Response is in!
Here's the request, and the response, in full.
Request:
_________________________________________
What keycap family are you considering?
The DSS family
What switch or keyboard are you using? (see mount)
Cherry mx blue switch. 6U mount preferable.
What quantity of keys are required?
105
What type of legend (insert, pad printing, etc.)?
2-Shot keycaps
What color(s) for the keycap body?
Black, dark grey, pale blue, pale turquis, pale green, lavender, orange
What color(s) for the legend?
White
Additional comments to help with pricing?
The order is for a single keyboard, 105 buttons. The board in question is a filco 105 button keyboard. The final order may encompass keys for additional boards if I manage to sell my friends on getting these boards made. Therefore, I'd like to know the price both for one set, 2, and 10.
I would prefer if the keys had spherical keytops. I would prefer to deliver to you key art for every single keytop.
The following is a description of the colour and placement of every key for this board.
http://www.keyboardco.com/keyboard_images/swedish_finnish_filco_majestouch_keyboard_large.jpgFurther down is a summary of the number of keys of each colours and whether they have legends.
Detailed description:
The pale blue, pale turquis, pale green and orange buttons should not have legends.
There should be 2 pale blue on 4th row, 2 pale turquis on 5th row, 2 pale green on 5th row. These buttons should all be between 1½ and 3 + 1/4 unit length(they are two shift keys, two control keys, two alt keys). The orange would be 1 unit (the escape key).
The lavender buttons would be 8 of 1 unit size, one from the 2nd row, 3 from the third, and would have legends. The arrow keys should also be lavender, also have legends.
The rest of the alphanumerics and symbol keys would be dark grey with legends. So would the 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 buttons on the keypad area. So would F1, F2, F3, F4, F9, F10, F11, F12.
The backspace, tab, caps, enter, home, end, delete, page up, page down, insert, printscreen, scroll lock, pause, num lock, both enter buttons, F5, F6, F7 and F8, two windows keys and a right-click-function key, and on the numpad "+", "-", "*", "'", the division key, and num lock...all of those should be black keys with legends. The spacebar should be black, no legend.
Summary:
All told, 105 keys total.
2 blue, 2 green, 2 turquis, 1 orange, no legends.
98 keys with white legends:
8 Lavender keys with white legends.
62 grey keys with white legends.
27 black keys with white legends.
1 space bar key, no legend.
Kindest regards
Mads
_________________________________________
Response:
_________________________________________
Mads-
Thank you for contacting Signature Plastics! Unfortunately we do not have
all of the keycap shapes required for a full 105 keyboard in any of our
Spherical families. Generally keycaps sets run from $700 for a single set to
around $150 each for 10 sets. If custom artwork is also required, we charge
$25 per keycap legend (usually x104 legends as the spacebar does not have
wording).
Let me know if this is helpful or if you have any other questions.
Thanks!
Melissa Petersen
Signature Plastics LLC
_________________________________________
So essentially, 1 set would be 700 or so, 10 sets would be 1500 or so. That translates to roughly 90$ pr. 105 set + an initial setup cost of 610$. Not too bad if you can trigger economies of scale.
My request was obviously a bit long and perhaps tiresome to read, but supposing she gave consideration to all the details, a completely custom set like the one I was talking about would ring in at 3200$, which is a bit much for a keyboard =P Fortunately, 2 such sets cost only 3300.
Sadly, on note of the spherical keys, that means only a limited part of the keycaps could be spherical, and that would make it look like a bit of a hewn together monster. Could still be nice to type on, tho.
ANYWAY, so, there it is. If you made 100 of those sets, you could get the price down to 130$ a set, but that's a scale of group buy is beyond what I can take responsibility for. In conclusion, you can get custom keys from signature, you can get a nice assortment of colours, and it'll run you 700-800. You want a different font than what they offer by themselves, and it's 3000. Or you can wait for a group buy, and get off with having to pay a minute amount by comparison.
