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 only place I could find GMK Dolch was on Originative Co. , who sells a full set for $180. Before shipping.
On the other hand, KBDFans sells Maxkey SA Dolch for $75. (TaoBao storfront) Since I live in Hong Kong, shipping raises the total by a mere $5 to $80, less than half the price of the GMK set.
I think I’ll be going SA if my parents ever give me the green light (which is probably never), since it’s way cheaper and I like the centred legends more.
But what am I missing out by chosing SA over GMK? What are the differences in feel and quality between GMK caps and Maxkeys SA? I understand that my experience will vary from yours, but I’d like to hear about your as-detailed-as possible comparison/description of SA and GMK so I have a better idea of how the two may compare.