The blog posts from [Thomas Baart](https://thomasbaart.nl/category/mechanical-keyboards/firmware/qmk/), [Precondition](https://precondition.github.io/) and [DreymaR](https://dreymar.colemak.org/), along with the [official QMK docs](https://docs.qmk.fm/#/), are the closest I can remember now, but exploring other keymaps and trying the features by yourself, although time consuming, is a rewarding and effective process.
In [my keymap docs](https://github.com/rafaelromao/keyboards), I list other sources that I used to learn the features I have implemented in my keyboards.
Thanks for the links. I've read some of those, but will check out the others. Kudos for documenting your layout so thoroughly.
>trying the features by yourself, although time consuming, is a rewarding and effective process.
I'm glad it has been for you; it just hasn't been for me. I didn't get into this as a hobby, I just don't want to be in pain anymore, or lose my career.
I’ve never seen such a guide, but I also think it would be difficult to put together.
When you get down to 40 and under, I think the choices people tend to make get very personal and specific to their workflow. And it’s still a pretty niche thing, so maybe not a lot of “common” workflows.
I will say that you kinda of need to embrace the journey. Setting up the perfect keymap out of the gate is an unrealistic ask. Try to do what makes sense, but putting the keymap into practice in real life is the best way to smooth out those corners. Personally I enjoy that process. Progress not perfection. Iteration after iteration. Always tweaking.
I get that, but I'm not expecting it to be perfect, or for anyone to hand me something tailored to my workflow. I've been iterating for 9 months, and expect I'll have to well into the future.
**What I'm looking for is a curated source of general information.**
If you want to learn how to play the guitar, you could just buy one and watch random YouTube videos; or you could take guitar lessons. You can definitely learn the first way, but it'd take years longer to get to the same point.
If that kind of compendium doesn't exist for this topic due to the nature of it, that's totally fine, but it's not wrong to seek out an efficient way.
Nothing like that exists, I don't think.
I've been iterating my layout on a ZSA Planck EZ for 2.5-3 years; but it's basically an on-again-off-again-type of relationship. I'll be finally moving on to split layouts soon and learning firmware-size adjustments, etc., out of ZSA's configurator.
I can empathize w/ the sentiment that proper instruction/learning resources can sometimes be undervalued, though these smaller keyboards are a relatively new thing, right? I mean, how long has QMK and the like been around?
I would happen to guess that the number of keyboard layout designers to be a small, niche group of individuals. And those that are writing/documenting stuff to for free to be even smaller.
>these smaller keyboards are a relatively new thing, right? I mean, how long has QMK and the like been around?
Long enough for people to have experimented plenty and written entire blog posts about certain features, the ways to implement them, and the pitfalls and benefits.
I share OP's sentiment of wanting a place where I can read about the various features of these firmwares and how you would practically use them and why. Something like [the home-row mods article on precondition.github.io](https://precondition.github.io/home-row-mods) is great, for example. Or take thedarnedestthing, which hosts many blog posts about their keymap and keyboard layout, [such as this one](http://thedarnedestthing.com/split%20chords). Unfortunately their blog is fairly difficult to navigate and search through. Furthermore, lots of people include a write-up about their keymap in the Github repository for it, which includes the features they use and the reasons for using those features. But again, it's difficult, and time consuming, to go through the many keymaps out there to find the interesting stuff. And some people don't have their keymap included in the main QMK repository.
The thing is, experimenting on your own is fine. Iterating on the keymap whilst using it is how most people got to those brilliant keymaps that are out there. But there are many people that don't have the time or energy or know-how to do that on their own. Some place to get familiar with the things you can implement would be great, even if it's just to get some ideas and inspiration.
Fair enough. OTOH, not everyone has the motivation or desire to publicly document their observations since keymaps are a pretty personal thing once you've fine tuned yours for a bit.
It's kinda hard to say what's right for someone, too. I doubt my Planck layout, for example, is very useful to anyone because it's so specific to how I like to control/navigate computers.
Maybe bits and pieces are useful but you're back to the paradox of time-consuming keymap shopping/browsing. Some bits are fairly common like Vim-style arrangement of arrow and mouse keys on home row and what not.
Ultimately, I think you still have to experiment to see what works well enough for you regardless of available learning resources.
>I doubt my Planck layout, for example, is very useful to anyone because it's so specific to how I like to control/navigate computers.
I get that, but that's not really the point. It's not about learning from the keymap in its entirety, but learning what features are used, how, and why.
Yep, and keep in mind not everyone really cares about what other people are doing, either, or taking the time to create well-written technical documents that has a very niche audience.
Ah. I see. Still don’t know if I’ve seen anything like that with better explanations as to how and why you would use the various functions available. Obviously further muddying the waters are QMK vs ZMK vs KMK and such.
I would say that on the ZMK discord they have a channel devoted to keymaps and it’s a great place to get ideas and advice on how to handle tricky situations.
I have a 36 key layout and I don’t use home row mods. Also on ZMK, so a lot of functionality is similar, but I do prefer the way you can configure behaviors in ZMK. I use a lot of combos and hold taps. 4 layers total. Just started adding a few simple macros for things I don’t want to type a lot (email address and things like that).
I think what your asking for is a good idea. Just needs to be executed well.
This is a guide I read a while ago and thought was nicely done. However, it doesn't use the fancier things like tap dance.
http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/gists/016b11b6fc11fa1cb9306338a26e71f9
Check out [KeymapDB](https://keymapdb.com/). It's a curated collection of keymaps for programmable keyboards. There's a slider on the left side of the page to filter by number of keys. Set it show keymaps with under, say, 45 keys to get keymaps for 40% boards. I just tried that and came up with 27 keymaps.
The [Ferris keymap writeup](https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/tree/master/keyboards/ferris/keymaps/default) and the [T-34 guide](https://www.jonashietala.se/blog/2021/06/03/the-t-34-keyboard-layout/) are the two that most inspired my layout.
My layout is inspired by this article:
https://stevep99.github.io/seniply/
Reading this also made me want to try a 34 key design. While before I was quite reluctant.
Try the tour for my layout: [https://configure.zsa.io/ergodox-ez/layouts/ABaJR/latest/0](https://configure.zsa.io/ergodox-ez/layouts/ABaJR/latest/0)
It is for Ergodox, but the keymap is made to work with Corne and even Minidox.
Home row dual function modifiers, as well as thumb keys for layers are featured, heavily.
Reducing timing issues is very much a concern, and I was able to almost eliminate all of them with the following qmk #defines:
#define TAPPING_TERM 232
#define PERMISSIVE_HOLD
#define EXTRAKEY_ENABLE
#define IGNORE_MOD_TAP_INTERRUPT
I have pain in my wrists, and stretching to reach keys makes it worse. I also frequently make typos on the outer keys, despite months of consistent practice.
The keys that I can reach comfortably are the 5x3 alpha grid on both sides, and the 3 thumb keys on each side. That gets me to 36. Then I made exceptions for a few more that are so far away that I naturally move my hand instead of trying to stretch (escape, control/shift).
I’m using small keyboards, but I chose for myself to do not use tap dance or mod-taps or home row modifiers. My layout does not rely on timing. I have home row modifiers, but in layer. The only feature I use besides layers is one-shot modifier.
This is possible if do not try to reduce keys too much, in my experience, do not go beyond 42 keys. Positions of thumb keys are also important. Two thumb keys per hand are not enough, should be at least three, and positioned to comfortably use all of them (resting on the middle thumb key). Examples of keyboards that fits: Kyria, Dactyl Manuform.
That allows to do not depend much of QMK features, I’m using keyboards programmed in QMK, VIA, ZMK, BlueMicro_BLE. List of features in these are different, and not all the latest from QMK are immediately supported or work equally well.
I do not have an active layout in QMK, but here is my layout in ZMK for Dactyl Manuform 4x5, the most compact one.
My “home row mods” are used exclusively for navigation, and existing in navigation layer, which resembles the DreymaR’s “Extend” layer for standard keyboards. Modifiers for alphas are in the thumb cluster, and most frequent shortcuts are in the navigation layer as well, while they are easily accessible with the central Ctrl as well.
https://github.com/ckofy/zmk-config-dactyl-manuform-4x5
Hi, I use many of such features like layers backlight and/or underglow, CapsLock
button backlight, tap dancing (can’t live without this), macros, home row
modifiers. If you want you can check how I’ve implemented this
https://github.com/Eva808/iris-keyboard-keymap
Checkout dreymar’s bag of tricks on the Colemak forums. It’s not specifically geared towards 40 key layouts, but has great optimizations for home-row efficiency (extending one of the cornerstone benefits of colemak)
I will say define the use case first. For me, im using 40% (Contra) for writing, so im focused on navigation, layer for symbols and numbers. Because on my case not using numbers to much, so i can put it under a layer. Remapping space, backspace, shift, and ctrl, is a must for me to make it more efficent (for a lower finger move distance)
I found someone who doing accounting will feel difficult because they need to input numbers in one hand, and it lead to use the numpad style layer for number.
For combos and tap dance, i just use the simple mod tap, where a tap give F and a hold give shift. I do this too for S for alt and D for Ctrl, this mapping really improve my efficiency.
> Because on my case not using numbers to much, so i can put it under a layer
If you're using a 40% keyboard, most people wouldn't have the numbers on the default layer anyway.
I’d start at Miryoku and use qmk docs for each feature
Indeed, [Miryoku has docs explaining the layout principles](https://github.com/manna-harbour/miryoku/tree/master/docs/reference).
Thanks!
^ This
The blog posts from [Thomas Baart](https://thomasbaart.nl/category/mechanical-keyboards/firmware/qmk/), [Precondition](https://precondition.github.io/) and [DreymaR](https://dreymar.colemak.org/), along with the [official QMK docs](https://docs.qmk.fm/#/), are the closest I can remember now, but exploring other keymaps and trying the features by yourself, although time consuming, is a rewarding and effective process. In [my keymap docs](https://github.com/rafaelromao/keyboards), I list other sources that I used to learn the features I have implemented in my keyboards.
Thanks for the links. I've read some of those, but will check out the others. Kudos for documenting your layout so thoroughly. >trying the features by yourself, although time consuming, is a rewarding and effective process. I'm glad it has been for you; it just hasn't been for me. I didn't get into this as a hobby, I just don't want to be in pain anymore, or lose my career.
I’ve never seen such a guide, but I also think it would be difficult to put together. When you get down to 40 and under, I think the choices people tend to make get very personal and specific to their workflow. And it’s still a pretty niche thing, so maybe not a lot of “common” workflows. I will say that you kinda of need to embrace the journey. Setting up the perfect keymap out of the gate is an unrealistic ask. Try to do what makes sense, but putting the keymap into practice in real life is the best way to smooth out those corners. Personally I enjoy that process. Progress not perfection. Iteration after iteration. Always tweaking.
I get that, but I'm not expecting it to be perfect, or for anyone to hand me something tailored to my workflow. I've been iterating for 9 months, and expect I'll have to well into the future. **What I'm looking for is a curated source of general information.** If you want to learn how to play the guitar, you could just buy one and watch random YouTube videos; or you could take guitar lessons. You can definitely learn the first way, but it'd take years longer to get to the same point. If that kind of compendium doesn't exist for this topic due to the nature of it, that's totally fine, but it's not wrong to seek out an efficient way.
Nothing like that exists, I don't think. I've been iterating my layout on a ZSA Planck EZ for 2.5-3 years; but it's basically an on-again-off-again-type of relationship. I'll be finally moving on to split layouts soon and learning firmware-size adjustments, etc., out of ZSA's configurator. I can empathize w/ the sentiment that proper instruction/learning resources can sometimes be undervalued, though these smaller keyboards are a relatively new thing, right? I mean, how long has QMK and the like been around? I would happen to guess that the number of keyboard layout designers to be a small, niche group of individuals. And those that are writing/documenting stuff to for free to be even smaller.
>these smaller keyboards are a relatively new thing, right? I mean, how long has QMK and the like been around? Long enough for people to have experimented plenty and written entire blog posts about certain features, the ways to implement them, and the pitfalls and benefits. I share OP's sentiment of wanting a place where I can read about the various features of these firmwares and how you would practically use them and why. Something like [the home-row mods article on precondition.github.io](https://precondition.github.io/home-row-mods) is great, for example. Or take thedarnedestthing, which hosts many blog posts about their keymap and keyboard layout, [such as this one](http://thedarnedestthing.com/split%20chords). Unfortunately their blog is fairly difficult to navigate and search through. Furthermore, lots of people include a write-up about their keymap in the Github repository for it, which includes the features they use and the reasons for using those features. But again, it's difficult, and time consuming, to go through the many keymaps out there to find the interesting stuff. And some people don't have their keymap included in the main QMK repository. The thing is, experimenting on your own is fine. Iterating on the keymap whilst using it is how most people got to those brilliant keymaps that are out there. But there are many people that don't have the time or energy or know-how to do that on their own. Some place to get familiar with the things you can implement would be great, even if it's just to get some ideas and inspiration.
Fair enough. OTOH, not everyone has the motivation or desire to publicly document their observations since keymaps are a pretty personal thing once you've fine tuned yours for a bit. It's kinda hard to say what's right for someone, too. I doubt my Planck layout, for example, is very useful to anyone because it's so specific to how I like to control/navigate computers. Maybe bits and pieces are useful but you're back to the paradox of time-consuming keymap shopping/browsing. Some bits are fairly common like Vim-style arrangement of arrow and mouse keys on home row and what not. Ultimately, I think you still have to experiment to see what works well enough for you regardless of available learning resources.
>I doubt my Planck layout, for example, is very useful to anyone because it's so specific to how I like to control/navigate computers. I get that, but that's not really the point. It's not about learning from the keymap in its entirety, but learning what features are used, how, and why.
Yep, and keep in mind not everyone really cares about what other people are doing, either, or taking the time to create well-written technical documents that has a very niche audience.
Ah. I see. Still don’t know if I’ve seen anything like that with better explanations as to how and why you would use the various functions available. Obviously further muddying the waters are QMK vs ZMK vs KMK and such. I would say that on the ZMK discord they have a channel devoted to keymaps and it’s a great place to get ideas and advice on how to handle tricky situations. I have a 36 key layout and I don’t use home row mods. Also on ZMK, so a lot of functionality is similar, but I do prefer the way you can configure behaviors in ZMK. I use a lot of combos and hold taps. 4 layers total. Just started adding a few simple macros for things I don’t want to type a lot (email address and things like that). I think what your asking for is a good idea. Just needs to be executed well.
This is a guide I read a while ago and thought was nicely done. However, it doesn't use the fancier things like tap dance. http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/gists/016b11b6fc11fa1cb9306338a26e71f9
Thanks!
Check out [KeymapDB](https://keymapdb.com/). It's a curated collection of keymaps for programmable keyboards. There's a slider on the left side of the page to filter by number of keys. Set it show keymaps with under, say, 45 keys to get keymaps for 40% boards. I just tried that and came up with 27 keymaps.
That's cool, thanks :)
The [Ferris keymap writeup](https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/tree/master/keyboards/ferris/keymaps/default) and the [T-34 guide](https://www.jonashietala.se/blog/2021/06/03/the-t-34-keyboard-layout/) are the two that most inspired my layout.
Thanks :)
My layout is inspired by this article: https://stevep99.github.io/seniply/ Reading this also made me want to try a 34 key design. While before I was quite reluctant.
That's a good one, thanks!
Try the tour for my layout: [https://configure.zsa.io/ergodox-ez/layouts/ABaJR/latest/0](https://configure.zsa.io/ergodox-ez/layouts/ABaJR/latest/0) It is for Ergodox, but the keymap is made to work with Corne and even Minidox. Home row dual function modifiers, as well as thumb keys for layers are featured, heavily. Reducing timing issues is very much a concern, and I was able to almost eliminate all of them with the following qmk #defines: #define TAPPING_TERM 232 #define PERMISSIVE_HOLD #define EXTRAKEY_ENABLE #define IGNORE_MOD_TAP_INTERRUPT
How did you come to the target of 40?
I have pain in my wrists, and stretching to reach keys makes it worse. I also frequently make typos on the outer keys, despite months of consistent practice. The keys that I can reach comfortably are the 5x3 alpha grid on both sides, and the 3 thumb keys on each side. That gets me to 36. Then I made exceptions for a few more that are so far away that I naturally move my hand instead of trying to stretch (escape, control/shift).
My guess is because a lots of posts here are of keyboards with 36/34/32 keys, and 40% seems to be a common form factor as well.
I’m using small keyboards, but I chose for myself to do not use tap dance or mod-taps or home row modifiers. My layout does not rely on timing. I have home row modifiers, but in layer. The only feature I use besides layers is one-shot modifier. This is possible if do not try to reduce keys too much, in my experience, do not go beyond 42 keys. Positions of thumb keys are also important. Two thumb keys per hand are not enough, should be at least three, and positioned to comfortably use all of them (resting on the middle thumb key). Examples of keyboards that fits: Kyria, Dactyl Manuform. That allows to do not depend much of QMK features, I’m using keyboards programmed in QMK, VIA, ZMK, BlueMicro_BLE. List of features in these are different, and not all the latest from QMK are immediately supported or work equally well.
Do you mind linking to your layout? I'm curious how the home row mods work on a separate layer, how you use the thumb cluster, etc.
I do not have an active layout in QMK, but here is my layout in ZMK for Dactyl Manuform 4x5, the most compact one. My “home row mods” are used exclusively for navigation, and existing in navigation layer, which resembles the DreymaR’s “Extend” layer for standard keyboards. Modifiers for alphas are in the thumb cluster, and most frequent shortcuts are in the navigation layer as well, while they are easily accessible with the central Ctrl as well. https://github.com/ckofy/zmk-config-dactyl-manuform-4x5
Hi, I use many of such features like layers backlight and/or underglow, CapsLock button backlight, tap dancing (can’t live without this), macros, home row modifiers. If you want you can check how I’ve implemented this https://github.com/Eva808/iris-keyboard-keymap
Checkout dreymar’s bag of tricks on the Colemak forums. It’s not specifically geared towards 40 key layouts, but has great optimizations for home-row efficiency (extending one of the cornerstone benefits of colemak)
I will say define the use case first. For me, im using 40% (Contra) for writing, so im focused on navigation, layer for symbols and numbers. Because on my case not using numbers to much, so i can put it under a layer. Remapping space, backspace, shift, and ctrl, is a must for me to make it more efficent (for a lower finger move distance) I found someone who doing accounting will feel difficult because they need to input numbers in one hand, and it lead to use the numpad style layer for number. For combos and tap dance, i just use the simple mod tap, where a tap give F and a hold give shift. I do this too for S for alt and D for Ctrl, this mapping really improve my efficiency.
> Because on my case not using numbers to much, so i can put it under a layer If you're using a 40% keyboard, most people wouldn't have the numbers on the default layer anyway.
Yeah right haha my point is im using number row not a numpad style. 😅