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
Both of these keycap sets are CNC milled and coated.
With those sets as my reference point, I would think your price could come down.
However, I would seriously consider a set of CNC-milled metal keycaps like you're describing, at a high price point, if they solve the problems of existing metal keycaps like mine:
- They must be durable and not tarnish or corrode with wear and oils from fingers. Aluminum, anodized or otherwise, should do just fine.
- They must have a good, rough, grippy texture. The earlier MKC 2nd-gen keycaps I use now have a subtle matte texture of the coating, and that _works_, but it's still not textured enough. The newer MKC 2nd-gen keycaps, from the 37-key set, are slick and smooth, and downright unpleasant to type on. A "mirror finish" is a disaster once you've touched it for more than a few minutes -- it becomes slick. We don't tolerate this of ABS keycaps, and we shouldn't tolerate it of metal ones.
For reference, these are the MKC sets (neither photo is my own):
UPDATE: Added photos
If you can get a similar texture and durability of the matte aluminum of my MacBook, that'd be endgame material for me.
Some of ScarFace's thick injection-molded aluminum keycaps had a similar sandblasted finish:
The rest of his work is fantastic, too: http://cafe.naver.com/sfkey.cafe?iframe_url=/ArticleList.nhn%3Fsearch.clubid=16426502%26search.menuid=62%26search.boardtype=I
I only have MKC's zinc keycaps & aluminum spacebar, as mentioned in earlier post in this thread. I was extremely lucky to find a full set in 2015, and they've barely aged with daily use (and weekly cleaning).
If you go looking for MKC keycaps, be very very careful you know just which version you're getting. It's almost certainly going to be the shiny, slick, short-lived 2nd-gen set, not the nice 2nd-gen set (more on differences above), and you may need to think about measures like applying something like ProtectaClear to keep their coating from corroding. Note that ProtectaClear will make them even smoother, and you'll be able to feel that there's a thin coating there. I switched back to OEM ABS keycaps on the keyboard I put that set on, while I'm still in love with the matte 2nd-gen set.
If you're open to using ProtectaClear, powder coating, painting, or even treating with a patina and/or rolling with the corrosion for a rustic look, you can also get away with the other bad zinc keycap sets, like ttesports' "METALCAPS". I've been considering this. Just don't do anything like this to any matte MKC 2nd-gen keycaps, or I'll know, and I will find you.