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
1. This keyboard is not Topre and does not feel like it. However, it is the closest mechanical keyboard that I know that comes close to the feeling. This royal kludge is missing the snappiness i.e. a major source of tactility that comes with the true Topre like Novatouch, HHKB, Realforce, etc. A common quote that I agree with "like smooth cherry mx browns:
2. This keyboard is dental banded from the factory. Since a big part of the noise from Topre keyboard is the slider, i.e. the plastic piece below the keycap hitting the frame on the upstroke, a rubber ring on it cushions the upstroke and reduce noise. Some people say that dental banding removes tactility from the keyboard. So I removed the dental bands and I don't think there was a significant difference in noise, but did get a slight increase in better feeling.
3. If you want to open up the keyboard, there is no screws. Insert a plastic knife into the crack between the two plastic frames, slide along the knife to pop the plastic clips holding the upper and lower half.
4. The keyboard that I received had super scratchy plastic sliders. I lubed them and enjoyed the smoother keypresses. HOWEVER, opening up the keyboard is super annoying. I did not realize how easy it was for Topre springs to fall out of the rubber dome and spent a fun hour trying to get all the springs back into their domes. Don't make my mistake!
5. Programming can be a bit annoying. Once you get the hang of the provided software, pretty easy and cool to do. Can do macros, change most if not all the key assignments, switch on mouse emulations, and many more. Programming can only be done and used when the keyboard is set to write protection off mode. *If this post helps people and programming is a subject of interest, I will edit this post to include tutorial on how to program keyboard.