It's a nice idea, but I wonder how this compares to DreymaR's implementation, which also supports multiple languages/characters? I also wonder whether the compromises that are necessarily made to support many languages, mean that most languages aren't supported as well as as would be in a custom language-variant. I can certainly see how this might benefit linguists who do actually type a lot of different languages often though.

One other thing, the image of the layout is wrong in respect of the bottom row. For example, D is supposed to be between S and T, not between T and G.

You can write messages in this forum. But for a better conversation, I'd recommend joining the Colemak Discord at's it's a very lively place with many helpful users and good chat options.

You're right, I'm not convinced by your layout. Your argument about writing, say, Spanish or French a lot I'll counter with the argument that then using AltGr a lot is probably not so great either! My Spanish layout has accent dead keys on unmodified keys to ease typing in that language, and there's an alternative layout placing ñáéíóú on AltGr+naeiou which is very intuitive. Why would á for instance be on AltGr+Q? It's completely unintuitive apart from that key being close to A, but then it might just as easily be on W or Z making this layout a mess to remember in my opinion. For ij/ì/í it's even worse (sure, my AltGr+0 dead key isn't intuitive but if I were to type Dutch a lot I'd use a proper Dutch Colemak[eD] instead). I never forget that umlaut is on AltGr+colon since they look similar, and then it's as easy to type, say, ü as ï. For the most common accents, I find reaching AltGr+;'/,. at least, very simple indeed. So your proposed layout doesn't really look simpler to me.

Your extra layers are nice, but again I have those already in a way I find intuitive, with more symbols than you offer.

Ummm... no, it's not 3 buttons at once! It's first two then one key. Big difference! Ideally, I'd have a sticky AltGr key two so it's a "tap-dance" sequence of three keys instead, but EPKL doesn't support sticky AltGr yet. It'll happen some day.

And as said, if you type much in one language you should use a dedicated layout like my locale layouts for it. For the odd press of an accent like I use them, a dead key on AltGr presses is just fine, as long as the most common ones are easy to reach (like ';/,. are).

On user request, I've added two layouts for Italian and Spanish that have letters like àèìòù and ñáéíóú on AltGr+key like your layout has, but on the (n)aeiou letters so it's logical. This way, people have a choice between the dead key approach and the direct AltGr approach. For a language such as French that uses both accents frequently, my standard locale layout is better. Hitting a dead key on the unshifted layer and then a letter is the simplest way, as chording is more tiresome than sequences. See XahLee's article from the link in the BigBag if you're interested.

Yes, you can change positions but you won't be able to fit all the accented letters in one AltGr layer without some of them ending up in silly places like particularly your ij/ì/í do.

Thanks for an interesting discussion!  ( のvの) c[_]

You're wrong about my locale variants: The symbols on the number row are the same for all language variants! Maybe you confused the proper locale variants with the "keep symbols" ones, which aren't my variants but some users ordered them as they want to keep the symbols like they are used to – even if it's not the best of ideas.

The middle columns are very comfortable for the relatively rarely used letters of my language, and I've used it a lot so I know! For accent dead keys, the advantage is that either index finger can hit the dead key for the letter on the other hand. For é I'd hit the ´ with the left index finger then e with the right ring finger; for á I'd use the right hand index finger on the ´ key. So I really recommend using the Wide mod with these variants.

As I try to keep things nicely modular, you could use any ergo mod with the US (Unified Symbols) locale layout variants. Using EPKL for Windows, you may have to edit a file slightly and the help images won't automatically update if you use a non-premade combination. They're easy enough to generate though. For the most part, the locale variants are premade for AngleWide and CAW (the DH mod with AWide) since I think those mods are so beneficial for these variants, but it's easy to add others if you wish.

It's funny enough for sure that I promote a Curl(DH) mod that discourages the middle "trench" and yet I prefer to have my locale letters in the midlde of that very same trench? It's about frequencies of course. The D and H that are helped by the DH mod are a lot more common than æøå in my language, so it's the right dose for the case in my experience.

EurKEY also switched to the standardized version of Colemak-DH according to Post Announcement: A change to Colemak-DH

If you do, SteveP, I hope you'll promote Colemak[eD] equally. I still see it as a better alternative using dead keys to keep accented letters in their "right" positions (e.g., í is easily and intuitively reached as {AltGr+',i}; ì on {AltGr+\,i} etc). More advanced stuff like ι (Greek iota) on {AltGr+5,i}, ̛ị on {AltGr+3,AltGr+1,i}, ij on {AltGr+0,i} or for that matter ﷼ (Riyal) on {AltGr+4,i} still has to be learnt but that's not easily avoided and as you can see it's very powerful.

Also, the EPKL implementation of Colemak[eD] comes with help images for the dead keys so you don't have to keep a printout around to remember what's where.

  EPKL help image for the grave accent DK

  EPKL help image for the stroke/bar DK

I know that. But if you add EurKey as a separate link then I hope people get to know there are other options. A link to the BigBag is like saying that someone lives in the World somewhere, as I'm sure you know. It's a big big bag...

People seem to go to your site for the simple answers, not mine because they're scared of the amount of info I provide. So that's a responsibility you have there.  (✿◠‿◠)