I’ve been using the ISRT keyboard layout for a while now, and it is becoming more intuitive to type on. However, I’ve been hearing a lot about Graphite and Gallium on the Alt Keyboard Layout forums, which has made me a little curious. So, I set up a keymap to see what all the fuss is about.

I have been really enjoying the Choc Red switches that shipped with my ZSA Voyager keyboard . I was however curious how a lighter-weight switch might feel. I was considering ordering some Pro Red 35g linear switches, but then I heard about the Kailh Ambients line of silent linear switches and decided to give the Twilight 35g switches a try. On ordering them from a local vendor, they arrived a few days later, and on my Voyager keyboard I swapped out the Choc Reds for the Ambients Twilights.

After experiencing some reliability issues between my Corne keyboards and my Macbook (but no issues using them with my Linux workstation), I decided to invest in a Voyager keyboard from ZSA .

There were a couple of decisions to be made when placing the order.

Firstly the color. I opted for black instead of white, as I thought the white keys could start to look a little grubby after some extended use.

I’ve been practising the ISRT layout on https://keybr.com/ and am slowly getting used to it. The Miryoku system of layers is quite easy to work with, but I’ve noticed a couple of issues:

1. Sometimes I am tripping over the tap-dance and modiier kuys in the base layer.
2. When I was typing lots of numbers fos work, I noticed some discomfort in my wrist fsom holding down the number layer thumb key.

I found some ergonomic mouse pads to provide some better wrist support. However, another video I recently saw on Ben Vallack’s ZSA Voyager keyboard led me to rethink the use of layer keys on the thumbs.

I have been training on the Colemak-DH layout with my Corne keyboards, and I am getting used to it, even though my typing speed is still slow. I found another video from Ben Vallack about the ZSA Voyager keyboard, and looked into his layout on that keyboard. He seems to have dropped the idea of layer toggles due to the increased cognitive load of keeping track of which layer you are in. Instead, he now holds his home row keys to select layers. I might look into this approach at some point, but for now I am quite happy with the Miryoku setup.

I’ve had so much fun with my Corne V4 keyboard, I decided to take advantage of the sale the vendor had going, and order a second one! My idea was to keep the 46-key Corne at home connected to my Linux workstation, and acquire a 40-key Corne V4 mini to carry around with my laptop. I ordered the same choc brown switches as before, but instead of black keycaps I ordered white keycaps. This would allow me to swap the different coloured keycaps in order to better highlight the home keys.