For the past 5 years or so I’ve been using an HHKB and I’ve grown to love its layout. The (smaller) Delete, ~ and \ key placements is something I enjoy. The ~ key is used a lot in my native language and this placement is much more ergonomic for me.
I’ve been out of the keyboard scene ever since I got the HHKB and I’ve been considering building a new board to try whatever new switches have come out since then.
Not looking to create a PCB myself, would rather use something that already exists and preferably doesn’t require any soldering. 65%-ish with arrow keys would be my preferred form factor.
Anything like that in the market? Thanks!
- the HHKB layout has been popular enough that a lot of 60% keyboards offer an MX HHKB equivalent (ex. KBDfans Tofu60)
- only main differences are: 7u spacebar instead of 6u spacebar, Alt and Sys keys are flipped, and Backspace instead of Delete)
- along those same lines, most of the big name keycap makers also include the alternative keys necessary (R1 1u backslash pipe, R2 1.5u Backspace, R3 1.75u Control, R4 1.75u Shift, R4 1u Fn)
- most modern PCBs usually come with VIA firmware making it easy to reconfigure the Fn layer to match what you expect from an HHKB
