Anyone use language stickers?

[Manyak]

Has anyone ever tried any of those keycap stickers for other languages?

I'm gonna have to write a few things in Arabic for business, and there's no way I'm about to try and learn to touch type in another language with a blank keyboard. So this is the cheapest and easiest solution (as opposed to getting a whole new keyboard or finding arabic keycaps).

I'm just wondering if they have any sort of texture to them and how easy they are to remove once I don't need them anymore.

[Manyak]

Sharpied keycaps?

Pretty good idea, but that's gonna look damn unprofessional for a computer programmer lol.

[Manyak]

How many Arabic visitors will you have to critique them??

Not sure if the stickers would fit under the two piece caps.

Email Hooleon and ask them how hard stickers are to remove - my bet is it would be easy but the two piece idea lets you swap back and forth with relative ease.

Plus - you wanted cheap!!  This costs nada.

Only 2 (maybe 3?), but these are the guys with money and it's a pretty big project I'm trying to land. And when it comes to stuff like this, looking frugal is good but looking cheap is bad, if you know what I mean.

Hell I'm just gonna order the stickers and try one out I guess. Not like $2.50 is gonna make or break the bank.

[nanu]

I'm still using blank keyboard stickers because I haven't bothered to peel them off.  As expected, they are great for removing dead skin cells and grease on your fingers, as I can run a needlepoint along the edges of the stickers, for evidence.  Your DNA may vary.

[MarceloR]

I've used stickers for a programming language popular at IBM (APL) that uses special symbols. The stickers were sold by IBM. Very high quality stuff as it's still stuck to the keyboard of my first notebook computer ( a thinkpad ca. 1993.) Granted, I haven't used it much in the past fifteen years but I used it quite a bit when it was new. Still legible and the whole thing looks very good.

Keycap stickers of various types were popular for a while. More than likely,  stickers that you find nowadays probably won't be of the same quality. Certain things (e.g. writing paper, keyboards, reasonably priced loudspeakers) have deteriorated so much to the point of being just bearably  usable.

[nowsharing]

I have language stickers on my Kensington and on my laptop. The red symbols in this pic:


I cut them very small, so that only the symbols are stuck to the keys, so there is very little texture difference. They seem to be easily removable, and shouldn't do any damage if you clean the residue off. They're basically thin-film transparent overlays; I bought mine on ebay for something like $1-2/set shipped.

[wellington1869]

I have language stickers on my Kensington and on my laptop.

Show Image

I cut them very small, so that only the symbols are stuck to the keys, so there is very little texture difference. They seem to be easily removable, and should do any damage if you clean the residue off. They're basically thin-film transparent overlays; I bought mine on ebay for something like $1-2/set shipped.

I also cut my stickers very small before putting them on my topre. otherwise they felt like they would come off just from my finger brushing up against the side of the key when typing fast. These are also cheap ebay stickers ($5 shipped, i think). They work perfectly tho once you cut them small.

I always thought that kensington looked pretty cool, and I like that it doesnt have an arrow cluster. scissor keys, right?

[nowsharing]

scissor keys, right?

Yeah, scissors. It's good looking (imo), and feels like a crisp laptop board. I reviewed it here.

[wellington1869]

hoolean has stickers they advertise as made of 'rigid plastic'.  Personally i'd prefer thin vinyl ones cuz you'd notice them less with your fingers I think.

As for removing them and adhesive residue, the world's adhesive residue problems were solved once this product appeared on the scene:
http://www.amazon.com/MAGIC-AMERICA-GG12-Goo-Gone/dp/B00006IBNJ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hpc&qid=1246220018&sr=8-1

As for texture on language stickers, prolly varies from set to set. I've had those APL stickers on my M too, and they're relatively thick and smooth textured. The cheap vinyl ones i have now are thin and somehwat matte textured. One more nice thing about cutting them down to a smaller size is that more of your original key texture can show up.

If you're using an M, you could always use clear plastic keycaps (avail at hoolean) and put piece of paper (or the stickers themselves) under the clear plastic keycap. Then just swap keycaps back later on.

[megarat]

Like MarceloR, I've also used key stickers for APL, and when I was a kid I had special key stickers to illustrate the "graphics" characters on my Atari 1200XL.  The stickers were pretty handy, I had to admit, although I think my sense of aesthetics has evolved (devolved?) to find them slightly tacky-looking.

A mean, come on!  A good keyboard is a thing of beauty, and stickers are for teenagers!  

For APL, I keep around a Unicomp Spacesaver with APL keycaps just for this purpose.

[megarat]

Megarat - you ever see a APL Selectric Typewriter ball (yeah, they did make them) let me know.  Starting a little collection of the buggers.

Egyptian hieroglyphics to me, I just like the look.

I've only heard of them, never seen them in person.  From what I understand, the primordial APL programmers, back in the System/360 days, had to do all of their programming on a teletype using such equipment, and it was completely miserable (where "miserable" = "slow"), but they had no other choice.

If I stumble across one I'll try to snag it for you.

[Manyak]

Sweet, thanks for the tips

[MsKeyboard]

Manyak,
Why put on stickers and deal with taking them off and cleaning the board, when you can just get an inexpensive Arabic Keyboard like this one and just throw it on the shelf when you are done.  Then if you ever have to do another job, there it is waiting for you.

Just an idea, labels also work well, but they can be VERY time intensive for what appears to be a temporary problem.

Good luck.

[o2dazone]

Shamless plug, MsKeyboard...shameless...

[MsKeyboard]

Hey, Just trying to be helpful.

Labels work fine, we sell lots of them, it's just that this seemed to be making a rather large project out of a small temporary problem.

Later.........

[Manyak]

Yeah it's really just a temporary problem, but if I end up needing the board for a few months I'm gotta rip my hair out using it instead of a nice mechanical!

You know what though, now that I think about it...I could just stick those labels on the front side of the keys instead of on the top. This way the keys don't feel any different, the labels never slide off, and no crap gets stuck around them after using them for a while.

[GreeN]

That is a wonderful idea! I have considered stickers before yet the comfort factor kept me well away

I am very happy I clicked the register button on this forum

[megarat]

Interesting ... I'm a little bit startled because I thought this was how most keyboard stickers were applied.  Both of the sets I used were designed to go on the front of the key.

I've seen the top-stickers on Hooleon for large print and such, but thought they were the exception, for the obvious reasons.  Am I mistaken?

[GreeN]

Ive browsed a good couple of websites and all stickers I've ever seen advertised have always been pictured on top of the cap. The thought honestly never occurred to me

[Manyak]

Interesting ... I'm a little bit startled because I thought this was how most keyboard stickers were applied.  Both of the sets I used were designed to go on the front of the key.

I've seen the top-stickers on Hooleon for large print and such, but thought they were the exception, for the obvious reasons.  Am I mistaken?

I dunno, I've never seen anything advertised for the front of the keys. Then again, I've never actually looked for keycap stickers until now. I just figured that since actual printed keycaps always have everything on the top it only made sense that the stickers would go on top too, kind of looking like it was printed on.

I was just staring at a keyboard when the thought occurred to me like, "wait a sec, if they're on the front they'll still be visible and I won't have to touch them while typing!".