This is my personal take on a Preonic keyboard layout.
Coming from a traditional staggered keyboard, I focus on 3 core ideas in designing this layout:
- Shallow learning curve for traditional staggered keyboard users
- Keys on Lower / Raise layers should be memorable and feel natural to use
- Underglow LEDs as layer indicator
This layout is based on the default Preonic Rev3 layout, and modifications includes (but not limited to) the following:
- Keys:
- Removed
Dvorak
andColemak
layout options - Combine
Esc
(Base),~
(Lower) and`
(Raise) as a single key at top-left corner - Number keys act as symbols in Lower, and function keys in Raise.
- Align Lower
()
,{}
,[]
keys in a logical and easy to memorize order - Left/Right arrow keys act as Prev/Next media control in both Lower and Raise
- Enter key act as Play/Pause media control in both Lower and Raise
- Up/Down arrow keys control Volume in Lower, and control Brightness in Raise
- Most keys are identical in Lower and Raise except the symbol/function keys row
- In Adjust, keys for keyboard settings and maintainance stays on the left, while a keypad layout is available on the right
- Removed
- Visual:
- Underglow LEDs' color will react to layer changes:
- Base - Purple
- Lower - Blue
- Raise - Red
- Adjust - Cyan
- Underglow LEDs' color will react to layer changes:
- Audio:
- The option of disabling audio in my default Preonic is somehow non-persistant, and the startup sound will play every single time I replug the keyboard. A although I didn't change anything for audio in my layout, this issue is somehow solved by flashing a new firmware.
You can customize the keymap to your heart's content, to name a few:
- Color for underglow LEDs for each layers by modifying
RGBLIGHT_LAYER_SEGMENTS
. Docs here - Sounds for different layers (which I disabled). Docs here
- Keymaps for different layer (Duh)
There are a number of limitations that restricted this keymap from become a better layout, namely:
- I would love to enable Tap-Toggle for the Lower/Raise layer keys to for example make using the keypad layout on Adjust more comfortable. However, due to the way QMK handles Tri Layers this is currently impossible (at least to my knowledge). Closest thing I came across in my research is enabling LT in a Tri Layer setup
- There are way too many blank keys going to waste on both Lower and Raise. While this is fine for now, I will probably start adding macro/shortcut keys as I perform more of my daily workflow with this keyboard.
- Same problem as above except this time its too many similar keys on both Lower and Raise. However this is probably for the best for a dummy like myself.
- I haven't assign any keymaps for two of the keys in the base layer, since I haven't figure out any uses for them yet.
- Follow the official QMK setup
- Create a new keymap for Preonic Rev3
- Copy everything in
layout
from this repo to the folder of your new keymap, replace when necessary. - Customization! 🎨
- Build and Flash as you would with any other QMK firmware.