I'm a fan of small keyboard layouts as well as of TKL. When I first saw a keyboard which looked like a TKL but had the whole F-row (including Print-Screen, Scroll-Lock and Pause/Break keys) missing, I was sold: I want such a keyboard. :-)
So far I only know two keyboard models with such a layout:
- Drevo Calibur (aka Keycool KC71) with Bluetooth
- KPRepublic 71-Keys Custom Keyboard (no more available and product page deleted)
Keyboards with similar layouts:
- Mechagodzilla (moves ScrollLock, PrintScreen and Pause/Break to row 3 directly above the cursor keys—nice idea—but also removes the Right Alt and the Meny key—bad idea)
Since I neither want Bluetooth (or any other radio technology) in any of my keyboards, I seem to need to build such a keyboard on my own.
(The JSON layout files are meant for usage with the Keyboard Layout Editor and compatible tools.)
(Formerly named XTKL 71 as most keyboards with such a design had 71 keys.)
More or less the generic ANSI TKL layout with the top-most key row removed and a bit of HHKB/Sun style.
Same as the XTKL 72, but with IBM-style, symmetrically arranged cursor keys and an additional Enter key in the middle.
Due to the unusual row for left and right arrow keys, this layout is likely only suitable for non-sculpted key cap profiles like DSA, XDA, KAM, SA R3 or VSA.
More or less the generic ANSI TKL layout, but
- with the two top-most key rows removed in the main alpha-numeric block, and
- the top-most row in the MF-II block removed, too.
- The second and third top-most rows of the MF-II block are moved one row toward the bottom.
- Left-most column key widths like a 40% keyboard and some bottom row optimizations with a 6u spacebar.
You could also describe it as 40% or 50% keyboard with all columns of a TKL keyboard.
For keycap compatibility reasons, the width of the Backspace/Enter/RShift column has been left untouched.
Based on the XTKL 57, it has been modified to sport a split spacebar (3u + 2.75u) and fitted in a Pipe/Backslash key. I'm though still unsure where, hence there are three variants currently:
Pipe/Backslash key close to its original position, but requires a rather unusual 1.25u Enter key.
The 1.75u Shift key is much more common as many keyboards have an additional Fn key right of the right Shift key. Also the needed Pipe/Backslash R4 key is common on ISO layouts. (On ISO layouts this is on the left end of R4 on these layouts — impossible here due to the by 0.5u reduced column width on the left side.)
Same as XTKL 59b but with positions of Pipe/Backslash and Right Shift key exchanged to that the Pipe/Backslash key is where the HHKB has typically its Fn key: On the very right end of R4.
There's a chance that the layouts XTKL 59b and 59c and maybe even 59a and 57 (or any mixture of them) can be implemented in a single PCB, albeit maybe not a hotswap one.
A simple TKL layout (i.e. with the F-row still there) with just the IBM-style, symmetrically arranged cursor keys and an additional Enter key in the middle of them.
Due to the unusual row for left and right arrow keys, this layout is likely only suitable for non-sculpted key cap profiles like DSA, XDA, KAM, SA R3 or VSA.
