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
- Has different colors (Sleeper doesn't use any of the Pantones listed);
- Has different legends (Sleeper uses classic legends, not icons);
- Is made by a different manufacturer;
- Is made on a different profile.
Still Sleeper is a "blatant copy"? If your definition of "blatant copy" is having similar attributes (soft colors) then by your logic the sets you mentioned are in the first place, blatant copies and remixes of DSA Quartz, DSA Granite (oh wait, the nephews pointing fingers never heard of those, but they might if someone makes a vlog and post on Discord), the authentic IBM keycap set, any WYSE keycap set, GMK Classic Retro and any set with a soft colorway palette. If having similar attributes automatically constitutes a "rip off", then let me start here with a list of the Laser rip offs with the GMK Japanese molds I made, or SA sets with vibrant colors, which I was the first to do. As if anyone owned languages and colors. Incredible the double standards to which I and other creators are subjected to again and again to fit narratives of hive mentality, we are walking targets for people doing less for keycaps than we do. In the past I was vocal to defend that color schemes could use some protection and exclusiveness. Not a single soul agreed with me, or even understood what I was trying to say, in fact I was laughed at and attacked. Such a silly concept. If you are trying to make an argument, the consensus is that nobody owns, or have exclusive rights to use any colors. And I can't make a basic looking set with white, grey and soft RGB colors? Okay. "Keycap connoisseurs" and "morality knights" at their best, I guess.- Has different colors (Sleeper doesn't use any of the Pantones listed); But it's just different accent color from the same color palete
- Has different legends (Sleeper uses classic legends, not icons); Isn't it just the standard modifier icons used by every gmk set?
- Is made by a different manufacturer; But it's one of the handful of major keycap manufacturers. Should not really be a surprising choice to anyone
- Is made on a different profile. But it's again a well-established run off the mill profile. You didn't create/modify the profile to make it better suit the set in anyway
I'm not really going to claim it's a "rip-off" and I think it's good that people have more choices on profile even if the color schemes are the same. However, I also think it's quite reasonable to say it lacks some originality, especially when it has the name of a well-respected designer on it.