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Short explainers for the terms you run into when picking a keyboard to build.

• Key spacing: 19.05 mm MX and 18 × 17 mm Choc

  Key spacing is the distance from the center of one key to the center of the next. MX boards use 19.05 mm (0.75 in, called 1u). Boards made only for Choc switches usually use 18 × 17 mm.

• Choc v1, Choc v2 and Mini Choc switches

  Kailh's low-profile switches: Choc v1 (PG1350), Choc v2 (PG1353) with a cross stem like MX, and the smaller Mini Choc (PG1232). A board takes only the one it was drilled for.

• Reversible PCBs for split keyboards

  A reversible PCB is one board design that makes both halves of a split keyboard: build one half, then flip the next board over for the other.

• Hotswap sockets, Mill-Max or solder

  A hotswap board lets you swap switches without soldering, using Kailh hotswap sockets or Mill-Max sockets. Without either, every switch is soldered in.

• IO expanders in split keyboards

  An IO expander is a chip that lets one controller read both halves of a split keyboard over I2C, so the other half needs no controller of its own.

• Ortholinear, row stagger and column stagger

  Stagger is how a keyboard's keys are shifted against their neighbors: rows on an ordinary keyboard, columns on many ergonomic boards, nothing on an ortholinear grid.