Email or username:

Password:

Forgot your password?
lectronaughty

There are many reasons to use a split keyboard, but this is without a doubt the most important one.

A tabby cat is sleeping on a desk with his head resting between the two halves of an ergonomic wooden split keyboard.
73 comments
INPC

@ice This is amazing, I have a cat right in front of me now who would approve.

lectronaughty

@mxtthxw The only issue is you need to be quick enough to push the two halves apart when your cat eventually decides to spread on a wider area :)

INPC

@ice Oh I can see that getting a little tricky!

Graceless Hippo

@ice

I wonder if these are good for people who can touch type... Gonna have a Google.

lectronaughty

@GracelessHippo It depends on your habits and on the keyboard layout, but it likely won't work out the box, you'll need to re-learn quite a few things and play with layers and macros. This kind of keyboard is usually made to be highly customizable. It's definitely worth it in the long run though. If you want more info on this one you can take a look here: keyboard.io

Graceless Hippo

@ice

*bookmarked* ta👍

I had a quick look but I'm not in the market fer another keyboard yet. I'll have a proper look when I'm next in need. I think they might be the way to go though.

cancel

@ice @GracelessHippo I have a Dygma Raise, which is a split keyboard with extra thumb keys, and with a normal, staggered layout instead of columnar. It took me about 30 minutes to get used to it. I've been using it for 9 months, and it's the best keyboard I've ever used.

(I personally don't believe columnar or ortholinear are better than staggered. Fingers aren't arranged in literal columns, and I don't hold my hands parallel to the key rows/columns anyway. I type 150wpm, 99.9% accuracy)

cancel

@ice @GracelessHippo (I don't type any faster on the Raise than on a non-split keyboard, but it's more comfortable, and the extra thumb keys are really useful for text editor stuff!)

Graceless Hippo

@cancel @ice

I quite often lose my place on my current keyboard. I think that's a problem I wouldn't get with the split type.

cancel

@GracelessHippo @ice I suspect it would neither help nor hinder common typing skills.

lectronaughty

@cancel @GracelessHippo In my case it's a bit complicated, I use a weird custom layout based on international qwerty but with a variety of tweaks and macros to allow quick access to French-specific characters. I agree it's certainly much faster to get used to a split keyboard if you mainly type in English. And yeah, thumb keys are great :)

Lars Wirzenius

@GracelessHippo @ice I have one, and had it's predecessor. Here's my blog post reviews of them:

blog.liw.fi/tag/keyboardio/

Maltimore

@ice you might say this is the *central* aspect of owning a split keyboard

First Dread Pirate Roberts

@ice Nuce. My cat likes to sit in front of the monitor.

First Dread Pirate Roberts

@ice What keyboard is this? It looks like the ’6’ Key is on the right hand. Most split keyboards get it wrong and put the ‘6’ Key on the left hand, because it makes the split between the two halves straighter.

lectronaughty

@PirateRoberts It's a Model 100: keyboard.io/ -- the legends are a bit misleading though, I'm using a weird custom layout to support French characters and various shortcuts.

First Dread Pirate Roberts

@ice Can you post a pic of the right hand side? The website has a clear shot of only the left half. My split keyboards is vertical, which is fine for touch typing.

lectronaughty

@PirateRoberts Here’s the whole keyboard, it’s symmetrical. But keep in mind I’ve mixed keycaps from two different sets, the default qwerty set and the linear A set. Outside rows and thumb clusters are linear A.

Full picture of the Model 100 keyboard with mixed qwerty and linear A keycaps.
Sakti :unverified:

@ice @PirateRoberts Very pretty board, this is one of the few splits I've seen that is nice to look at!

jgibbon :verified:

@ice @PirateRoberts I've never seen a keyboard this beautiful in my life. Unreal.

Joseph Kohlmann

@ice Please give kitty some extra “key strokes” (pets) for meee 😻🥰💓

Riley S. Faelan

@ice: Shouldnt' there be a cat-warmer between the halves, though? :blobcatcoffee:​

lectronaughty

@riley In fact the cat warmer is right behind him, he's lying half on my knees and half on the desk :)

kristophr

@ice okay but what keyboard is this. Its beautiful

Attila Kinali

@ice These cat + split keyboard combinations have even their own subreddit: reddit.com/r/catsbetweenkeyboa

Dr Surekha Davies

@ice This made my day - and I don't even have pets!

DigitalStefan

@ice As someone who *loves* their keyboard shortcuts, is there a trick to adapting to no longer having a dedicated function key row?

I'm all about that F2 to rename / edit, F10 / F11 being used as a fullscreen toggle in some games etc.

lectronaughty

@DigitalStefan You can remap every key to any other key, create complex macros, add various layers that can call even more layers, etc. There are mouse controls, a lockable numpad, space cadet modifiers...

In my case, for example, I've set up the two bottom thumb keys as two different layer keys, but they are also used as spacebars when pressed quickly. When holding the right thumb button, F1-F10 are available on the numbers row, F11 and F12 are set on Q and W. It can be customized endlessly.

Sylvhem

@ice You know what? I wasn’t sold on the idea, but this did the trick.

lectronaughty

@Sylvhem I also experienced first-hand that it also works great when you spill some liquid where your keyboard is supposed to be :)

amosnp

@ice Yep yep. I have a kitty who likes to get between the halves of my Kinesis split keyboard.

Martha Howell

@ice Idk if you really need the split...

Black cat, curled around the back side of a keyboard, sound asleep.
Grumpy Grimnir :verified:

@ice You can almost see the thought bubble: "Bugger! Now what do I do to stop that horrible typing racket?"

lectronaughty

@grumpygrimnir Generally he just ends up rolling left or right, depending on his mood :)

Sasha Strange

@ice The cruelty of people posting their beautiful keyboards with nary a model number in sight!

I quite like yours. The dark wood grain is lovely, and makes me think of the lovely editing machines used in The Final Cut, the 'guillotines'

traileraddict.com/the-final-cu

lectronaughty

@sasha_strange Wow, I didn’t know this movie, that’s quite a nice desk :)

cathos

@ice I love my split boards! did your cat catch the mouse?

lectronaughty

@cathos Not yet, I’ve managed to confuse him because I have a trackball on the left and a vertical mouse on the right :P

Jimmy Sjölund

@ice Sometimes you need to rearrange your setup. Or someone will rearrange it for you.

Cat sleeping all over desk moving keyboard and trackball out of place.
dwenius

@ice @kmherkes man I wanted to love that keyboard, but my hands keep balking at the adjustment curve.

km herkes, mostly gardening

@dwenius @ice
it makes my wonky wrists hurt just looking at it, but I am envious of its gorgeous rainbow -backlit glory, and I am entirely sure my cat would LOVE the extra space.

lectronaughty

If that toot with my cat and my keyboard reaches 1000 boosts I swear to stop playing Stardew Valley compulsively and actually make my own Stardew Valley inspired game, which was initially my plan.

DELETED

@ice look at that precious little tiger nogging, absolutely the most important reason

Simon Detheridge :snorlax:

@ice I've never managed to use a split keyboard because I never learned to type properly and my muscle memory gets messed up with keys around the center of they keyboard.

This is a factor in wanting to try again though. I hadn't considered it.

Go Up