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 knew from the start, however, that it wouldn't have much appeal without a matching themed case to go with it, and I originally thought that a flat aluminum case in seafoam green would do the trick. But the more I thought about it the more I felt that something more ambitious was needed, and I worked up some 3D renders of what I would want the case to look like. Little did I know how good MassDrop was at turning concepts into reality!
What you see here is everything I hoped this tribute keyboard would become, and I hope keyboard enthusiasts and vintage typewriter enthusiasts alike will be as excited as I am to have this baby on their desktops!
the keycaps do show the arrows, but now sure where we can put them on this layout.
I think he would.
In this particular case, the keycaps will be Signature Plastics VCO green and VAF green. My renders are approximations of those colors based on RGB values obtained from scans of SP's color chips that I myself did not create. You have to look at those renders and realize they are only giving you a reasonably good, but not perfect idea of what they will look like in person, to your eyes.
My goal for the case color is to try and match the VAF green color, but final aesthetic calls will generally rest with me and I make no promises that the case will match the renders 100%. It is the general spirit of the Hermes Rocket typewriter that is the goal, not perfect color matching to the concept art.