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geekhack Community => New Members => Topic started by: Totem on Mon, 11 July 2016, 19:57:13

Title: New here, quick question
Post by: Totem on Mon, 11 July 2016, 19:57:13

Hey guys long time lurker decided to join you guys. Can anybody point me towards a guide to painting keycap lettering whether it be sublimation, pad printing or various other techniques?

Thanks

Title: Re: New here, quick question
Post by: rowdy on Thu, 14 July 2016, 05:50:32

Welcome to Geekhack!

There's this page on DT that gives a good overview of keycap labelling methods: https://deskthority.net/wiki/Keycap_printing

Then there's this thread (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=35873.0) discussing DIY dyesub.

A reference in that latter thread links to this page: http://keycapdiy.blogspot.com.au/

If you need more than that, please post a question in the simple questions (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=40501.0) thread, and maybe someone else will have some better links :)

Title: Re: New here, quick question
Post by: xtrafrood on Thu, 14 July 2016, 08:47:01

If you're rolling in cash dye-sublimation and pad printing could totally be a possibility. Just buy the factory needed for production! For those who aren't rolling in cash, you got some etching options (Glowforge for laser, X-Carve for CNC, for example). I'm not saying you couldn't send off your design to be printed (Pimpmykeyboard will do custom dye-sub jobs for a premium) it's just really expensive.

One could possibly skip all this and use some CNC/3D printing skills to create double shot molds for resin casting I guess? If you run into moar info please let us know what you find! When I signed up early this year people said DIY capacitive switch PCBs were impossible, (like Topre) and five months later someone posted progress of a fully adjustable ergonomic Topre board!