So I posted a thread recently asking people about looking for custom keycaps - particularly when you are looking to find caps for a custom layout.
The conclusion was pretty simple and one that I expected, but disappointing. You have to be ready to spend more than your fair share of money, and/or be prepared to have a set that does not perfectly suit your preference. Kinda a bummer when you are building a custom layout; you want it to be exactly what you want, and have already spend enough money building the damn thing. That said, if you like the idea of a Unicorn puke layout, all power to you, lol.
So how about this:
More
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/105788147/Keyboard%20Keycaps.png)
A custom layout built from the keycap set for a TKL keyboard.
Green keys represent a standard 60% layout, white keys have been copied over from the full TLK layout at the top, all of them are either 1u (Of which there are plenty in excess), or they are the same size as one of the removed green keys.
The only exception is the red key, as there is only a single 1.75u on a standard layout. Not a problem if you dont mind having a 0.5 blank on your layout (Spare 1.25s are available). It is a shame that this will still limit your choices slightly, but less so, as you can either opt for the blank space or replace capslock or another key with something different.
Alternatively, you can replace >, /, Shift each with 1.25u's (There are enough), this leaves no blanks but might be a little less neat depending on how you see things.
Personally I think its a nice compromise, offering extra keys for macro or simple re-binding in a more compact 60/65% layout while still allowing you to get keycaps easily. Let me know what you think!
That's called a 65% layout. It's not anything new, I'm afraid.
Show Image
(https://geekhack.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=67863.0;attach=87952;image)
Show Image
(https://geekhack.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=67863.0;attach=87954;image)
From [IC] LZ-SQ Housing & Finger L3 PCB (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=67863.0)
Although I must say that I do think the layouts for the LZ-SQ are more well thought out and more useful.
I was aware that arrowkeys added to standard 60% was a thing (Although thanks for pointing out that it has an official name as 65%) - I looked through the link though and could not find anything about trying to cater for pre-existing keycap sets, so I dont know if that was a thing that the keyboard shown is aiming for? The reason why I did this for 65% was out of personal preference for that layout, however the main focus of the post was the keyset advantage it offers.