This page will my initial throughts on creating the optimal keyboard layout for a 50% ortholinear keyboard. This is made before having the time to test anything out, so I will probably have to create a new post later, to keep things ordered.

Preamble

There are a few options which you need to decide among, which will greatly affect how much of a hurdle it will be of switching to this new layout. It should follow that the more you are willing to change, the more you should theoretically be able to gain.

Things to consider are:

  • How many layers should you use, versus how much should you stretch your hands
  • What should be the layout of the alphabetical keys
  • What should be the layout of the numeric keys
  • What should be the layout of the special keys
  • Homerow mods

How many layers to use

A 50% (5x12) keyboard has the space for a lot of keys. My initial thought was, and may still be in the future, to use a 40% (4x12) keyboard instead. Having only four vertical layers seem to be a max for easy movement, where the fifth layer might require unnecessary stretching in many cases. This is just speculation at this moment, and would require testing to make sure. Therefore, I will probably mostly limit myself to using the 4 lower layers for almost everything, and only placing utility functions on the top row. Utility function might be media keys, changing screen brightness and so on.

This will naturally require a few keyboard layers.

The first, and default layer will be dedicated to alphabetical keys, and will have its own section below. It should also contain other symbols used in normal writing, like comma and period. The next layer should contain the numerical keys, which I don’t want to put on the top layer. Read more about that in its own section below. After that, I need to add the special keys somewhere. I’m unsure if I can cram them into the same layer as the numeric keys, or if they deserve a layer of their own. They also get their own section below.

Alphabetical key layout

If you’ve been on the internet long enough, or met any keyboard nerds, you will have encountered alternative alphabetical layouts. The most famous on is probably dvorak, but recently, variants like workmans and colemak seem to be on the rise. These variants arguably have a better layout, which will make it easier for you to stan on the home row of the keyboard, and lessen the need for long “jumps” with your fingers. I haven’t read enough about them to know if they are mainly created to make it easier to write in english, or if they make other languages easier to type as well, but I would assume that they do.

Since I have personally never found that I’ve been hindered by the qwerty layout, and I feel that my typing speed is fast enough; I will initially don’t make any attempt to test any other alphanumerical layout. Since I have much greater issues with the placements of the numerical and the special keys, I will focus on changing them first. It may be that optimizing the other them will end up with me wanting to optimize the alphanumerical layout in the future. Changing the alphanumerical layout would likely be a massive hurdle to overcome, so it’s fitting to save it for last. Otherwise, any frustrations with the alphanumerical layout might make it harder to accept other kind of layout changes.

A thing worth noting is that it seems like the 12-key width just barely fits the å ä and ö on the right side. This seems great to me, as I’m used to having to fetch them through the us international layout (altgr + w, altgr + q and altgr + p). Not having to do two keypresses to type normal letters is someting I’m looking forward to.

Numerical key layout

It is my personal opinion that the design of the number row is garbage. Not only is it awkwardly located, it’s also slow to jump between the different numbers when typing several in a row. It also doesn’t help that the mathematical signs are spread around in a non logical way. Instead, I’m a big fan of the numpad layout. It’s easy to quickly write numbers, and mixing with mathematical notations is easy. The 0 is also much more logically placed, which is a very common number for me to use.

Since a 50% keyboard does not have a numpad, the logical solution for me would be to create a keyboard layer, which when used will change some keys to behave like the numpad. My first attempt will likely be to copy-paste the numpad layout and place it just right of the j-key. Making kl; behave like 456, etc. Additionally, since the numpad usually has a few longer keys, which I will not have, I will probably be able to cram in an equals sign and a comma. Since swedish commonly uses the comma like the english language uses the dot, it can be a hassle in some applications where you cannot use the dot key in the numpad. Instead you have to jump to the real comma key on the main keyboard. To avoid this I will probably place a comma on the other side of the 0

Special key layout

This is where things get tricky. There are probably two ways of going about the special keys; giving each character a key, or keeping a shift key on the special keys layer. Since I think I will have space to spare, I will try to give each of them a dedicated key on a layer. I will try to put the special keys from the numeric row on the qwerty-row in the same order as the us layout, since that is what I’m most used to. To make space for a numpad, I will probably remove the characters on 8 and higher. The paired symbols, () [] {} <>, should get clustered together anyways. After that I have no idea. I guess I will just have to assign the special characters to different spots and test it out.

Homerow mods

To get a introduction to the concept of homerow mods, read the link at the top of the page. I have thought a bit on this, and it seems like an interesting idea. Putting Alt, Ctrl and Super on the homerow for each hand seems very handy for quickly using shortcuts. Especially the harder ones where you have to combine several of them. What I don’t like is putting shift on the homerow. Sometimes, like when discussing on the internet, you may want to use almost exclusively capital letters. Holding down the shift key with your pinky and writing as normal seems to be such a great solution that I probably want to keep it this way. Having to constantly switch between using shift with your left and right hand when writing just seems like a hassle. I’m a bit intrigued by the idea though, and will probably test it out atleast for a short duration.

Switching to homerow mods might make space for some additional special characters on the first layer, which sounds nice. One thing bothering me though is that having a key which can both be pressed and held, which give different signals, sounds like it may get annoying if there is a delay in normal typing. But that’s probably one of those things where you just have to try it out and see.

Other questionmarks

  • Should the leftmost column (tab, esc, shift, ctrl) be moved to between the hands, i.e right og the g-key and left of the h-key?
  • Should the layer keys require holding, or should the modify the next keytap, och should they change the layer until moved back?