Layout optimization best practices: sources of your personal corpus (part 2)
Welcome back to our series on designing custom keymaps! After looking into how good/bad QWERTY is, the power of layers, and the potential of custom keymaps, last time we took the first real step by examining your options for compiling a corpus. As a recap: The corpus is simply a big chunk of text. We use this collection of textual data, often a single text file, to characterize your typing habits (calculating various language statistics), and feed it directly or indirectly as an input into layout optimization algorithms – to find the optimal keymap for you! Today we’ll expand on this idea by exploring your options if, like me, you prefer a personalized corpus rather than grabbing some general (and mostly irrelevant) data available online. Image 1: Letter frequencies – the most basic use of corpora – in this very post We've seen that a well-crafted, personalized corpus plays a key role in determining the outcome of the optimization process. We've also explored...
Sep 4, 2024
I want something generic that's not on the market:
* Doubleshot key caps (preferably PBT but I guess ABS is fine),
* White on black (or black with a dark brown nuance or similar),
* Variants of the Windows key that are blank, or say "System",
* No multimedia keys,
* Preferably traditional symbol prints e.g. arrows and menu keys are actually a geometrical arrow instead of a "DOWN", "UP" text,
And I want this in "NorDe" layout (= Swedish).
The closest on the market is Filco's SPKCS105D/SW (https://www.keyboardco.com/product/double-shot-filco-105-key-swedish-finnish-keyset.asp, review https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/286eu8/filco_iso_doubleshot_keycaps_review/, photo http://i.imgur.com/2RVwNNa.jpg ) however it has ugly Windowsy Windows keys and you can't buy blank Windows keys separately. I find Windows logos immoral, there is no relation to Windows. If https://zambumon.com/chocolatier/ was all-black it would have fit too.
The design that inspires me the most of all keyboard designs is maybe "GMK Eclipse" (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=91931.0 / https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=90360.0 and was retailed here https://web.archive.org/web/20171026075214/https://www.candykeys.com/product/gb-gmk-eclipse/), it has such a fresh, clear and professional feeling to it.
While there are high quality keyboards on the market (e.g. Filco, Wasd), most key caps suck. WASD for instance delivers UV keys (called "pad printing" here https://deskthority.net/wiki/Keycap_printing), for me they started wearing off in weeks, that's just totally unacceptable. I believe except for not wearing off, doubleshot key caps will have a special classic unmistakable shine to them that appeals to anyone who is quality-conscious. There must be a market for an all-black multilingual shiny black key set for constant sale, not just some random massdrop five years ago from someone who is now unreachable.
Who can make this?
Is it available today?
Who can I ask for it?
This question should apply to other language designs like French, Portuguese, German, Russian, and so on.
(For the great general relevance of the question, I doubleposted with https://deskthority.net/keyboards-f2/generic-iso-norde-swedish-white-on-black-doubleshot-blank-win-whr-get-t20001.html and https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=97874 .)