Layout selection often gets treated as a design preference. In practice it is one of the first commercial decisions on a keyboard project, because it determines who can buy the product, how complex the PCB becomes, what the case tooling costs and how many SKUs you eventually need to cover your target market.
This guide assesses the major form factors from a product planning perspective rather than a personal preference one.
The Form Factors
| Layout | Approx. key count | What it removes vs. full-size | Retains |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full-size (100%) | 104–108 | Nothing | Everything including numpad |
| 98% / 96% | 96–100 | Some spacing and indicator separation | Numpad, function row, arrows |
| 75% | 81–84 | Numpad, some key spacing | Function row, arrows |
| 65% | 67–68 | Numpad, function row | Arrows, some navigation keys |
| 60% | 61 | Numpad, function row, arrows, navigation | Core alphanumeric block only |
The trend across the last several years has been toward more compact layouts, driven by desk-space awareness and the growing acceptance that a function row can live on a secondary layer. But the movement is not uniform, and the segment a product targets determines how far compacting can go before it costs sales.
Commercial Considerations by Layout
| Layout | Market breadth | PCB complexity | Case size / tooling | Typical buyer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full-size | Broadest — office and enterprise | Highest matrix | Largest material cost | Office, finance, data entry |
| 98% | Broad | High | Large but compact footprint | Users wanting numpad without full width |
| 75% | Broadest enthusiast reach | Moderate–high | Moderate | Gamers and general users |
| 65% | Strong enthusiast | Moderate | Moderate | Gamers, minimalists |
| 60% | Niche but loyal | Lowest | Smallest | Esports, enthusiasts, travel |
Two commercial patterns are worth noting. First, 75% has become the volume sweet spot in the enthusiast-adjacent market — it retains the function row and arrow keys that mainstream buyers expect while delivering the compact appearance that signals a modern product. Second, 98% solves a specific problem for users who need a numpad but want a smaller desk footprint, and it has quietly grown into a significant segment rather than a novelty.
PCB and Matrix Implications
Layout determines the keyboard matrix dimensions, which in turn determine diode count, GPIO requirements and routing complexity.
| Layout | Typical matrix | Approx. diodes |
|---|---|---|
| 60% | 5 × 14 | 60–70 |
| TKL (87-key) | 6 × 15 | 87 |
| Full-size (104-key) | 6 × 18 | 104 |
| Macro pad | 4 × 6 | 24 |
Larger matrices consume more controller pins, which matters when the design also needs pins for USB, RGB data lines and auxiliary features. For full-size products with dense per-key RGB, a four-layer PCB becomes advisable to separate power and signal planes — a cost consequence of layout choice that is easy to miss at the concept stage.
Layout also affects the number of stabilisers required, since every key wider than one unit needs them. A full-size board has several large keys; a 60% has fewer. Given that stabiliser tuning is the most labour-intensive assembly step, this has a measurable effect on assembly time and therefore on unit cost.
Case and Tooling Considerations
Smaller layouts reduce material consumption and machining time, which lowers unit cost on CNC products and reduces mould size on injection-moulded ones. But the relationship is not purely linear: a compact layout with a dense internal structure can require more complex internal machining than a larger simpler one.
Where layout most directly constrains design is wireless. Compact layouts concentrate the components — battery, controller, antenna — into a smaller volume, which makes antenna placement harder and can compromise radio performance in metal enclosures. A 60% aluminium case is a more demanding RF problem than a full-size plastic one, and this needs to be assessed before the industrial design is finalised.
Feature Placement in Compact Layouts
Compact layouts often carry a compensating feature to offset what they removed — a rotary knob, a small display, or a programmable macro column. These are not decoration; they are the mechanism by which a 60% or 65% product justifies its layout to a buyer who was unsure about giving up arrow keys.
Where a display or knob is included, two planning notes apply. A display is a continuous power draw that must be accounted for in the wireless battery budget. And any physical control adds an opening in the case, which affects ingress protection and the internal volume available for the acoustic stack.
Selecting a Layout
| If your target customer… | Recommended layout |
|---|---|
| Works with numbers continuously | Full-size or 98% |
| Wants a numpad but limited desk space | 98% |
| Games and works, wants function keys | 75% |
| Games primarily, minimal footprint | 65% |
| Competes, maximises mouse space | 60% |
| Needs the broadest possible market reach | 75%, then 98% as a second SKU |
The most common planning mistake is attempting to cover the full market with a single layout. Two layouts — typically 75% and 98%, or 65% and 75% — reach a far larger addressable market than one, and because they can often share switch specification, firmware features and industrial design language, the incremental cost is considerably lower than developing two independent products.
Newkra Technology develops keyboard platforms across 60%, 65%, 75%, 98% and full-size layouts, sharing PCB design capability, firmware development and acoustic engineering across form factors so that a multi-layout product line can be built on a common engineering base.
