My dilemma with the RealForce 87U 55g (suggestions?)

[Lunatique]

I currently have a bit of a dilemma with my RealForce 87U 55g (black version), and none of the options I have in front of me are ideal, and I wanted to see if the community can come up better solutions.

My situation is basically this:

I currently have three keyboards that are Topre--a Leopold FC660C, a RealForce 87U Type-S in white/gray, and a RealForce 87U 55g in black.

When I got the 55g in black, it wasn't a decision I was too satisfied with to begin with, since I already had the white/gray Type-S version and wanted to differentiate from it, but my general preference is NOT to have black legend on black keys. I can touch-type very well, but for content creation such as audio/visual editing software with lots of custom hotkeys, clearly readable legends is still more ideal.

I do like the 55g weighting the most, since it's the snappiest out of the three Topres I have (though the FC660C's keys are very nice too--they feel heavier than the supposedly 45g), and I do want to have a 55g keyboard in my rotation. I also do like the Type-S too, since it feels so effortless and smooth and quiet, but if I had to pick only one between the two 87U keyboards, it's definitely the 55g. The FC660C is definitely a keeper since I use if for in-bed typing on my Galaxy Note 3 and traveling.

I've been trying to think of ways to improve the readability of the black on black keys of the 55g, and these are the options I've considered/tried:

1) Sell the black 55g and buy a white/gray 55g instead, then use other methods to visually differentiate it from the Type-S version, such as getting different colored modifier or Enter keycaps. This is a pretty good solution and the one I'm leaning towards the most. I could stop here but I wanted to see if you guys have better suggestions.

2) Sell the black keycaps and buy a set in another color. But that's not ideal, since the RealForce keycap sets are ridiculously expensive, not to mention I don't particularly like the color choices that are available--they aren't nearly as appealing as the really well designed sets we have in Cherry MX.

3) Hand-paint the legends on the black keycaps with acrylic paint and then seal them with matte acrylic sealant/varnish. I tried this and it's way too much work and way too easy to screw up, even for someone like me who's a veteran artist that worked in comic books for 8 years and did a lot of inking with expensive Winsor & Newton Series 7 detailing brushes.

4) Put legend stickers on the keys. I bought a few sets from amazon and they just didn't look very good--too clunky looking and not elegant/simple enough, even if I chose simple white legend on black background stickers.

5) Sell the black 55g and buy the anniversary version in blue/gray. I'd love to do that, but it's way too expensive and far too much diminishing returns for basically a keycap swap.

6) Buy a Novatouch and swap the sliders so I can put Cherry MX keycaps on the 55g RealForce, then sell the Novatouch with the RealForce slider and black on black keycaps. This seems like a good option, but it invites unnecessary possible complications such as breaking something during the process, or no one wanting to buy a Novatouch with RealForce sliders and black on black keycaps. I don't want to keep the Novatouch since I already have a 45g Topre in the form of the Leopold FC660C.

I think these are pretty much all the options I can think of (or have been suggested to me) so far. What do you guys think? Any other suggestions?

[Sygaldry]

I currently have a bit of a dilemma with my RealForce 87U 55g (black version), and none of the options I have in front of me are ideal, and I wanted to see if the community can come up better solutions.

My situation is basically this:

I currently have three keyboards that are Topre--a Leopold FC660C, a RealForce 87U Type-S in white/gray, and a RealForce 87U 55g in black.

When I got the 55g in black, it wasn't a decision I was too satisfied with to begin with, since I already had the white/gray Type-S version and wanted to differentiate from it, but my general preference is NOT to have black legend on black keys. I can touch-type very well, but for content creation such as audio/visual editing software with lots of custom hotkeys, clearly readable legends is still more ideal.

I do like the 55g weighting the most, since it's the snappiest out of the three Topres I have (though the FC660C's keys are very nice too--they feel heavier than the supposedly 45g), and I do want to have a 55g keyboard in my rotation. I also do like the Type-S too, since it feels so effortless and smooth and quiet, but if I had to pick only one between the two 87U keyboards, it's definitely the 55g. The FC660C is definitely a keeper since I use if for in-bed typing on my Galaxy Note 3 and traveling.

I've been trying to think of ways to improve the readability of the black on black keys of the 55g, and these are the options I've considered/tried:

1) Sell the black 55g and buy a white/gray 55g instead, then use other methods to visually differentiate it from the Type-S version, such as getting different colored modifier or Enter keycaps. This is a pretty good solution and the one I'm leaning towards the most. I could stop here but I wanted to see if you guys have better suggestions.

2) Sell the black keycaps and buy a set in another color. But that's not ideal, since the RealForce keycap sets are ridiculously expensive, not to mention I don't particularly like the color choices that are available--they aren't nearly as appealing as the really well designed sets we have in Cherry MX.

3) Hand-paint the legends on the black keycaps with acrylic paint and then seal them with matte acrylic sealant/varnish. I tried this and it's way too much work and way too easy to screw up, even for someone like me who's a veteran artist that worked in comic books for 8 years and did a lot of inking with expensive Winsor & Newton Series 7 detailing brushes.

4) Put legend stickers on the keys. I bought a few sets from amazon and they just didn't look very good--too clunky looking and not elegant/simple enough, even if I chose simple white legend on black background stickers.

5) Sell the black 55g and buy the anniversary version in blue/gray. I'd love to do that, but it's way too expensive and far too much diminishing returns for basically a keycap swap.

6) Buy a Novatouch and swap the sliders so I can put Cherry MX keycaps on the 55g RealForce, then sell the Novatouch with the RealForce slider and black on black keycaps. This seems like a good option, but it invites unnecessary possible complications such as breaking something during the process, or no one wanting to buy a Novatouch with RealForce sliders and black on black keycaps. I don't want to keep the Novatouch since I already have a 45g Topre in the form of the Leopold FC660C.

I think these are pretty much all the options I can think of (or have been suggested to me) so far. What do you guys think? Any other suggestions?

Dome swap.
Make your own 55g White/Grey Type-S.
Sell the leftover board (which will now be a black/dark grey non-silenced variable 87U)

[eth0s]

I currently have a bit of a dilemma with my RealForce 87U 55g (black version), and none of the options I have in front of me are ideal, and I wanted to see if the community can come up better solutions.

My situation is basically this:

I currently have three keyboards that are Topre--a Leopold FC660C, a RealForce 87U Type-S in white/gray, and a RealForce 87U 55g in black.

When I got the 55g in black, it wasn't a decision I was too satisfied with to begin with, since I already had the white/gray Type-S version and wanted to differentiate from it, but my general preference is NOT to have black legend on black keys. I can touch-type very well, but for content creation such as audio/visual editing software with lots of custom hotkeys, clearly readable legends is still more ideal.

I do like the 55g weighting the most, since it's the snappiest out of the three Topres I have (though the FC660C's keys are very nice too--they feel heavier than the supposedly 45g), and I do want to have a 55g keyboard in my rotation. I also do like the Type-S too, since it feels so effortless and smooth and quiet, but if I had to pick only one between the two 87U keyboards, it's definitely the 55g. The FC660C is definitely a keeper since I use if for in-bed typing on my Galaxy Note 3 and traveling.

I've been trying to think of ways to improve the readability of the black on black keys of the 55g, and these are the options I've considered/tried:

1) Sell the black 55g and buy a white/gray 55g instead, then use other methods to visually differentiate it from the Type-S version, such as getting different colored modifier or Enter keycaps. This is a pretty good solution and the one I'm leaning towards the most. I could stop here but I wanted to see if you guys have better suggestions.

2) Sell the black keycaps and buy a set in another color. But that's not ideal, since the RealForce keycap sets are ridiculously expensive, not to mention I don't particularly like the color choices that are available--they aren't nearly as appealing as the really well designed sets we have in Cherry MX.

3) Hand-paint the legends on the black keycaps with acrylic paint and then seal them with matte acrylic sealant/varnish. I tried this and it's way too much work and way too easy to screw up, even for someone like me who's a veteran artist that worked in comic books for 8 years and did a lot of inking with expensive Winsor & Newton Series 7 detailing brushes.

4) Put legend stickers on the keys. I bought a few sets from amazon and they just didn't look very good--too clunky looking and not elegant/simple enough, even if I chose simple white legend on black background stickers.

5) Sell the black 55g and buy the anniversary version in blue/gray. I'd love to do that, but it's way too expensive and far too much diminishing returns for basically a keycap swap.

6) Buy a Novatouch and swap the sliders so I can put Cherry MX keycaps on the 55g RealForce, then sell the Novatouch with the RealForce slider and black on black keycaps. This seems like a good option, but it invites unnecessary possible complications such as breaking something during the process, or no one wanting to buy a Novatouch with RealForce sliders and black on black keycaps. I don't want to keep the Novatouch since I already have a 45g Topre in the form of the Leopold FC660C.

I think these are pretty much all the options I can think of (or have been suggested to me) so far. What do you guys think? Any other suggestions?

IMO, this is the best solution.

1) Sell the black 55g and buy a white/gray 55g instead, then use other methods to visually differentiate it from the Type-S version, such as using a red ESC key on the 55g.

[Heliosphere]

Yup, option one seems to be the most reasonable solution. The white/grey is pretty nice, and looks nicer with a red esc and wasd or arrow set. From what I've heard, you can't swap all the sliders on the Novatouch due to the special Novatouch stabilizers.

[intelli78]

Some food for thought...

- Trade your black RF keycaps for white ones in the classifieds, and then make a dope unit like this:


- If you do option 1 you could also differentiate it with a digilog case

- If you try to swap with a Novatouch, note that you won't be able to do the left control because it has a weird slider.

[strict]

Dome swap.
Make your own 55g White/Grey Type-S.
Sell the leftover board (which will now be a black/dark grey non-silenced variable 87U)

This is what I was going to suggest. If you do it right you won't even need to lift the domes off the PCB. You wouldn't need to remove the key caps either, just pull the case apart, take out the screws, and swap the PCB with the domes/springs.

Im actually looking to do this exact swap to my own Realforce, I just need to find a silenced donor board.

[Lunatique]

The first reply I got at Deskthority was to swap the domes too.  )

I'm definitely intrigued by that idea. I've never taken a keyboard apart before, and I'd like to do enough homework before I attempt it, to make sure I don't break anything (these keyboards aren't cheap). I've seen people post photos of the insides of RealForce keyboards before, so I think at least I have some kind of visual guide to the process. But if you guys have good tips and tutorials to point me to, I'd really appreciate it. When I'm done, I'll report back on how it went and what the resulting keyboards feel/sound like.

I kind of want to keep the ergonomic weighted version, just to have it, but my pragmatic side tells me to sell it, since I definitely enjoy typing on the 55g more, and with the 55g being turned into a silenced version, there's even less reason to keep the ergonomic weighted.

BTW, will making the 55g silenced change how it feels? Or it's only the sound that's going to change?

[intelli78]

- If you try to swap with a Novatouch, note that you won't be able to do the left control because it has a weird slider.

[Lunatique]

Some food for thought...

- Trade your black RF keycaps for white ones in the classifieds, and then make a dope unit like this:

Show Image

I considered that, but the result to me looks less appealing than the white/gray or  the all black (reminds me a bit of the Unicomp black/white keyboards).

[RoflCopter4]

It's not really a dilemma if you have six options now is it?

[Lunatique]

It's not really a dilemma if you have six options now is it?

It is if none of the options are ideal.

The dome swap suggestion was the best one--one I didn't think of, so I'm glad I asked for suggestions.

But after spending a couple more days with the ergonomic weighted RF 87U, I don't think I could bear to part with it. It may not be as snappy and tactile and "fun" as the 55g, but it's got its own very unique charm--that very smooth and effortless typing where you feel like you aren't really typing--more like just dancing around with your fingers.

So I guess I'll be selling the black 55g version and buying a 55g white/gray version (with some color modifier keys to differentiate it from the ergonomic weighted version).

[HalfSharkAlligator]

It's not really a dilemma if you have six options now is it?

Sexlemma?