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 am a tinkerer, and as such, ever since I first heard about mechanical keyboards I've been interested in designing my own keycaps - not just in terms of layout and colour, but completely from the ground-up. I know that this is not necessarily the most cost-effective way to go about things, but I am naturally just very curious and love to take on new challenging projects, so making an entire keyboard essentially from scratch is something I'd like to do at some point; the keycaps are just the aspect I'd like to tackle first (I have CAD/CAM skills and am finishing design school so I am fairly confident that I can do the case design and soldering etc.).
I have a couple ideas about manufacturing methods, but the one thing that I see as the biggest challenge is the stems, and getting a perfect fit. I could take an existing keycap and work off a silicone mould of it, but I am also entertaining the possiblity of downloading CAD models of the stem or purchasing some kind of pre-made mould of just the stem profile.
Does anyone have experience DIY-ing keycaps and know good resources to look to as far as parts I could buy to work off of of can just offer me advice? Anything would be appreciated - although I've learned so much about mechanical keyboards I'm sure a lot of you have more expertise on the subject!
Cheers!