"SFF" Keyboards

What's the smallest you'd go with a keyboard?

  • 100%

    Votes: 21 7.7%
  • 80%

    Votes: 27 9.9%
  • 75%

    Votes: 53 19.3%
  • 60%

    Votes: 126 46.0%
  • 40%

    Votes: 23 8.4%
  • Electrodes implanted into brain, effectively 0%

    Votes: 16 5.8%
  • Something else

    Votes: 8 2.9%

  • Total voters
    274

iFreilicht

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Feb 28, 2015
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How about this, then?



It's gaming branded, but it looks quite understated. Not sure I like their solution. It's just a TKP attached via USB to a hub that's built into the keyboard. It's clever, but a somewhat cheap way of doing things.

 
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confusis

John Morrison. Founder and Team Leader of SFF.N
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Jun 19, 2015
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I agree that the numpad shouldn't be on the same side than the pointing device.

why? Most people using the tenkey on a regular basis are using tab/arrows and shortcuts to move about spreadsheets/etc, so mouse locale is unimportant. Or are you meaning the (horrible) macro'd in numpads that tenkeyless boards have?
 

confusis

John Morrison. Founder and Team Leader of SFF.N
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Jun 19, 2015
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i use right hand for both mouse and tenkey, in saying that i usually have mouse relatively close to kb, I am used to having a small desk. Using kb and mouse my arms are perpendicular to my chest, with only a reduction of 15-20cm between hands moving right hand to numpad.
 

iFreilicht

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Feb 28, 2015
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Yeah couldn't find any solid information either. I guess the only way to find out is to email them or just buy it and check.

i use right hand for both mouse and tenkey, in saying that i usually have mouse relatively close to kb, I am used to having a small desk. Using kb and mouse my arms are perpendicular to my chest, with only a reduction of 15-20cm between hands moving right hand to numpad.

Keyboards really are a very personal thing. It's no wonder there are a billion different kinds out there and people still modify them heavily to suit their needs.
 

GuilleAcoustic

Chief Procrastination Officer
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Jun 29, 2015
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Can't decide which of these colour schemes to choose for my custom keycaps. Opinions?

Hard to choose. I like the first one but I am not fond of the black bottom row.

Massdrop is running a drop that could interest you. It offers plenty of customizations and matches this colour scheme :

https://www.massdrop.com/buy/mito-dsa-sci-fi



They do have ISO set, ortholinear set, ergo set, french / german / etc addons ....
 

iFreilicht

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Feb 28, 2015
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Personally I find the white letters on Orange keys easier to pick out at a glance.

Why such a bright colour scheme?!

Huh, good point.

Because orange-black-white is the best colour combination of them all! All my cars in GTA online have that colour scheme and it will match the RAM slots of my mainboard :p I don't know, but it's my first board and I want customs on it, so I might as well go all the way.
 
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iFreilicht

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Feb 28, 2015
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Hard to choose. I like the first one but I am not fond of the black bottom row.

Massdrop is running a drop that could interest you. It offers plenty of customizations and matches this colour scheme :

https://www.massdrop.com/buy/mito-dsa-sci-fi


Do you think white would suit the bottom row better?

Yeah I know about the overcast GB, but with shipping this is going to be even more expensive than importing the keys from WASD, and I really want the keycaps to be mine. Also I need german ISO layout and they don't seem to offer keys for Ü Ö Ä or the number row the german layout uses. I'm also going for a split backspace and an R1x1.75u key for the up arrow, which I can only get at WASD, so while I'm paying shipping for that, might as well get all the keys there.

They do look pretty darn good, though.
 

GuilleAcoustic

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Do you think white would suit the bottom row better?

Yeah I know about the overcast GB, but with shipping this is going to be even more expensive than importing the keys from WASD, and I really want the keycaps to be mine. Also I need german ISO layout and they don't seem to offer keys for Ü Ö Ä or the number row the german layout uses. I'm also going for a split backspace and an R1x1.75u key for the up arrow, which I can only get at WASD, so while I'm paying shipping for that, might as well get all the keys there.

They do look pretty darn good, though.

That perfectly makes sense. I think the bottom row should be the same colour than the modifier, except for the spacebar (like the overcast set). having a black line above and below the alphas gives it a vertically compressed looks that annoy me.

My rules tend to be:
  • maximum of 3 colours
  • 1 colour for numeric row (escape can have its own one)
  • reversed colour for mods and alphas (e.g. orange on white for alphas / white on orange for mods)
  • spacebar count has aplhas
  • backspace coule be either aplhas or mod (depends if it is 60% or not)
 

GuilleAcoustic

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iFreilicht

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Feb 28, 2015
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I made mine in keyboard layout editor, too, but I can only link to the gist, the permalink is much too long. The Hex-value of the keys I'll use is #F67F00, btw, so the ones in your layout are a little too dark. Do you know how to copy a layout in KBLE? Is there a UI option or do I have to do that in the gists section of my github-account?

That looks quite good, I already thought about ditching the mod prints. But I'm only really thinking about the colour scheme right now, I didn't want to dive into changing the stylesheets of my layout on KBLE, there's not enough time this week. The typeface I'm currently thinking about is this one (from inkscape on the WASD layout template, so the caps itself are to scale, but it's only showing the top, not the sides and I can't modify the layout):



I really want that galaxy print for the "space"bar-pun, but maybe it's not worth it. I'll probably just order it like that and add a blank space bar to the order. And I need prints for the punctuation at the top. Media I can maybe live without.