Custom language keycaps for dome keyboards?

[RadicalDad]

Does anyone know where I can get custom keycaps made for dome keyboards?  Need the whole keyboard, not just the keycaps.  This is for a bilingual keyboard targeted at North American (native English speaking) users.  

OK, its my first post on this forum and I'm sure I've pissed off 75% of you already.  Dome keyboard?  DOME?  ...  Well, yes and no.  Cherry MX switches would be sweet, but $140 for a custom WASD V1 is out of the question for most people who would benefit from having the bilingual keycaps.  I've gotten bids from WASD and SP, but it is just too expensive.  I'm only finding custom keycaps made for mechanical switches, mostly the Cherry.  Do any of you GH folks know where I can order good quality dome keyboards with custom keycaps?  Doesn't have to be domes, but good quality and a price point around $60 - $80 would be great.  I can probably arrange group buys of 10 to 20 at a time.

Any help appreciated.  Thanks!

P.S.  I wasn't unhappy with my 10 year old Microsoft Office Keyboard (domes) until I started poking around here!

[Djuzuh]

I think there is no normalisation in the rubber dome world, so nobody looses time to create custom keycaps which would only work on one brand.

Your best bet is probably to make some stickers you'll put on the keycaps.

[IvanIvanovich]

What other language does it need to have besides English? Some languages are quite easy to find as a stock option, have a look at Fentek they have quite a few. There are some domes boards that use the MX keycap mounts also, so if you do need to go custom you could always go that way to save some money. Don't forget to look in the used market, there are often many on ebay for various languages.

[RadicalDad]

Thanks for the replies.  Learning a bit more every day.  Dome boards with MX keycaps - how would I find those?  That might be the ticket.  $40 for a standard (dome) keyboard plus $40 for a custom keycap set - that is a price I think my fellow students can live with.

The language involved is Hebrew, but the bilingual keyboards from Fentek (and everyone else) are Israeli style and are missing key legends needed for non-native speakers.  Specifically, nikud (vowel and grammar markings) are not used by native speakers, but those are critical for non-natives.  I have yet to see nikud on any Hebrew keyboard.  But wait, there's more!  The standard Hebrew keyboard layout is much like QWERTY - doesn't make much sense, but native speakers learn to touch type at an early age, so all is well.  For North American adults, that means hunt-and-peck on a Hebrew keyboard.  But there is an alternative keyboard layout, and it is even standard on Macs.  It is a phonetic layout where the Hebrew letters are matched by sound or shape to their Latin (English) equivalents.  Learning time for English speakers who touch type is practically nil.  Been there, done it myself.  I'm not at touch typing speed in Hebrew, but 50x faster than the hunt-and-peck I was doing.  I've never seen keycaps or even stickers in this arrangement.  Hence my hunt for something that can help me and probably hundreds of others in seminaries (Christian and Jewish), Bible scholars, and many other situations where Hebrew is regularly needed by those without native skills (and nikud is needed as the target audience for what is being typed is even less skilled).

So... say more about this mythic dome keyboard with MX style keycaps.  How would I find them?

[IvanIvanovich]

The Cherry G81 would be a good buy for your purposes and budget. These are technically mechanical with a hammer over membrane. Most people here hate them, but they are better than a lot of domes out there and will be compatible with MX keycaps.

[dorkvader]

There isn't much standardization among mechanical keyswitches, either: Alps, cherry, IBM, NEC, etc. all use different keycaps. Still, even a single company will be pretty inconstant in the Rubber dome (RD) world.

Nevertheless, some RD keyboards have similar keycaps to Topre. I know my Olivetti look a little similar. I believe someone on Deskthority found a RD keyboard with compatible keycaps.

One option is to get the keycaps off the RD keyboards, nad making a Jig for WASDkeyborads to etch them. maybe with some collaboration between you and him, you can get them etched or engraved with alternate legends. I am sure if you buy enough keyboards/keycaps, you can make it pretty worthwhile. If you make the jig close enough to the one he already has for cherry keycaps, WASD might not have to even change tho laser programming to etch or engrave alternate legends on yours.

Ofcourse, (In my opinion) the biggest issue is that the keycaps on the RD will very likely be ABS, and the legends will wear in time, though I suspect that if students have been using their bi-lingual keyboards for that long, they'll be proficient enough in either language.