Howdy fellow keyboard addicts. I'm yet another longtime lurker that's embarking on their first project. My first mechanical keyboard was a HHKB Pro 2, and i've never strayed since. While the customization and creative outlet that most cherry boards provide has led me to spend quite a bit of money on boards and keycaps I never use I always end up coming back to my hhkb, the topre switches and layout (most of my days are spent programming in vim and in unix shells) are an unbeatable combo regardless of the lack of customization.
So i've decided to have my cake and eat it too and try and create a topre set that is designed for the HHKB.
Reasons why I'd like to create a keycap set instead of switching the sliders:
- Most third party sliders alter the key press feeling, and although differences are slight I'm not a big fan of spending money to mod my already expensive keyboard just to use expensive alternate keycaps while losing some of what makes me love the HHKB. Novatouch sliders are almost perfect, but even more expensive and still, there's a tiny difference.
- Most cherry sets can't even come close to the quality of the stock HHKB caps. This isn't to say most cherry sets are poor quality, it's more that the HHKB stock caps are on a different level than all but the absolute highest quality third party sets I've handled.
- Stabilization of the mod keys/space bar often requires either drilling the board (hard no), or buying even more third party parts (which cost even more money) that aren't guaranteed to fit perfectly.
- I'd love to keep my arrow key and certain other function key legends, especially the media keys. This is crucial for when others use my keyboard (pair programming, friends/family at home). Plus, I'm not the greatest touch typist.
- Retain the ♢ symbol for the command key
- Because I want to
Goals for this project:
- Get some damn topre keycaps out there
- As much as possible try and match the quality and feel of the stock keys.
- Retain crucial function legend printing
- Update media keys to use symbols a la Apple keyboards
- Reduce busyness and clutter
- Better contrast for black hhkbs (drives me nuts)
- Color palettes and designs that enhance the classic HHKB look, rather than take conflict or take away from it
Challenges:
- Cost
- Finding a manufacturer that will do topre stems. I've already started this, but cost and volume so far have been an issue. I've only talked to local companies so far and I'm starting to realize there's a reason people continue to use the same manufacturers for most sets.
Here's a rough example of what I'd be interested in for the legends:
Right now i'd like to find a manufacturer and get the legend layout settled, then move onto colorways.
Open to any and all criticism, while I know how I use my HHKB I don't know everyone's patterns and i'd like this set to be relatively plug and play for most. Also very interested to see if someone else has tried getting topre keycaps done and what difficulties they faced. I've researched it a pretty decent amount, but I can't seem to find much information.
