Everyone knows that I have a bit of a keyboard problem. I have spent thousands of dollars on keyboards over the years. I’ve built several of them, and I’ve considered getting a display case to show them off.

I have a bit of an issue.

My most recent purchase was a custom 3D-printed keyboard called a Dactyl Manuform (image below). It is by far the oddest keyboard that I’ve ever owned, even more so than the Moonlander that I had for a month last year. Part of the reason I got it is that it solves some of the issues that I had with the Moonlander. The keys are sloped and easier to reach; it uses VIAL instead of some website to configure it, and it has a set stance, meaning I’m not always trying to readjust the angles. Which is something I had to do on the Moonlander and I never did get the right damn angle which that made the keyboard really uncomfortable to use.

I’m an odd one when it comes to this situation. Most people go to a split keyboard because they have wrist pain and need an extreme fix. I, personally, haven’t had many wrist-related issues with a standard keyboard. So for me, RSI stuff isn’t really why I have been interested in a split keyboard. For me, it’s mostly because of the keyboard hoarding issue that I mentioned above.

At least, those were my motivations when I bought the Moonlander last year. I wanted to try it because it looked cool. I’m apparently 12 years old. FFS.

And to be honest, the Moonlander really put a dent in my interest in “cool” keyboards. It’s not as if that keyboard was bad; it just wasn’t good for me. The angle problem, the fact that I had the wrong switches (too light) in it, and the fact that the thumb cluster was very uncomfortable to use all made it just not a good experience.

But I am a glutton for punishment, as they say, and I had been looking at several other split layouts for the last year. The Dactyl Manuform was the oddest one I had my eye on, but it was always very expensive to buy pre-built, and I wanted to be reformed from this expensive hobby I have. That reformation lasted just about a year. I found on Etsy a way to get a pre-built Dactyl shipped to me for less than $500 and thought, “What a deal!”

I told you I have issues.

But I bought it. And goodness, am I glad that I did. No, for me, it really isn’t more comfortable to type on. If anything, at the start, it was uncomfortable. But as time has gone on, I’ve gotten used to it, and it no longer feels that way. It feels about the same in terms of comfort as the standard boards I’ve always used. I think I do find my fingers and wrists more fatigued after using the Dactyl, but not always.

I have had the board now for a couple of months, and I have some thoughts.

Form Factor and Build Quality

Obviously, the biggest deal here is how the board looks. The point of this design is that the keys are curled around your natural finger position, meaning that they are closer to the home row and easier to reach. In theory. I found that this works for most things, but on the right side, where the period, comma, and question mark keys are, I have to contort my fingers to actually reach them. It does not feel good. Specifically, the period key was just not going to work. So I switched out via VIAL (more on that later) the semicolon/colon key and the period key. It moved it up a row and made it so much easier to reach. Now, I have a hard time dealing with keyboards that have the period key in the correct spot. It feels odd. I’ll talk more about going back to traditional boards later.

Another aspect of this board’s design that is a bit different from the Moonlander is the thumb cluster. On the Moonlander it had a larger button alongside three other buttons, and while I liked having the other button, it was so oddly shaped and in such an odd position that it was unusable. The Dactyl has three keys in each cluster. I really wish this version had more. Some do, but mine only has three. If it had four, it would be great. As is, it works well, the positioning is excellent, it is very easy and comfy to reach all three keys with your thumb, and you don’t have to worry about any stabilizers or anything because they’re all 1U keys. Other than wishing for one more key, my biggest issue is accidental presses. I tend to rest my thumb on one of the thumb cluster keys and often find myself pressing enter accidentally or adding an extra space where it wasn’t needed. I’ve gotten better at this (especially since I switched from red switches to blues), but it is still occasionally a problem.

When choosing this version, I chose to have as many keys as the vendor offered. This means I have a 6x6 arrangement, which includes a function row. This is okay, but it does make the keyboard really tall, meaning it won’t allow me to slide my keyboard tray under my desk. Not a big deal, and I do not know if the 5x6 version would be any better. Due to the way the keyboard is laid out, height is a problem, so if you look at this, keep that in mind.

One issue I do have with this particular build is that it is super light. That doesn’t sound like an issue, but it can be easy for this board to slip away from you. Adding some weight to the base would make this problem go away.

I also had to find wrist rests to go with this board. I found some on Amazon that were slanted and split, made for split keyboards. They work pretty well. But because of the height, I couldn’t use this without the rests.

The last thing I will say about this is that you should beware build quality. Buy from someone who has a decent reputation. These boards are hand made and 3D printed, so quality will vary. If you can, print it yourself; otherwise, do your homework. I got mine on Etsy from Cyboard who also has their own website. They have a good rep, so it worked out fine for me. This will likely not be the same for everyone, so YMMV.

Switches

What switches you use is a very, very personal decision. Everyone has their own preferences when it comes to how they like their switches; that’s why there are thousands of different switches out there. For the longest time, my favorites were linear switches. Reds or ink blacks were awesome. These switches allow the sound of the keyboard to shine without the inherent rattling that tactile switches bring with them.

But on the Dactyl, linear switches were just too light. The actuation force was such that I was pressing keys by just sitting my hand on the home row. On traditional keyboards, that isn’t an issue because your fingers are all on the same plane. On the dactyl, they’re all at different heights due to the shape of the board. For whatever reason, this made accidental presses so much more likely.

So I ended up having to switch to tactile switches. I went with the traditional MX Blues this time, and though they are super loud and have the clacky sound instead of the thoccy’ sound that I enjoy, it made it much easier for me to use this board. Now I have to be very purposeful with my key presses. It did take some getting used to, but now I can type without having to worry about pressing a ton of extra letters.

Learning the Board

Probably my biggest issue with the Moonlander last year, was that it was my first split keyboard. It was a huge learning curve, and that meant that I had to use some patience and effort to actually get good at using it. I didn’t have that patience. It doesn’t seem like it would be difficult to learn, but moving to a split keyboard, that is ortholinear and that is also tented, all in one, was a huge deal and after a month I could hardly type on the Moonlander at all.

After that failure, I thought I was done with truly split keyboards. But I bought an Alice layout (pictured below), and that was easy to adapt to. I got to 100 wpm+ on that board within just a few hours of using it. I truly think that the Alice layout really helped me on the Dactyl. That, and it has a fixed position, meaning that I don’t have to struggle to find the right tenting angle.

That Alice layout was just split enough that it was easy to learn. Then, when I got to the Dactyl, it felt much more natural for me to type on. Yes, my speed was still slow. I stared at around 20 wpm, but I improved on that rapidly. I managed to get up to 50 wpm within just a few days. A few months in, I run between 65 and 80 wpm right now. It’s not as fast as I was on a traditional keyboard or even on the Alice. There definitely has been a learning curve, but it’s fast enough where I’m typing this, and I type every day, and it doesn’t feel like I’m typing slowly or inaccurately.

I have had to tweak the layout in a few ways. Getting to this point was a journey, for sure. I mentioned earlier how I had to change the period key. That was probably the most drastic change. I also moved the “b” key over to the right board instead of the left. This probably took the longest to get used to. I had to do it because, for whatever reason, I always press the ‘b’ key with my right hand. I tried to start using it on the left side, but it just felt too odd. So I moved it, which shuffled over all the keys from ’n’ over by one. The hassle of mistyping ’m’ and ’n’ all the time was a pain. But now I have it down, and I’m happy with that move. It probably would have been easier to get used to the ‘b’ on the left side, but what’s done is done.

The Dactyl uses VIAL for keymap management, and I’ve spent a lot of time trying out some of its features, beyond just getting the keys where I want them. Namely, I love the tap dance feature, which allows you to control how a key behaves depending on how long it is pressed. I experimented with this feature for home row mods, which move shift, ctrl, and alt up onto the home row. This would have, if I could’ve made it work, allowed me to move my thumb cluster around. Sadly, getting the timing right for tap dance is damn near impossible. I will try again, but as of now, I don’t use home row mods.

VIAL also allows you to easily create macros, so I created one for ctrl+backspace to delete an entire word. This really saved me some time since that’s a combo that I use damn near 100 times an hour while I’m working. Now I just have to press one key and I can easily delete a whole word.

Conclusions

I love the Dactyl Manuform. So much so, that it has been hard when I use a laptop with a traditional keyboard. I can still do it, but it just feels odd and cramped and just not fun. I also miss my little alterations, like the period being on a row above or my macro for ctrl+backspace. I’m sure I could figure out how to make those changes on my laptop if I really wanted, but it still wouldn’t be the same.

While I have issues with the Dactyl, over all, it is my favorite keyboard that I’ve ever used. It even surpasses the boards I’ve built myself. It’s really good.

If I ever get a 3D printer, I will likely build another one. I’d add another key or two to the thumb cluster, and I’d see about making the profile a little lower. Other than that, there isn’t much that’d I’d improve from a form factor standpoint. I also love VIAL. Tweaking the layout has been super easy and enjoyable, and while that means I’m always trying to perfect it, I haven’t gone too crazy, so it hasn’t affected my learning of the layout. At least not yet.

I do want to try Dvorak or Colemak on this board eventually. I have never really been successful switching to another layout, but I’d like to give it a try to see how that feels on this shaped split keyboard.

Would I recommend this board to anyone else? Maybe. I love it, but it is very weird; there is a learning curve, and it is super expensive. This is a hobbiest keyboard, so if you’re not that, it’s probably not for you. It’s not for most people. But it is for me, and it has made spilt keyboards the way of the future for me.

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