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
We are finally here! Well, almost :)
I am happy to announce that the SA Oblivion custom keycap set will be dropping early September. After designing this set with the community for over 10 months, it has finally reached the status of being finished. So now all that's left to do is having a Group Buy for it, and that it will have in just a few short weeks! It has been a long but very enjoyable journey so far that I hope will only get even more exciting when you put in your orders, and one day put the keycaps on your keyboards. I'm very curious to see what you guys will use this set on, but if you need help first figuring out what exactly you need to get, please don't hesitate to ask! I don't want to post 30 kits here directly, so it'd be easier if you would kindly just head over to https://oblotzky.github.io/sa-oblivion/ to check out everything this set has to offer.
For those of you that are stumbling across this project for the first time, the main theme around this set is the craft of programming. The legend colors were inspired by a syntax theme that helps make program code more easy to read and edit. On top of that, a alternative set of keys, the Git modifiers, take it even one step further and introduce a wide variety of commands used by the version control software that was created by the maker of Linux, Linus Torvalds.
But as this set uses very classic tones of gray as it's base, you can also opt for the very classic looking Monochrome Modifiers, which include optional accent keys to mimic the looks of the vintage Honeywell and SpaceCadet keyboards.
There is so much variety you can achieve with this set that I hope everyone will find something in it that you will cherish.
While the renders I am posting here for now only show off big 'regular' keyboards, please check out what else the set has to offer on the above linked project page. You will find support for Ortholinear keyboards (Planck/Preonic), 40% (Minivan and the likes) and of course Ergodox. But also a variety of addon kits for a bit more flavor such as the tenkeyless.asm kit to even further enhance the programming theme! Renders for these layouts will follow in the week to come.
So please go ahead and start discussing what ever you may still have on your mind in anticipation of the drop, and I will do my best to clear up any questions left to answer! But please remember that the kit design itself is finished, so there is no more room to 'add this and that key' at this point I'm afraid. We had 10 months of that and we want to stop imagining this keyset and start getting it made don't we? :)
Thanks everyone!
- Oblotzky