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 not afraid to admit that I hadn't realized how big the MK community was before I started working at Massdrop, and it's obviously only getting bigger. These meetups are happening all over the place and their attendance only seems to grow over time. I can only hope we can help out in shining a light on events like this so more people can get in on the action.
▶ FUN EVENT FACTS · Location: Lower Manhattan, 440 Studios · Attendees: 120 · Keyboards: ~100 · NYC Keys: 80 New York Keycaps specific to this event were given out to attendees, and I'm crushed there weren't enough for everyone because I WANT ONE SO BAD, but hey.. it's a good problem to have when you get more people checking out your meetup than you thought were going to turn up:
▶ GIVEAWAYS Despite we weren't in attendance we were still able to show our support and send some goodies to be given away at the meetup. We shipped a small crate of stuff along to the organizers who allowed us to help sponsor this event with not much notice.
Here are some of the lucky winners (not all of our stuff pictured here), and look at how happy that guy is with a pair of our AKG K7XX Headphones. Here's some other stuff we gave away:
· Massdrop x AKG K7XX Audiophile Headphones · Tai Hao Cubic Key Profile Caps (Blue) · Tai Hao Cubic Key Profile Caps (Pink) · 3 Mini-USB to USB decorative keyboard cables · 1 artisanal Mummy Keycap
▶ ORGANIZER SHOUT-OUT Behind every great event are great event organizers so I want to take this blurb to recognize those who set this up. It's not always easy and it's much appreciated to give people in the community a time and place to spread the MK love.
▶ FOLLOW THESE CHANNELS TO STAY TUNED FOR FUTURE NYC MECH KEY MEETUPS: · Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/nyckeebs · Discord: https://discordapp.com/invite/ApvmNy7
▶ FOLLOW OUR OFFICIAL MASSDROP CHANNELS TO STAY TUNED FOR EVERYTHING ELSE: · Facebook: https://facebook.com/massdrop · Twitter: https://twitter.com/massdrop · Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/massdrop
Is there a Mech Key Meetup in YOUR area that we should know about? Tell us about it in the discussion.