Hi! New to all of this, but I've been following the community for a while and wanted to finally get my hands on a board after having figured out what (I think) I like. Still have some questions concerning multiple-language use case. I read through some of the posts on here but couldn't find a lot so I thought I will just ask...
So far, following one comment, I guess it would be best to go with anANSI layout and learn how to use US International layout, since the (Keychron) Keyboard I currently eyeball is also difficult to get as ISO fully assembled in the color option I want, ordering from Europe. I need this to run on Linux and I guess there's no way around getting into key mapping.
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I do work with several langues, so I would need at minimum Latin and Cyrillic alphabet, additionally some characters of Nordic, Slavic, Germanic and Romanic languages, so basically a lot of diacritics, but also a few extra characters such as ø, ß, ł. However, from what I read US International might not work with for instance Czech, which is a huge problem for me (š, č, ž, ů etc.). Anyone on here with experience and/or solutions regarding this?
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For those of you owning and using a Keychron on Linux, is keymapping a no-brainer? (I hope my biggest issue with this will just be using a Chromium-based Browser xD) --> If Keychron isn't advised, any ideas on other Keyboards supporting key mapping, preferably manufactured in and shipped from Europe. (metal body, 80%, wired, media knob, possibly macros, price point less important)
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Also looking for recommendations on where to buy aesthetically pleasing Latin/Cyrillic Keycaps! Preferably Europe-based Vendors and no sketchy and cheap (possibly toxic) chinese products.
Thanks a lot!
With the large number of languages you are working with, I think it is worth spending a bit of time creating your own layout. The AltGr layer is where you'll want most of your changes.
On Wayland this is not too difficult to do. On X11, skip the headache and modify the system file.
This is my current Alt layer, mostly for French, with Spanish also being easy enough. My main layer is mostly UK/US alphas. This is on a split 42 keys keyboard but the concept is the same.
If there are some characters that you use very rarely, don't forget you can probably get them with a Compose sequence. For example, I forgot the
ßwhen I redesigned the layer, but I can still get it withCompose+s+s.I previously switched from ISO to ANSI and it doesn't change much. If you make your own layout it doesn't matter. I think you have an extra key in ISO.
Keycaps? I use blanks. But there are a lot of EU vendors. I can point to a few later.
___I'm on Wayland. I still fear this part of the process XD but I usually figure things out somehow. There are indeed some characters I only use here and there, so the soultion might work for those cases, thanks for letting me know about your Layout. So what are the techniques to add characters to blank caps? Maybe DIYing would be an idea for the Latin/Cyrillic issue. I'd like some green/brown/yellow combo so maybe I'll just buy a bunch and see what I can do from there.
Here's a list of vendors. https://wiki.keyboard.gay/VENDORS.html#continental-europe I've used Delta Keys, Oblotsky and 42Keebs. All good.
Edit: another list https://kbd.news/vendors/Europe
Perfect! I know what I will be busy with over the weekend :)
https://github.com/y-muller/personal_configs/tree/main/xkb My notes about customising the keyboard in Wayland. It's brief but should get you started. And if you look around the repo, you might find a few other ideas. ;)
I keep my keycaps blank. It's simpler that way. I made pictures, as above, to help at first.
Thx for sharing, this might come in handy for a start!
I get the idea about blank caps and simplicity, I even considered this myself for a while but it just won't be useful when working between Latin/Cyrillic on one task or for longer periods of time on one of each and then switching. At least my experience.
If I remember right, there was even some post about DIYing somewhere on here, I need to take a look through the posts again.