[GB] SA A History of Violets | Bonus Vim and Emacs kit added!

[Piperaceae]

SA A History of Violets


Vendors
US - SPKeyboards
EU - CoffeeKeys
UK - ProtoTypist


Inspiration
Violets came about out of a desire to recreate the bygone era of the early and mid-2010s; a period of the hobby I missed out on, when sets came with amazingly flexible and extensive coverage, offered through a large number of specialized kits.



I've tried to recreate the look of early SA sets, with retro full-word legends, the formerly ubiquitous lotus icon dating all the way back to SA Commando 23, and layout options rarely seen in post-pandemic era. Colemak and Dvorak support, ergo modifiers, and macro columns are all available; alongside retro terminal legends, NorDe coverage, and vivid purple cadet alphas.

I pitched this design with no fewer than a dozen extremely niche kits, and I'm happy and grateful that such a large number of those survived the interest check phase, and are now available for purchase as a part of this run.

Additionally, switchbox.studio has contributed a new violet novelty, designed to match the look of the vintage lotus flower.


Colors and Materials
Doubleshot ABS, in Signature Plastics stock colors
RDR Purple
REC Dark Purple
WCK Cream


Colors in indirect and direct sunlight


Dates
Now! Presale beginning May 1, 2025
Shipping approximately 8-12 weeks later (barring unforeseen circumstances)


Pricing (USD though SPKeyboards)
Base: $145
Extension and Macros: $27
Numpad and Numerals: $28
40% and Ortho: $36
Violet and Lotus Novelties: $35
NorDe: $22
Cream Alert: $23
Typist: $31
Ergo Mods: $54
Vim/Emacs: $50 (SPKeyboards exclusive)
Monokit Bundle: $212


Kitting
SP is offering this both as individual kits for more flexible customization, or a giant monokit bundle containing a mix of keys from multiple kits.


Monokit Bundle

A "greatest hits" collection combining multiple individual kits for convenience. Includes UK ISO, Cream Alert row, Alice split bars, improved 40% coverage versus the standalone base, some novelties, numpad and cadet numerals, and a selection of minibars.

Individual Kitting Base

Includes UK ISO, split Alice bars, and basic 40% support.

Extension with Macro Columns

Includes cadet pointer novelties, HHKB support, and macro columns.

Numpad and Numerals

Includes 108-key coverage via cadet numeral keys.

40% and Ortho

All bars are convex (as are the larger bars included in other kits.)

Violet and Lotus Novelties

Switchbox.studios violet novelty, and classic lotus flower novelty, in various rows and sizes.

NorDe

Note that the row 1 keys are purple, and so won't match with either the monokit or the Cream Alert accent kit.

Typist (Colemak and Dvorak)


Ergo Modifiers

Featuring weird, retro terminal legends from the SP archives.

Cream Alert Accent Row

One concession to the 2020's - the mandatory accent numrow.

Limited Edition Vim/Emacs

Adds the Vim keys from the IC, along with Emacs keys and a few other keys to expand the Typist kit's coverage.


Additional Board Renders

More

Thanks
Switchbox.studio for the Violet novelty design; MadMax13, Mori, and all of the denizens of the Keyboard Designers Forum Discord; the folks from the SPKeyboards Keycap Design Ideas channel; Dvorcol for help fixing the Typist kit; Will and Melissa at Signature Plastics; Francesco at CoffeeKeys; PotatoWire for the Vim molds; BodyOrgan for making the Vim/Emacs kit happen; and everyone else who helped with feedback on this over these past six months.

[mr_foggy]

ahhh I love me some good SA profile. excellent color choice as well.
will consider the basekit (and one child kit or two given the reasonable pricing on those)

[Piperaceae]

Thank you! Links should be live later today, at least for SPKeyboards. I know it's a holiday for much of the world outside the US, but hopefully CoffeeKeys will go up today as well.

SP usually launches stuff around 11am or 12pm US Eastern time.

[rowie]

Wonder if there will be any matching deskmats and metal artisans. Would very much love a deskmat at the very least as I’d have a hard time finding one to match this set. Love this set though.

[Piperaceae]

I'd certainly be open to it. I'm still kind of new to this, and have never done a collab before so I'm not sure what's needed from my end. SP has done deskmats for a couple recent sets, but I haven't heard anything about one for Violets.

[Piperaceae]

SPKeyboards listing is live!

https://spkeyboards.com/collections/new-releases/products/sa-history-of-violets

I'll update CoffeeKeys when they're ready.

Looks like SP has the monokit bundle after all! Updated the thread to reflect that. Don't be thrown by the initial price shown, because it is for the big bundled monokit. The individual kits, including the regular base, are displayed after it.

[NoPunIn10Did]

Great kitting on this. Hopefully having both the standard TKL base plus the monokit won't cause split MOQ problems; overall though I think this is really well-done.

[Piperaceae]

Thank you! The two forms of kitting are a result of SP themselves wanting to offer it both ways; this seems to be their model for the time being. (Macrodata Refinement R2 is a monokit, but R3 is supposed to have individual kits.) If this does wind up being a successful strategy, I expect they'll keep it, and if not then we may not see it again.

I get the idea behind it - especially for people who are new to custom boards; the monokit will likely cover everything, and be less confusing than picking and choosing from among nine other kits. But it is A Lot of Keycap™!

[Piperaceae]

A couple small things have been brought to my attention. The base render shows "Alt Graph" while the monokit has "Alt" on the right Alt key. "Alt" is the correct legend; the base and monokit should match. I'm asking SP to fix that.

There are also two keys missing from the Typist kit (quote and D); I'm submitting a fixed render to include those.

Once SP posts the new renders, I'll fix them here as well.

[Piperaceae]

Typist kit has been fixed to re-add the two missing keys from earlier renders. Individual base kit render's right Alt has been fixed to the correct "Alt," matching the monokit. Renders on SP's site and here are up-to-date now.

Also, CoffeeKeys is live now!

https://coffeekeys.eu/en-us/products/preorder-sa-a-history-of-violets-eng?_pos=1&_sid=9e94889d7&_ss=r

[konstantin]

Lovely set. GLWGB! I hope the monokit reaches MOQ despite the high price tag.

[Piperaceae]

Lovely set. GLWGB! I hope the monokit reaches MOQ despite the high price tag.

Thanks, I hope so too! I'd love to see more extensive kitting like this be offered on the regular again.

[Piperaceae]

ProtoTypist's page is now up!

https://prototypist.net/products/pre-order-sa-a-history-of-violets

[aumz.work]

Monokit Bundle is look gorgeous

[Piperaceae]

We have a late addition to the set! Thanks to the work of a dedicated superfan who helped fund this kit with his own money, the Vim keys (courtesy of PotatoWire) from the IC are now available, along with Emacs keys, and a handful of other keys to expand the Typist kit's coverage. The Vim kit had been dropped during the IC phase, so having it resurrected is a small miracle.

This is a very small run, and only available through SPKeyboards:
https://spkeyboards.com/collections/new-releases/products/sa-history-of-violets?variant=50035008962838

[BodyOrgan]

We have a late addition to the set! Thanks to the work of a dedicated superfan who helped fund this kit with his own money, the Vim keys (courtesy of PotatoWire) from the IC are now available, along with Emacs keys, and a handful of other keys to expand the Typist kit's coverage. The Vim kit had been dropped during the IC phase, so having it resurrected is a small miracle.

This is a very small run, and only available through SPKeyboards:
https://spkeyboards.com/collections/new-releases/products/sa-history-of-violets?variant=50035008962838

I'd be that super fan. With "A History of Violets" being one of the few sets getting a Typist (Colevrak+) kit these days, I wanted to make sure it also got a solid Vim key (HJKL) option that not only works for normies (QWERTY), but alt layout typists as well. This is an extremely small MOQ (14 sets) of which I'm subsidizing every set sold to get the price as low as it is, so if you're a Vim (Vi IMproved) fan, but especially if you're an alt layout user don't miss this chance because I'm not aware of a single other sculpted set to ever offer Vim keys for alt layouts.

For those wondering, the Emacs keys are there for fans who might be using that text editor with the EViL (Extensible Vi Layer) package which provides it with Vim like modal editing and motions. Not to mention since the set is purple it just kind of goes along with the Emacs logo.

See the following images for supported layouts (thanks dvorcol):

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