The German Keyboard is generally okay, but “pg” on the arrow keys is more commonly translated as “Bild” or “Seite”. And “PRT SCR” is usually “Druck”.
Caps lock on a German keyboard is usually represented by a downward arrow ⇩ but your current icon will be understood.
Also (this is more of a style thing), but in German, nouns are generally capitalized, so on most of my keyboards, the functions modifier/special keys are capitalized, too, like Esc, Strg, Alt, Alt Gr, Einfg, Entf and so on. However you can leave it lowercase, if you want to go for a more “stylish” look.
For the statistics (excluding the Framework 13 and the typewriter this time): four of the keyboards have capitalized function keys, one uses exclusively lowercase (apart from the “actual” F-keys F1, F2, …). Kind of funny, the lowercase one is designed in Germany, the others probably in Taiwan, South Korea, and PRC.
To be honest, I don’t think there is a big chance that they will change it. Since they already went with the Gear / Settings symbol on the Framework-13, which has been through 3 generations now. It’s generally better for companies to remain consistent as much as possible with choices like this. But I really do wish they would change it (so that they can do the Framework Gear on the “windows” key without causing confusion).
“super” on the windows/meta/super key just looks lame to me. It has no life to it. A Framework logo is what is needed. I’m a full time linux user and I wouldn’t buy this “super” keyboard. Rather have the windows logo which I can put a sticker on and get enough backlight to provide glow for the logo on a sticker. Linux users have been doing this forever.
I’d be pretty happy if it came with the keys as shown in the image, but also included a couple “spare keys” that are the changes were asking for. That lets things stay largely consistent, but offers the option for the customers to swap out for the better ones.
I very much hope that an ortholinear or ergonomic keyboard with blank keys will be available for the FL16. However, in the interests of French AZERTY layout fans, I would point out that you are using the old version of this layout here: In 2019, following several years of work and consultation, the French authorities have published the new standard for the French AZERTY layout. Here’s a page about it: The new AZERTY
I suppose it’s too late to mention that not having dedicated PgUp/PgDn keys (and to a lesser extent Home/End) is a dealbreaker for many people? You’ve even got space for Thinkpad-style PgUp and PgDn buttons in this layout - why not use it?
As @Captain_Pumpkinhead mentioned, the number row being above the shift characters is slightly confusing. What makes it worse is the row is flipped and the tilda (~), and the tick ( `) remain the same. This would read to me as if I need to press shift, to type a number on the number row.
If I recall correctly, the EC does usually assign this key to open the multimedia player in Windows and Linux. The only time this differs is in pre-built laptops running Framework’s Windows image, where they have edited the OS to have that key open the Framework homepage when pressed.
On the Spanish keyboard, the number 3 has two ‘#’ which seems redundant. My current keyboard has ‘#’ as Alt-3 and ‘·’ as Shift-3. Also, not sure what the extra symbol is under the M key, it seems like a repeated comma, never seen those.
As a more personal note, I would also love to have a version without the windows logo and the framework logo in its place. Everything else looks great.
Adding on to what @Captain_Pumpkinhead and @mrwm said about US English (RGB), not only are the number/symbol keys swapped from how I’ve seen them since them since the 90’s, but all the symbol/symbol keys even in other rows such as [/{ , '/" , ;/: and ,/< are swapped. As a touch typist, this is unlikely to slow me down, but it certainly catches me off guard every time I look at the image above.
I will assume the smaller size of the number row symbols !..) in comparison to the other US layouts and general horizontal alignment changes in the function key row are likely intentional stylistic changes.
I believe that when NumLock is off, the 7 and 1 number pad keys are generally treated as Home and End respectively. Rather than using the left and right tab arrow symbols on these keys, I believe “home” and “end” text would make more sense and also maintain consistency with the labeling on the arrow keys across the presented English keyboards.
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