Ortholinear monoblock keyboards aren't explicitly ergonomic, but are included
here for novelty and a situational opportunity to turn them into split unibody keyboards
by covering the middle two columns.
Keyboards need to have some ergonomic quality to them - typically
a split, tented middle, or keys being arranged in some kind of a wave/fan.
Keyboards that are only ergonomic by extent of being compact are best left for other lists.
Keyboards have to be buildable or immediately obtainable in some way -
no teasers / pre-orders / group buys.
Haven't found the keyboard of your dreams?
There are some tools to help you with designing a custom keyboard:
Ergogen
Takes configurations and generates PCB files for KiCad. You have to do routes yourself, but still it's help.
Klavyl
Takes configurations and generates STL files for flat hand-wired keyboards.
Dactyl
Parametrized keywell keyboard. Generates new SCAD files for hand-wiring.
Dactyl Manuform
Also a Dactyl, but with a different thumb cluster.
Dactyl generator
A visual generator for hand-wired Dactyl-style keyboards.
Cosmos generator
A visual generator for all sorts of keywell keyboards.
And non-tools:
Dumang Dk6
You can move keys around on the magnetic base of this keyboard! Note: requires custom driver/software that only works on Windows
Unsorted keyboards
Feel free to fill out and submit these if you have a moment.
Nothing here at the moment!
Submit a keyboard?Notes
The only obligatory fields are Name and Image URL(s).
Anything that is not filled out will default to 0 (for numbers)
or the first option (for checkboxes)
So, for example, if a keyboard doesn't have any pointing devices,
you don't have to fill out a bunch of 0s.
"Right-side columns" is auto-filled to "Columns" if not set.
If a keyboard supports either trackballs or touchpads
(as seen on Ximi), you'll need to fill out the "pointing devices"
field (or the numbers will be added up).
The editor supports a few keyboard shortcuts!
Page Up, Ctrl+Up: Previous section
Page Down, Ctrl+Down: Next section
Arrow keys: Switch between checkboxes in the group
Please fill out and submit keyboards using the above editor -
I try to add interesting keyboards when I encounter them,
but there are hundreds of open-source keyboards alone so help is always welcome.
Generally it takes a few minutes (or even less if you made the thing and know the specifics) to fill out the metadata for a keyboard.
Something's wrong / amiss about a keyboard
You can submit corrections as simple notes
or by loading an existing keyboard in the above editor, making edits, and submitting the updated JSON.
Personally I tend to go over 5-10 keyboards at a time based on readily available information,
so if something cannot be derived from the description, photos, or part list, I won't be filling that out.
And if you make open-source hardware and are reading this,
if you do not have a part list/feature list in your repo,
please at least mention whether the keyboard is made for hotswap sockets or not,
and the switch type(s) if it's not just MX.
The reader shouldn't have to look at the KiCAD files.
Can you add a column?
I can generally add additional columns to the table so long as it's something that:
Can be easily derived
Is of value to the average reader
Appears on more than just a couple keyboards
Bonus points if you're willing to go over the existing keyboards
and add a new bit of metadata to them yourself.