Could you try to round out the antennas as well ?
Yes, I will. I expect to do it this evening, but it might not get done until the kids are in school on Monday.
Iāve made some new mockups with a few changes that people requested, including the butterfly.
Regarding the placement of the logo: If people who are using the runic keycaps are mainly planning to use a standard layout that doesnāt have any set purpose for the QWERTY-layout logo key, I think it makes sense to keep the logo in that position. But if most of us who want the runic keycaps are planning to do a custom layout, I think the palm keys make more sense. Would it make sense to take a poll and find out how those who want the runic keycaps intend to use the Model 01?
As someone who intends to create a fully-custom layout, that key is just like any other key, and I donāt want it to be marked as special in any way, but maybe thatās just me.
Me too. I think the butterfly should only be on the palm keys, for runic keycaps. Especially as itās not the same size as the other runes.
2 Likes
I really, really donāt want a pair of butterflies on the palm keys, to the point that Iād prefer no logo key over two on the palm keys.
Is there a reason you found the butterfly to not be shrinkable to the same scale as the other pictograms?
2 Likes
Why donāt you want it? I would like to know your reasoning, because I currently agree with merlin and like how it looks with the butterfly on the palm keys.
There are a few reasons, mostly related to branding.
Because the palm keys are at an angle, having the logo at an angle looks āweirdā to me. Also, we try to be pretty understated with use of the brand and the logo. Having it on a single key in a ācornerā isnāt too much. Having two of them stuck out on their own is.
2 Likes
I would recommend putting the circle icons from the outside edge of the two thumb arcs on the palm keys in replacement of the butterfly, and find new icons for those two keys.
Simple, similar without being identical.
1 Like
A combination of two reasons:
-
Aspect ratio: just about all of the other symbols are taller than they are wide. I deliberately put the few wide ones that I used on keycaps with wide top surfaces, but thatās not the case for the keycap in question.
-
In order to properly distinguish the lines, Iāve been making sure that any spaces between roughly parallel lines are about as wide as the line width. The butterfly logo (with non-filled wings) has nine alternating vertical lines and spaces across the bottom wings, which are not as wide as the top wings, so the whole thing is at least ~11Ć the width of a line. Even if I shrink the line width for that one symbol, itās very hard to fit it in the left half of that sculpted keycap ā to me that makes it look wrong.
Iāll make an image or two for you later this evening (or maybe not until the morning), so you can have a look.
Understood. It might just not be a fit.
That said, Iām also aware that I donāt like it there, so Iāll do my best to give it another try in order to be as fair as possible.
I used those circles (and the other symbols on the thumb arcs) with the intent of having similar shapes in mirrored positions, because even with a custom keymap, I think itās likely that people will use those as modifier keys, some of which may be the same on both sides. So Iād like to keep them where they are, and if we must replace the butterflies (Iād be sorry to see them go entirely), Iād prefer to find something else.
ā¦but all the keys are at an angle (to the one straight edge of the enclosure)ā¦
Before I go on, a question: where are the LEDs under the palm keycaps? When I placed the butterflies on those keys, I found that centering them (relative to the key) horizontally worked well, but I shifted them vertically towards the bottom because the wider top wings and narrower bottom wings looked better that way. I assumed that also put them closer to the LEDs, but I realize I donāt know for sure. I also realize that the top surface is probably convex, but I donāt know how flat it is, and that might also have an effect.
To me the āfnā label on the palm key looks much too small compared to the size of the key itself. A big reason I liked the logo there was because it looked good when made large enough to look like it belonged there.
However, I do think thereās a small optical illusion related to the angle happening. Even when the logo is aliged perfectly with the major axis of an ellipse that matches that palm key, it always looks a tiny bit crooked to me when itās tilted. I have no idea why.
Yes, but aligning with the rest of the text is a lot less jarring than the pretty-different angle of the palm keys.
The LED on the palm keys, is centered on the bottom edge of the keyswitch. This is a change in the last 72 hours. (Since I had to rev the PCBs for another issue).
The palm keys are convex, But the curve is not constant. In the default orientation, the outer bottom corner is highest. The keys are symmetrical and itās possible to invert them for a different fit. Not that thatās something weāll be pushing.
So how about the abstract design made by @ErikMH?
1 Like
Before it was discussed here I thought dots or circles on the palm keys would be cool.
Also, one more thing that occurred to me: It may not be important and others may not care at all, but I found the symbol on the QWERTY layoutās āanyā key to look like a text edit cursor, which for some reason jars with me (see images below).
Also, am I correct to assume that something more stylised for the butterfly (that could have a different aspect ration compared to the original) is off the table entirely (because of branding, etc)?
I did a 2 minute mockup and think the stylised butterfly could work if @merlin created a proper one.
2 Likes
Point taken.
Good to know; thanks.
By āouter bottom cornerā, Iām guessing you mean the points on the circumference furthest from the other palm key. So if we put a rectangle on the right side palm key (aligned with the major axis of the key) centered over the LED, it would be tilted slightly to the left, towards the other side of the keyboard? I donāt know if that matters much for label placement, but maybe it doesā¦
Hereās the best I think I can do to make the Keyboardio butterfly logo fit in with the Linear A glyphs I made:
I donāt think it works. The antennae are much smaller and thinner than all the other lines, and if I make them bigger and thicker it ends up looking worse. It also seems very small compared to the other symbols, even though itās wider than everything around it. Also, it extends farther away from the LED underneath than any of the other labels.
I could distort it further (making it taller and narrower), but then I donāt think it will look like the Keyboardio Logo any more, and the antennae would still be difficult.
1 Like
That looks plausible, but there are some problems:
-
The line width you used is significantly narrower than all the other symbols. If we thicken the lines, that symbol gets wider and/or more cramped (the spaces between the lines really need to get wider, too).
-
The shape of that key makes things particularly difficult. Hereās an image showing the switch underneath, with an outline of the top surface of the keycap:
Thereās less horizontal space between the left bottom edge of the keycap top surface and the keystem on that key than on any other key on the whole board (Iām pretty sure). Other symbols can fit there without a problem, but that butterfly easily gets pushed farther from the LED than everything else. (There are a few other symbols that are creeping out of the quadrant over the LED, but I can easily fix those ones, and they already have less of that problem than the butterfly).
Iād say that is the single most difficult key on the whole keyboard to fit the butterfly logo (or some version of it) on, with the easiest ones being the palm keys, and after that, R1C0 & R2C0 (the middle two keys on the leftmost column), which arenāt great spots, either, since theyāre not in a ācornerā).