At present, more and more brands have produced mechanical keyboard products with DIY elements. In terms of the small component of the keycap alone, its shape and height are diverse, and there is a lot of learning. Therefore, there are also many keycap products with personalized appearance and distinctiveness on the market, and they have many subdivisions in terms of material and appearance. When we choose customized keycaps, we must be clear about what materials, which production processes, and which keycap heights (that is, ergonomic design) contained in the products currently on the market.
01 keycap material
ABS keycaps
AbS is the most common keycap material and is one of the top five synthetic resins. Most keyboard keycaps on the market are made of ABS polymer. Its strong plasticity reduces the difficulty of processing, and the softer texture can provide a good finger touch, but the disadvantage is equally obvious, that is, poor wear resistance. Although ABS keycaps are easy to grease, there are still high-end keyboards made of ABS material. Spraying a layer of wear-resistant material on abs keycaps can greatly reduce the probability of oiling, of course, this layer of material itself is also more costly, at present, it is Filco that is doing better in this regard. In addition, some brands also use piano baking paint process, but the reflective and wear resistance of this surface are average.
PBT keycaps
PBT is a higher cost keyboard material, chemically named polybutylene terephthalate, which has high heat resistance, toughness, fatigue resistance, self-lubrication, low friction. The wear resistance of the keycaps of PBT material is quite good, and its high wear resistance even reflects the characteristics of not playing oil for a long time on the keyboard. Such a strong hardness, in terms of feel will be slightly harder, but when infecting the pattern, the color reproduction is high, and it is not easy to fade.
Compared with ABS, the playability of PBT keycaps is strong, PBT material in 100 ° high temperature boiling water can keep the shape of the object does not change, its material determines the difficulty when playing personalized, after infection The color of the keycaps can be kept without fading for a long time. You can carefully compare these two kinds of keycaps, PBT keycaps will have a grainy and hardness, the touch will not be very smooth; ABS keycaps will change the nature of the surface in a very short period of time, become very smooth and sticky, and the feel will be greatly reduced. Whether it is the material of the keycap, the anti-oil characteristics and the DIY angle, all aspects of PBT are far beyond the ABS keycap, so the PBT keycap is more recommended.
Metal keycaps
The aluminum alloy keycap customization brand represented by ZOMO and HOLYOOPS is famous for its handmade model keycaps made of high color and fine CNC.
If you're not content with just applying personalized patterns to your keycaps, think of putting two hand-made or custom-made keycaps on your keyboard. If you want your keyboard to reflect more personality and feelings, it's better to take a look at these brands. They are all precision CNC machining on metal keycaps, which can achieve a high degree of detail restoration, and are wear-resistant and durable. At the same time, this kind of keycap is also the most expensive to make, unlike the first two materials, you can replace all the original keycaps of the keyboard at once. Its shape and touch are also doomed to be only used as an embellishment on the keyboard, rather than suitable for complete replacement.
02 Common keycap making process
Two-color molding process
The two-color molding process is a reliable and mature two-color printing method, because the different colors on the keycaps are actually different materials, so it is absolutely impossible to lose color or fall off. If you say text effect and durability alone, it may be the most powerful. Two-color molding is the use of molds to combine two different colors of plastic, using the difference between the two plastic colors to display the font. The advantage of dichroic forming is that the font color is bright, the durability is high, it is not easy to drop the word, and the keycap touch performance will be very good if the manufacturing technology is good. The disadvantage is that it is difficult to show thinner text, the color variety is monotonous, the stroke complexity is low, and the fixed cost of its manufacture is expensive.
Immersion printing (dye sublimation)
Immersion printing is a printing method that is completely different from ordinary ink printing, which does not use the common liquid pigment ink, but a solid resin ink. This ink will be sublimated into a gaseous state at high temperatures, and will penetrate into the permeable surface of the printed matter in the form of gaseous molecules, so as to become a whole on the physical level with the printing surface, rather than just "sticking" to the printing surface like ordinary pigment inks, so the firmness of its printing is extremely high. Moreover, resin inks are inherently more excellent in terms of gloss and form. The most common thing with dip printing is the service of ceramic cup "baking" photos. When immersion printing is used for keyboard printing, the ink will completely "penetrate" the PBT and ABS plastic inner layer of the key, so it is almost impossible to be worn off.
The advantage of the dye-sublimation keycap is the high degree of color reproduction, but at the same time it cannot be transmitted; in other words, if you want the keycap to be transparent, you still have to choose a two-color injection molded keycap, and it is important to choose according to your needs.
03 Ergonomic design of the keycap
The height of the keycap
For most mechanical keyboards, you will find that each column of keycaps has a slightly different tilt angle, which can reduce the burden on the hand.
Tilt angle
The tilt angle of the different columns is indicated
There are a total of 6 columns from the top to the bottom of the keyboard, and the tilt angle from top to bottom is usually R4, R4, R3, R2, R1, R1, and some keycaps are turned over to see these annotations. As for the higher R5 height, this is a rarity in the current keyboard. In addition, some players' statements about the tilt height of the keyboard are narrated in reverse, from top to bottom to R1, R1, R2, R3, R4, R4, although the numbers are different, but the meaning is not different.
Schematic diagram of common keycap heights
Common keycap heights are listed in order from highest to lowest: OEM (foundry) - SP-Cherry (original); ball caps are divided into SA-DSA. Simple discernment. Ordinary keycaps are almost all OEM heights except for those made by Cherry and GMK.
Ball cap
The ball cap SA and DSA heights are easier to distinguish: the SA height has no obvious ergonomic curve from the side; the DSA has an ergonomic curve. In general, except for the obvious differences in use between SA and DSA, the rest of the solutions will not be much different when used in sets.
When choosing a keyboard keycap, be sure to know which ergonomic design solution you want to buy, including the height and tilt of the keycap. Especially when you want to buy a single customized keycap, it is especially important to match the ergonomic design of the original keyboard keycap.
04 Summary
Obviously, choosing custom keycaps is very knowledgeable. Let's sum it up again: if you want to change the keycaps in a complete set, first choose ABS or PBT materials; if you want to restore the exquisite pattern, choose the dye sublimation process keycaps; if you want to translucent keycaps, you have to choose two-color injection molding process keycaps; if you are pursuing the ultimate personality, you want to hand-run model-level keycaps to decorate the keyboard, then metal keycaps are the most preferred. Therefore, the choice of custom keycaps is to see more and understand more, to create the ultimate personalized keyboard requires a certain amount of time and effort, if you are interested, you may wish to pay more attention to it.
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