Not to treat things hyperbolically, but this is honestly the most beautiful keyboard I have ever seen.
I currently use a ZSA Moonlander and have been considering the ZSA Voyager to switch to a low-profile keyboard, but I wasn’t completely sold on it. The thing is, I feel that the limited split keyboard market is mainly RGB/gamer-focused. On the contrary, Bayleaf is the type of tool that I would love to use daily as a programmer. The commercially finished look was an excellent idea, and I’m particularly looking forward to seeing the improved thumb cluster. I would easily spend ZSA keyboard amounts and probably more for a keyboard like this.
Also I could see this keyboard pairing really well with fractal design products.
Lastly, I would love to learn the best way to stay in touch with this keyboard!
However, the market for ergo (low-profile) keyboards has gotten a lot better in recent years. Although a lot of things have RGB (like the Moonlander), I would say most of the ergo keyboards aren’t gamer-focused.
Copying my comment from the orange site in case you’re interested in looking at some others:
The latter is pretty awesome. Use a GUI to generate a custom keyboard that you just need to put together. Alas it seems like there is no PCB support for LP switches (at least the Gateron and Kailh Choc).
Do most people using split keyboards have small hands? The thumb cluster on the Ergodox is one of it’s best features, and I never ever see it replicated.
Can you reach every key on that cluster comfortably? I don’t think I have small hands, but have to admit that not all of the keys there are easily reachable for me.
I also have an ergodox and I’m a hair under 6’ and I literally never use any thumb cluster key other than the one closest to my right thumb. I’m not even sure what all of the other keys do even though I wrote this layout myself
lol I actually forgot that I use one of the left thumb keys as a layer modifier to change the home row into arrow keys. the vast majority of modifiers on the left hand. I use emacs so I use alt/meta quite a lot which is why it has a relatively prominent placement. the URL below should have a rough outline of my current layout but I’m not sure if it’s actually public or not
Yeah, I’ve never had an issue pressing the furthest thumb cluster buttons irregularly and my hands aren’t huge (I’m 6’2 to give you some sense of scale) so it’s not like you can’t occasionally stretch for them. Mine have home/end on one side and pgup/pgdn on the other, since I don’t use those often but when I do I don’t want to have to navigate to another layer.
I have a Glove 80 and I can stretch to reach all of the keys on its cluster, but only find the two closest to my thumb to be comfortable.
I would say I have average-to-small sized hands. I don’t know of a good way to measure hands, but I can reach ninths (octave-to-octave +1 key in case you’re a music theory luddite like me) pretty comfortably on a musical keyboard.
Not to treat things hyperbolically, but this is honestly the most beautiful keyboard I have ever seen.
I currently use a ZSA Moonlander and have been considering the ZSA Voyager to switch to a low-profile keyboard, but I wasn’t completely sold on it. The thing is, I feel that the limited split keyboard market is mainly RGB/gamer-focused. On the contrary, Bayleaf is the type of tool that I would love to use daily as a programmer. The commercially finished look was an excellent idea, and I’m particularly looking forward to seeing the improved thumb cluster. I would easily spend ZSA keyboard amounts and probably more for a keyboard like this.
Also I could see this keyboard pairing really well with fractal design products.
Lastly, I would love to learn the best way to stay in touch with this keyboard!
It’s a lovely board for sure.
However, the market for ergo (low-profile) keyboards has gotten a lot better in recent years. Although a lot of things have RGB (like the Moonlander), I would say most of the ergo keyboards aren’t gamer-focused.
Copying my comment from the orange site in case you’re interested in looking at some others:
The keyboard they were inspired by (not for sale… yet?): https://old.reddit.com/r/ErgoMechKeyboards/comments/1cfg3vr/…
Corneish (out of stock): https://lowprokb.ca/products/corne-ish-zen?variant=376943319… Unicorne: https://new.boardsource.xyz/products/unicorne-LP
The corneish is an absolute gem in my opinion. It is possibly (probably?) open-sourced too.
Edit: Some more finds from my own perusal
Comparison of split keyboards: https://jhelvy.shinyapps.io/splitkbcompare/
Mostly open-source ergo keyboard customizer: https://ryanis.cool/cosmos/
The latter is pretty awesome. Use a GUI to generate a custom keyboard that you just need to put together. Alas it seems like there is no PCB support for LP switches (at least the Gateron and Kailh Choc).
Do most people using split keyboards have small hands? The thumb cluster on the Ergodox is one of it’s best features, and I never ever see it replicated.
Can you reach every key on that cluster comfortably? I don’t think I have small hands, but have to admit that not all of the keys there are easily reachable for me.
I also have an ergodox and I’m a hair under 6’ and I literally never use any thumb cluster key other than the one closest to my right thumb. I’m not even sure what all of the other keys do even though I wrote this layout myself
May I ask your solution to modifiers? I’ve been using homerow mods and find it quite difficult to avoid mistakes.
I also only use a small number of the available thumb keys.
lol I actually forgot that I use one of the left thumb keys as a layer modifier to change the home row into arrow keys. the vast majority of modifiers on the left hand. I use emacs so I use alt/meta quite a lot which is why it has a relatively prominent placement. the URL below should have a rough outline of my current layout but I’m not sure if it’s actually public or not
https://configure.zsa.io/ergodox-ez/layouts/v6QGK/latest/0
Yeah, I’ve never had an issue pressing the furthest thumb cluster buttons irregularly and my hands aren’t huge (I’m 6’2 to give you some sense of scale) so it’s not like you can’t occasionally stretch for them. Mine have home/end on one side and pgup/pgdn on the other, since I don’t use those often but when I do I don’t want to have to navigate to another layer.
You are 6 cm taller, so not a big difference? On my layout I basically never reach for del/f13 or the matching keys on the other side.
I had this problem too, and when my Ergodox finally packed it in, I went with a keyball44 for (in large part) this reason.
I have a Glove 80 and I can stretch to reach all of the keys on its cluster, but only find the two closest to my thumb to be comfortable.
I would say I have average-to-small sized hands. I don’t know of a good way to measure hands, but I can reach ninths (octave-to-octave +1 key in case you’re a music theory luddite like me) pretty comfortably on a musical keyboard.
I was never able to get used to the ZSAs; I do enjoy two different split keyboards in regular use:
Having said that, I can’t help but agree that the Bayleaf is gorgeous, esp for a custom built keyboard.