This project is an extension of ACORNS. Elks were plentiful in the Pacific Northwest, hence the name.

There are two applications associated with the ELK project. The first, called ELK is used to create keyboard mappings using the popular XML-based format, .keylayout, that is the standard on MAC systems. This application can also create True Type Font files remapping glyphs to reflect altered keyboard mappings. These TTF files are a universal format for fonts. The ELK application is written in Java and therefore runs on all platforms.

The second ELK application, ELK Keyboards is a windows-based application that makes use of keyboard mappings created by ELK.