Split Keyboards

This is an interactive gallery of split keyboards, visible at Split Keyboards.

See about for more details.

Contributions

Issues and pull requests to correct mistakes or add missing keyboards are welcome.

General guidelines for inclusion:

• The keyboard should use mechanical switches,
• Keyboards should be in two halves, or have a "wedge" in the middle to allow the wrists to lie in a more natural position,
• The keyboard should be available for purchase, or a kit should be available for purchase,
• Or, the source files for the PCB and case should be available for download.
• When a keyboard is no longer available, it should be marked "unavailable" and therefore hidden by default.

Minor variations on existing designs, created as a personal hobby board, are generally not worth including.

Classification

Keyboards are classified with filter tags, shown like this below:

Physical layout

traditional : A traditional ergonomic keyboard; the normal layout with a wedge in the middle, or in two parts. These are in traditional.csv.

ortho (ortholinear) : keys positioned in a grid or near-grid. (ortho.csv)

ergo (ergonomic) : keys usually staggered by column rather than row, and almost always including thumb keys. (ergo.csv)

dish (dished) : a shaped keyboard with thumbkeys and dishes or wells for the fingers. (dish.csv)

Number of keys

The minimum and maximum number of keys supported by the keyboard. For example, many traditional layouts support an additional key for ISO layout (next to Z), and the ErgoDash can be configured with 66-70 keys.

At present, only the maximum number is used for the filter.

TODO: Number of rows

Features

This is a list of features, which the user can either require, forbid, or not care about.

split or two halves : two independent parts to the keyboard, rather than a single board.

Rotary encoder : one or more knobs which can press keys, useful for volume up/down, page-up/page-down, etc.

track track ball/point/pad : an integrated mouse (a laptop-style trackpoint, a trackpad or a larger trackball)

display : a display on the keyboard, which can show status (Caps Lock, current layer, macros etc)

wireless : no wires!

Availability

massproduced : Reliably in-stock for immediate delivery : Probably includes a GUI or other professional tool for configuring keyboard layout, macros etc

assembled : Available for purchase pre-assembled and programmed : To distinguish this from the following categories, it omits keyboards where individuals are willing to assemble a kit for others — otherwise there's little point to the filter. A company should be willing to buy an assembled keyboard for an employee, but less likely to ask someone on Reddit to solder a kit for them.

kit : A kit (circuit boards, cases, components etc) is available to purchase.

source : Open source keyboards, where files defining the PCB and case are available. May be available occasionally as part of a group buy.

unavailable : The keyboard is no longer available, and was not open source, or the source files are no longer online.

Website

Typically the place to purchase it (if mass-produced or not open source), or the source/information site otherwise. I've avoided linking to particular shops selling kits, as some boards have many suppliers.

Image

In the img/source directory are some larger images. They've been resized to a width of 640px for display on the web, in the img/ directory. I used convert source/XXX.jpg -resize 640x XXX.jpg.

A functional, well-lit, top-down image with a neutral background is preferred if possible. An artistic, angled photo with weird keycaps makes it more difficult to compare between boards.

Choose an image like Arch 36, Atreis and UHK.