Sweep

I travel with my Ferris Sweep, 2.5" drive travel case is a perfect fit. https://github.com/davidphilipbarr/Sweep https://www.amazon.com/ORICO-Waterproof-5-5x3-5x1-0inch-Acce...

For a while I had a Sweep [0] keyboard that I'd carry with me and use everywhere, even in trains when travelling. It was small enough to be placed on my laptop, one half to each side of the trackpad. I use a ThinkPad with Linux for personal use and a MacBook Air for my job, I used the Sweep with both. While I prefer trackpad to mouse, I imagine mouse enjoyers would probably do something similar. [0] https://github.com/davidphilipbarr/Sweep

The special phrase you want is "chord" A stenographer's keyboard is a special kind of chord keyboard for spoken English. There are other kinds of chord keyboards, but look into those. For example: - https://www.charachorder.com/ - https://github.com/davidphilipbarr/Sweep Related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30515912

See also the Soufflé, a further derivative which makes the vertical stagger more aggressive as has become the fashion for most newer ergo boards: https://github.com/climent/SouffleKeyboard If you go any further down the ergo rabbit hole you'll probably end up with fewer keys than that though, typically 34-36 in total, e.g: https://github.com/davidphilipbarr/Sweep https://github.com/pashutk/chocofi

A 34-key split keyboard called the Ferris Sweep: https://github.com/davidphilipbarr/Sweep With a custom keymap, but still using QWERTY. Ben Vallack on YouTube has some great videos on minimalist layouts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wZ8FRwOzhU

Adjacent: https://github.com/davidphilipbarr/Sweep Sweep is a 34-key split PCB design that you can print and assemble yourself. Happy user for over 3 years.

Split ergonomic keyboards have wrapped all the way around to the simplest possible solution - they have so few keys that each one can simply be connected directly to its own dedicated pin on the microcontroller, no diodes or matrix scanning required. e.g. the Ferris Sweep: https://github.com/davidphilipbarr/Sweep That has 17 keys per side, which is the most you can do with the 18 GPIOs broken out by the popular Pro Micro modules, but with something like the RP2040 you could scale it up to 29 keys per side if desired.

Please also consider Ferris Sweep: https://github.com/davidphilipbarr/Sweep

I use ergonomic low-profile split keyboard Sweep[1]. My endgame (I hope so) keyboard after a long journey through the ergomechboard rabbit hole. If you're interesting in improving keyboard ergonomics with really custom solutions, r/ErgoMechBoards's Wiki [2] is a good place to start. [1]: https://github.com/davidphilipbarr/Sweep [2]: https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMechKeyboards/wiki/resources

Ferris Sweep High https://github.com/davidphilipbarr/Sweep

I don't know of many off the shelf keyboards that satisfy all your requirements, but if your willing to tinker a bit, you can probably make one https://github.com/davidphilipbarr/Sweep

The keyboard rabbit-hole gets pretty deep. I started off wanting a nicer typing experience, and ended up realising so much about the traditional keyboard designs didn't make sense to me (here's someone nicely summing up the reasons why https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrska7UU7BE). For me the optimum is a split 34-key keyboard (the open-source Ferris Sweep https://github.com/davidphilipbarr/Sweep) with a custom keymap firmware (QMK). Going even deeper, you can generate a PCB layout that's personalised to the shape of your hands: https://github.com/ergogen/ergogen

I've been skirting this rabbit hole for a good while now, since even though I do electronics building my own keyboard seems excessive and I do like (and prefer) laptop keyboards. I am, however, quite interested in low-profile, split Bluetooth keyboards with minimal layouts (like the Ferris - https://github.com/pierrechevalier83/ferris and the Sweep - https://github.com/davidphilipbarr/Sweep), and keep hoping someone manufactures one and slims it down to Apple specs...