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
Tex is a keyboard manufacturer famous for replicating Lenovo’s “mouseball in keyboard” design. Taekeyboard, a well known creator, reviews a new keyboard from Tex called the Shinobi. Actually what drew me to this video is because I used a Lenovo laptop for a few years and fell in love with using the keyboard in mouse design. While I think the keyboard is a bit big for portability, if you’re looking to have an even more minimal setup, this might be an interesting choice to consider. Mech Merlin
Mech Merlin takes us through a day in the life of a vintage keyboard hunter. Visiting several Goodwills and electronic recycling shops, it seems like a true treasure hunt. I thought it was funny that he saw evidence that one of the shops was already picked over by another vintage hunter. Next time you see a vintage keyboard collection at a meetup you’ll have some idea of the effort required to build that inventory up! The 8-Bit Guy
So let’s say that you went through and scavenged from vintage keyboards. But what if you pick up some absolutely horrid, covered in gunk, but historical keyboard? 8-bit guy shows us the process of restoring what he calls the “worst machine” he’s ever seen. While I don’t think most of us are hardcore into major restoration gigs, it’s still fun to see the work of a professional. The video has two parts and runs for roughly 1 hour. The keycaps on the Vic-2 look fairly similar to the MT3 profile designed by Matt3o and sold on our site. That’s it for this week’s curation. If you liked this thread, please give these creators a follow and a like on their video. If you have any recommendations on who we should curate for next week’s content please let me know in the comments section below.