The one thing that makes me hesitant about a Framework laptop is the keyboard. I really like having an arrow cluster that includes keys for PgUp and PgDn to make it easier to page through documents one-handed.
@nrp Why did you go with having the front panel have cutouts for the individual keys? Recent Thinkpads, for example, just have a large rectangular cutout with the bezels between the keys being part of the keyboard unit. That would allow people to more easily produce keyboards with different layouts.
After playing around with the image from the DIY Edition page in an editor, I see that you’re right. Without reducing the key pitch, there’s just not room for another column.
But personally I’d really like to see a keyboard that looks something like this edited image:
Notes:
- Key pitch doesn’t seem so important on the function row, while I do find more keys there useful. So I copied my Thinkpad and reduced the pitch: the keys are slightly narrower and most of the gaps between them are removed.
- Reworked the arrow cluster to use 3/4 height keys (same height as the function key row), which seems nicer than half-height, and reduced them to the standard pitch.
- I also stuck a ridge on the down-arrow key, like on the F and J keys, to help with finger positioning. And I copied Thinkpad’s lack of a gap between up and down, which also helps the positioning.
- This makes the keyboard not be rectangular, but I think Thinkpads did the right thing with that.
- Making the arrows standard width left some extra space in the bottom row. So I shrunk left-Ctrl to standard width, and reduced the spacebar a little too, to bring back the key between right-Alt and right-Ctrl. Recent Thinkpads put PrtSc there, with the thinking that it makes Alt+PrtSc (“screenshot of a single window” in Windows) easier to do, so I copied that assignment.
- Not having an oversized left-Ctrl makes swapping Fn and Ctrl make more sense, IMO, because who wants an oversized Fn key? And coming from a Thinkpad, I’d want to swap them.
- But would having the spacebar not come so far under the M be awkward for some people? I have no idea.