Earlier OPRI layouts

3 layouts that led to OPRI.60

This page describes history of OPRI layouts family from earliest to newest.

OPRI.Ch (2020 October)

This is the first version of OPRI layouts family. It had only 7+7 basic keys and was heavily using layers and little bit of chords (simultaneous keys tapping).

Layering and one-handed typing possibility was based on the idea of mirroring. Holding Space (which is called Left-Right-Mirrorer here) with any layer and key combination would in general produce corresponding “mirror” key from another hand.

Layout description:

I reached about 60 wpm two-handed speed with this layout. Mirrored keys were fast to learn, but it often required pressing 2 simultaneous keys with the thumb, which I eventually started to dislike. The latter was the main reason for me to move to OPRI.Sk layout.

OPRI.Sk (2021 January)

This version of OPRI had duplicated frequent-letter-keys on the left hand on home layer, which were in use for one-handed typing.

I managed to reach decent speeds with it, and little finger stretch was a pleasant side of this layout. However overuse of thumbs (for opening layers) was very noticeable and overall alienness of keys positioning was the reason I decided to eventually move to OPRI.40.

Full layer description:

How it looked in real life:

Video of typing

Typing was done on this keyboard
(this is ordinary keyboard, just with rearranged keys)

OPRI.40 (2021 April)

OPRI.40 compared to OPRI.60 had 9 layers instead of 6, because it didn’t use FF-row of the standard keyboard. This version also was very compact (thus number 40 in the name to resemble approx number of layout keys). However since so many keys were not on home layer, it required left thumb overuse (to frequently open layers).

Full layer description:

I also created custom mechanical keyboard specifically for OPRI.40:

OPRI.60 (2021 June)