Labeling keycaps

[H-Man]

I have a kinesis with QWERTY keycaps. Most of the time I'm able to do DVORAK blind, but I prefer to be able to double check occasionally. What would be the best way to get a DVOARK legend on my current keycaps? I'm not too keen on spending $49 for the set of keycaps.

[hking0036]

I have a kinesis with QWERTY keycaps. Most of the time I'm able to do DVORAK blind, but I prefer to be able to double check occasionally. What would be the best way to get a DVOARK legend on my current keycaps? I'm not too keen on spending $49 for the set of keycaps.

You can pull and swap the alpha keys. I wouldn't recommend moving the homing keys if you're a touch typist and need those in the right place but otherwise just go ahead and move them. Not sure how Dvorak will affect the mods, though, if those are affected then obviously you're going to have some length mismatching.

[H-Man]

Won't work, key caps aren't movable between rows without messing up the contour.

[hking0036]

Won't work, key caps aren't movable between rows without messing up the contour.

I didn't realize they weren't uniform, if that's the case then you should probably just buy the set or find an aftermarket dvorak set or get blanks which probably would end up costing more anyways, and blanks wouldn't solve your problem. Plus they probably wouldn't be sculpted in the profile you want. $49 for a set of keys is pretty cheap all things considered.

[joey]

Paper and tape.

[hking0036]

Paper and tape.

That hurts me to even think of.

[H-Man]

Paper and tape was briefly considered as an option then dragged out back and shot.
If I use a dermal to etch the letters into the keycaps and then fill it with white epoxy, that might work.

[zombimuncha]

If the caps were light-coloured you could use print-your-own-water-slide decals (kinda like letraset) to apply front legends. That won't work on dark-coloured caps tho, because your laser printer doesn't have white toner. You could maybe find a white pre-printed transfer set somewhere...

[sa_penguin]

Water slide decals (for dark keycaps) sounds like something I'd like to try.
Printing in Yellow on a clear background should work.
Or are the decals non-transparent?   

Where can I find these waterslide decal sheets? What kind of printer (laser, inkjet) do they prefer?

[zombimuncha]

I used this one, in the UK
https://www.craftycomputerpaper.co.uk/decal-paper-c553/laser-water-slide-decals-c565/laser-water-slide-decal-paper-p11245

They have different papers for inkjet or laser printers, so choose based on which printer you have.

When you print yellow ink onto the transparent decal it'll appear a much paler yellow than it would on white paper, because the printer ordinarily relies on the whiteness of the paper to control the colour. If you put this on a black keycap, I'm thinking it'll be rather hard to see. Maybe like the black-on-dark-grey Realforce caps.