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by jacobolus 2204 days ago
If you put non-flat keycaps on the ergodox (especially if the further rows have extra-tall keycaps) it gets a lot nicer to use. It also helps a lot to steeply “tent” the two sides, and experiment with their 3D orientation and position.

As a general rule, completely uniform keycaps should not be used unless either (a) the keyboard is built using a manufacturing process where the further keyswitches can be boosted higher up [e.g. IBM’s approach on the Model F/M with a curved barrel plate, Maltron’s vacuum formed plastic, or hand-wired 3d printed keyboards], or (b) there is literally no space for anything else, e.g. on a laptop.

The further rows should not be tilted away from the body though; the keystroke should still be in the same direction as the home row. The Kinesis advantage gets this wrong in my opinion, and the further away rows of keys are quite uncomfortable to use, especially the index finger number keys. The Kinesis thumb section is also in my opinion quite poorly placed and oriented. YMMV.

(The Ergodox thumb section is uncomfortable for many people’s hands in large part because Dox was closely copying the Kinesis.)
1 comments
Symbiote 2204 days ago
What keycap profile would you recommend? I saw this comparison[1] a while back, but not knowing what worked best (rather than looked prettiest) I still have the cheap DSA set.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/2v9zf5...

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bootlooped 2204 days ago
DCS is a concave profile, and you can easily get at least a blank keycap set in this profile for the Ergodox. This is what I use. The Ergodox EZ site calls this profile "sculpted" I believe.

https://i.imgur.com/ykdNLsz.png

I was no as big of fan of SA. The keys are, in my opinion, needlessly tall; too tall for me given the wrist rests I used. I have been floating my wrists for a while now though, maybe I will give it another shot.

I still pivot at the elbow for reaching the small thumb cluster keys. I move my whole hand to reach the outer corners too. I keep infrequently used keys like function keys there. I have seen people's layouts where they don't even assign anything to those keys.

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