Canvas XDA color palette .
Just my 2 cents worth, at any rate!