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
This set is heavily inspired by the popular sci-fi film series Star Wars, even going as far as to offer Aurebesh (the Star Wars universe's alphabet) alphas. The novelty kit, shown below, offers caps with the Rebel insignia as well as a few other very cool keys that you aren't likely to find anywhere else. The colorways are bright and vibrant, contrasting brilliant orange alphas against gray or white modifiers. All this can be seen in the pictures below, which come directly from the designer's Massdrop poll.
In my opinion, this is one of the coolest designs I've seen. I personally love the look of Aurebesh, and the color selection is fantastic. If you'd like to have this design on your keyboard, check out the poll linked below and let the designer know what you think about his keycap set. There are some other layout options there as well.
Link to the original poll:
https://www.massdrop.com/vote/REBEL-A-keycap-set-from-a-galaxy-far-far-away