Overall, I'm happy to see more competition popping up in the enthusiast doubleshot keycap set space, and I wish you the best of luck in realizing this project. Bootstrapping a project like this is no joke.
I left feedback about your new typeface in the Typeform survey, but I'm also going to put it here, in case anyone wants to discuss:
Typefaces are generally designed with text in mind, not keycaps. Therefore, the rules that govern relative sizing, weight, stroke thickness, kerning etc. of glyphs in a typeface don't usually translate 1:1 to keycaps. You will need to make the glyphs not just typographically consistent, but also visually consistent within the given medium. For example, some of the punctuation legends will need to be made larger and/or thicker in order for them to not look out of place next to rest of the legends. What would otherwise look off, or be considered over- or undersized in a typographical context, can look just right on a keycap set. Slight adjustments also need to be made in terms of legend positioning, but this has more to do with the design of the keyset itself rather than the typeface.
As for the proposed kits, I have a couple of things to say:
- Overall, the kits are pretty good. I think you struck a good balance between kit size and compatibility for layouts that are currently popular in the enthusiast community. However, as a few people have already pointed out, you've made a couple of oversights. I'm going to list those below, together with a few suggestions and potential improvements.
- For starters, the current kit structure forces you to use accent and/or mod-colored spacebars. This is bad, because the majority of users prefer having alpha-colored spacebars.
You can solve this issue by moving the 2.25c, 2.75c, 6.25c and 7c spacebars from the mod kits to the alpha kits. This change doesn't affect the spacebars in the accent kits. For an example, see how KAT Refined (a superbly kitted set with a similar setup to yours) laid out its alpha and mod kits.
(This issue was also mentioned here and here.)
- While we're on the topic of spacebars, you could also include a 2c spacekey together with the already existing 2.25c and 2.75c ones. I understand that this may require extra tooling to be produced — but if you have the means to do it now, I would recommend it. The 2c size is used about equally as often as 2.25c on the Alice and similar ergo boards, which are the main use case for these keys nowadays. You're probably going to need to make the 2c mold further down the line anyway, once you start getting designers designing sets in M2K.
However, this suggestion takes lower priority than the one above, as well as the two following ones.
- You will need to add two keys: R3 1u \|, R4 1u <> to the alpha kits in order for ISO support in base to be viable. Otherwise, the ISO Enter and 1.25u Shift keys that are currently included cannot be utilized, as the corresponding alpha keys (which are required for basic ISO support) are missing.
(This issue was also mentioned here.)
- You will need to add a R1 1u \| key to the alpha kits for covering various popular 60%, 65% etc. layouts that use a split Backspace or offer it as an option. This is a very important key to have in a set.
(This issue was also mentioned here.)
- Going back to Alice support, you should add a second R4 1u B key to the alpha kits. This saves people from having to use a mod key or the 1u 0 from the numpad on their ergo boards.
- I've noticed that the set has only one instance of the F, J and 5 keys. Are these going to be homing, and if so, what kind of homing (barred, scooped, nipple)? Are you planning on offering a second variant as well?
- The current accent kit renders show the numpad Enter key as spanning rows 2–3. However, the numpad Enter key actually spans rows 3–4. This should be corrected in the renders.
- The numpad / and × keys currently sort of have mismatched legends. You see, the usual pairing is either / * or ÷ × (also: : ·, but this is a German/European thing and isn't ever used in keysets). This is common not only in keysets, but also in real word usage: math, programming etc.
Therefore, I suggest either changing the × legend to *, or changing / to ÷. I personally think that ÷ × looks nicer — and additionally, it allows you to use the × as a makeshift “icon Esc” legend — but the choice is up to you.
- I have a couple more suggestions that concern legends and, specifically, their consistency and aesthetics.
First off, I'd like to suggest changing the Lock legend to Scroll, for consistency with Num. Both of these keys are locks, so it would make sense for one to say Scroll Lock if the other says Num Lock.
- Consider changing the R3 1.75u Control key to use an icon legend, such as ∧. This helps with visual consistency, as the “Control” text can look out of place in the middle of icon legends and can interfere with the clean aesthetic of icon-only mods. See here for a comparison. Examples of sets that do this include: GMK Seafarer, GMK Stealth, GMK Maestro, GMK Kojiro etc.
However, I know that some people some people prefer having the text legend despite it looking out of place, so it's worth bearing this in mind. Again, it's up to you to choose what legend you'll use for this and future sets.
- If you want to get more Mac users on board, you can add two R4 1.5u Super keys, as well as a second R4 1u Alt, to the mod kits. These keys are also used in OG HHKB-style bottom row setups, which some people prefer using on their boards.
However, I would say that these are a nice-to-have and not a must.
- Finally, one more thing that ultimately comes down to subjective preference: consider using System (1.25u, 1.5u), Sys (1u) instead of Super as the legend for OS keys.
The argument in favor of this is that System is a more general/OS-agnostic legend, whereas Super is more specifically tied to *nix systems (although frankly, these days “Super” is pretty much synonymous with “Windows key” in the average Geekhack user's head). Additionally, the OS keys do a system-specific action, so System also makes sense from that perspective.
I think that about covers everything I've noticed so far (thanks for reading!). Again, overall, I'm liking what I'm seeing here so far, and I look forward to seeing how this develops further. Cheers.
Hey konstantin,
Thank you very much for the detailed and constructive feedback. As you menchen at the start: “a project like this is no joke”. Small adjustments and changes can be night and day for a project like this. This is why feedback like this is so valuable.
2. In regards to the spacebar adjustments - moving the 2.25c, 2.75c, 6.25c to the alpha kits and adding a 7u spacebar would make a lot more sense. We initially intended to have a 7u spacebar with the alpha kit but left it out to keep the kit size down. Looking back, this was a bad move.
We will update the kitting on the kits in a few weeks when we’ve more adjustments.
4/5. The R3 1u \| and R4 1u <> is currently in our compact international kit, which is seen in the Europe and UK IC form.
You can see it here:
Moving R3 1u \| and R4 1u <> to the Alphas kit would make a lot more sense for most people. This means that some people won't have to purchase international kits, which is a bonus.
Adding R1 1u \| makes sense as well. Thanks for pointing it out.
7. We intend to use bars on F, J and 5 keys. We are yet unsure if we will offer a second variant of the keys with no bars. We assumed that most people use the homing if its available. That being said, we are still open for changing or adding a second variant if enough people bring it up.
9. In regards to the / and × keys on the numpad - I agree that the ÷, × symbols look nicer. We intend to add the ÷ symbol when we have the final font adjusted.
10. I cant see why we wouldn’t use Scroll over the lock text in the mods kits. Good suggestion!
11. Changing the “Control” text with ∧ would definitely help with the aesthetics when we mainly use Icon mods. That being said, we also concluded that a lot of people like the text variant as well. It may be because the selection of kits with R3 1.75u with text is in the majority.
12. We have played a bit with the idea of having Mac support or changing the R4 keys to more modern symbols as seen in some kits:
Arch Gui Kit or
GMK Burgundy.
If this isn't added in the first run, we intent to add them at some point.
13. Using System over Super or vice versa is a whole debate in itself. We initially went with the Super because the majority of kits use it. That being said, I can see why using System has a few more benefits.
