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
One other quality of the Romer-G that I really like which I haven't seen mentioned here yet is that they are extremely quiet. The only other switch I've tried that rivals the quietness is the Matias Quiet Click switches. I might give the edge to the Matias due to the dampening "rubber bumpers" in them, but the Romer-G is very quiet if you aren't just mashing the keys like crazy.
On the topic of sound, I should also mention that like Cherry MX, the Romer-G can be subject to "pinging". My G810 does have some pinging issues, and that is probably the most major knock I have against it.
The other knock against the G810 specifically for me is that it has no on-board profile memory, so you MUST have the Logitech Gaming Software installed. On the bright side, the LGS seems to be fairly non-invasive and lightweight, so that is good, but the annoying part is that if you make a custom lighting profile, then shut down reboot your computer, the keyboard will actually go back to the "stock" epilepsy-inducing rainbow color cycle mode until your computer fully boots and the LGS launches. Same goes for if you move the keyboard to a different computer that doesn't have LGS installed, it will lose your settings and go back to defaults.
There is a slight workaround in that you can press and hold the LED on/off button, then toggle through some of the different basic lighting modes using the number row (not the numpad). If you do this, then the mode you select will actually stay in effect through powering off the keyboard, even without LGS installed. For more info, see this thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/4912ck/help_for_g810_owners_is_it_possible_to_save_a/
So in summary, I absolutely think that Romer-Gs get an unfair and unwarranted amount of hate from the enthusiast community, which I think stems mostly from Logitech being a generic "Best Buy" gaming-oriented company and from the lack of aftermarket keycap options. If you can overlook those two downsides, they really are a pretty solid switch if you just want to game and type with nice clear backlighting.