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
So I'm curious what brand new items the community is really interested in. I still think there is massive room for growth in certain areas of the community.
As far as custom keycaps go, I think playing the long game and finding manufacturers that can make new profiles (like Devlin, etc) will be fantastic. Obviously this isn't a quick undertaking. I definitely like the idea of doing more custom sets with manufacturers that haven't done as many and working making those options more open to the community.
I also see a huge void in the electro capacitive keyboard world. HHKB's (which can't be sold on MD) and Topre Realforce keyboards are fantastic, but the variety is extremely limited. Other makers have started making EC keyboards, but honestly the boards aren't really up to par with real Topre boards. I'd like to work with MD and some of these manufacturers to really craft another enthusiast grade EC keyboard option for the community.
I think seeing more kits would be fantastic as well. The Red Scarf boards are excellent boards due to pricing and features, I just want to see more of them.
Please let me know what you'd like to see!