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
The squeak mentioned by an earlier poster is definitely audible on my keyboard, though it works in concert with the clicking sound made by my Gateron blues. I actually like the effect.
Typing only seems problematic if you're bothered by the shape of the keys. Personally, I've enjoyed typing on this set. For one thing, the keys have a texture.
Backlighting is completely irrelevant to a keyset like this one; you see the reflections of the LEDs on the sides and bottoms of entirely different keys. This becomes especially noticeable if your WASDs and arrows use different colors. Ideally, I'd use these keycaps on a board that didn't feature backlighting at all.
If ever I tire of my typewriter keycaps or they become too smooth to use, I'll substitute one of my backlighting-friendly sets. Until then, these look and feel fun.
Black keys against a black case with white LEDs definitely give your board a clean retro look, but silver/black against a silver case also works. Silver works especially well if you don't want it to seem as though you're trying to be old fashioned. You won't look like you want people to think you've modded an old typewriter.
Then again, I'm no one to talk. I actually own a functioning candlestick telephone that dates from the 1920s.