Penk Chen's LoremIpsum36 Is a Slick, Slimline, 3D-Printable Ergonomic Mechanical Keyboard

Self-described "digital nomad" Penk Chen, designer of the CutiePi and Penkēsu, has designed a custom ergonomic keyboard for those short on desk space — and has released the files for anyone to build their own.

"LoremIpsum36 [is] a minimal Gateron LP [Low Profile switch] column staggered keyboard," Chen explains of his creation. "The keymap is based on Rico's rsta layout, and the custom keycaps are made by FK Keycaps."

This isn't Chen's first custom keyboard: back in 2022 he unveiled the Penkēsu, or ペンケース, a retro-styled clamshell portable hiding a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W beneath a custom 48-key low-profile mechanical keyboard. Where the Penkēsu uses a ortholinear layout, where the keys are arranged in a grid-like matrix with no slant, the LoremIpsum36 uses a staggered-column layout and angles each half to the hand that uses it.

Inside the keyboard's 3D-printed housing is a custom circuit board that houses 36 Gateron LP mechanical switches, each with its own diode, and a mounting point for a Waveshare RP2040-Zero — which hosts a VIA-compatible QMK-based firmware, running on the board's Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller, and provides power and data connectivity over its USB Type-C connector.

Designed with a minimalist aesthetic, the keyboard offers a thin profile: in addition to the low-profile keyswitches themselves, all components bar the RP2040-Zero but including sockets for the switches are soldered on the underside of the board — and the RP2040-Zero itself is installed upside-down, putting its tallest components through a cut-out in the keyboard's PCB to minimize overall height.

Design files and firmware for the LoremIpsum36, along with files for PCBA production, are available on GitHub under the permissive MIT license.