{"id":150,"date":"2017-06-29T22:46:16","date_gmt":"2017-06-30T03:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/roy.vanegas.org\/thoughts\/?p=150"},"modified":"2017-07-03T20:46:29","modified_gmt":"2017-07-04T01:46:29","slug":"the-lofree-mechanical-keyboard-an-awkward-layout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roy.vanegas.org\/thoughts\/the-lofree-mechanical-keyboard-an-awkward-layout\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lofree Mechanical Keyboard \u2014 An Awkward Layout"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Hong Kong-based start-up lofree is manufacturing a typewriter-inspired mechanical keyboard that was recently crowdfunded at Indiegogo. I purchased one for $79. It arrived on 12 June 2017.<\/p>\n<h2>Keyboard Layout: Numeric and Function Rows Misaligned<\/h2>\n<p>The main video on the campaign\u2019s homepage claims\u200a\u2014\u200aat time 0:48\u200a\u2014\u200athat the lofree keyboard \u201c<em>features the exact same keyboard layout as Apple\u2019s Magic Keyboard<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"lofree keyboard, a typewriter inspired wireless mechanical keyboard\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5tMEZlRY9m8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This isn\u2019t true, and many people have expressed their discontent about this in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiegogo.com\/projects\/lofree-typewriter-inspired-mechanical-keyboard-design-technology#\/comments\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the Comments section<\/a> of the product\u2019s Indiegogo page.<\/p>\n<p>The numeric row and the function row of keys have been shifted to the right by a key, effectively forcing touch typists to re-learn how to type.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_166\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-166\" style=\"width: 2048px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/roy.vanegas.org\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/original-lofree-keyboard-layout.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-166 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/roy.vanegas.org\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/original-lofree-keyboard-layout.jpg\" alt=\"Number row highlighted in original lofree keyboard layout\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1536\" srcset=\"https:\/\/roy.vanegas.org\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/original-lofree-keyboard-layout.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/roy.vanegas.org\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/original-lofree-keyboard-layout-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/roy.vanegas.org\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/original-lofree-keyboard-layout-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/roy.vanegas.org\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/original-lofree-keyboard-layout-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-166\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Highlighting the original, misaligned number row on the lofree keyboard.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>If you\u2019re willing to re-learn the layout and this will be your only keyboard, then stop reading. For the rest of us who use multiple machines, however, the layout is unacceptable.<\/p>\n<h2>Keyboard Layout: Fix<\/h2>\n<p>Lofree advised me (and others) to use Karabiner to fix the keyboard layout, but Karabiner doesn\u2019t work in macOS Sierra. Thus, I set out to create a layout that works in all modern versions of Mac OS X.<\/p>\n<p>My fix is <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/code-warrior\/lofree-keyboard-layout\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">available on GitHub<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The layout re-aligns the numeric row back to the standard position, not the function row. The back tick\/tilde key, now a dead key, is placed to the left of the delete, and the toggling you\u2019d get with <code>command + ` (back tick)<\/code> is converted to a three-key combination: <code>command + control + 1<\/code>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_165\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-165\" style=\"width: 2048px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/roy.vanegas.org\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/number-row-shifted-on-lofree-keyboard.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/roy.vanegas.org\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/number-row-shifted-on-lofree-keyboard.jpg\" alt=\"Shifted number row highlighted in lofree keyboard layout\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1536\" srcset=\"https:\/\/roy.vanegas.org\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/number-row-shifted-on-lofree-keyboard.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/roy.vanegas.org\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/number-row-shifted-on-lofree-keyboard-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/roy.vanegas.org\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/number-row-shifted-on-lofree-keyboard-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/roy.vanegas.org\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/number-row-shifted-on-lofree-keyboard-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-165\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The number row shifted back into the traditional position, with the back tick key, now a dead key, positioned to the left of the delete key.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As for reliability, I\u2019ve used the layout for two weeks in Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan and macOS 10.12 Sierra without incident.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Hong Kong-based start-up lofree is manufacturing a typewriter-inspired mechanical keyboard that was recently crowdfunded at Indiegogo. I purchased one for $79. It arrived on 12 June 2017. Keyboard Layout: Numeric and Function Rows Misaligned The main video on the campaign\u2019s homepage claims\u200a\u2014\u200aat time 0:48\u200a\u2014\u200athat the lofree keyboard \u201cfeatures the exact same keyboard layout as&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/roy.vanegas.org\/thoughts\/the-lofree-mechanical-keyboard-an-awkward-layout\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Lofree Mechanical Keyboard \u2014 An Awkward Layout<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,22,23],"tags":[29,26,28,27,24,25],"class_list":["post-150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fixing-things","category-installation","category-software","tag-fix","tag-indiegogo","tag-keyboard-layout","tag-lofree","tag-mechanical-keyboard","tag-typewriter","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/roy.vanegas.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/roy.vanegas.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/roy.vanegas.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roy.vanegas.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roy.vanegas.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/roy.vanegas.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":164,"href":"https:\/\/roy.vanegas.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150\/revisions\/164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/roy.vanegas.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roy.vanegas.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roy.vanegas.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}