[IC]篆Seal - A Fullsize Keyboard

[性之]

篆Seal
Designed by XINGZHI x QIN / Co-produced by VERTEX



Hello world, I’m Xingzhi, a fresh rookie in keyboard design from China. This full size newbee is brought to you by me and my friend Qin. It’s produced by the Vertex team of ‘Angle’ you might be familiar with.

Qin and I are both fanatic collectors of vintage keyboards, such as IBM, Cherry. In the classic world, full size type is always the main stream. Cherry G80-3108 with a key on top right, was such an iconic design, followed by Apple and WYSE with products sharing the same idea. That’s where my debut show came from.



Furthermore, what often haunts my heart is that how to attach any Chinese aesthics into a keyboard design, something tranditional and reserved. If Calligraphy would be an introduction to ancient art, then instantly the Seal Script from the very first QIN dynasty occurred to my mind. This is why our first design featuring a signature badge is called ‘Seal’. The seal badge inspires you to customize your name or favourite chinese character, just like an artist’s engraving in his masterpiece. 



Let’s have a look of its details as below.

Overlook:

437.35 x 135.72 x 36.49mm；
Full size/100%；

Yes it’s a long baby as what a keyboard looks like when each one of us initially touches in work space. Controversially, in customized keyboard hobby, not so many authors prefer full size option.



Structure:

Why top mount?

Stable and reliable is all that it counts. Actually, it constantly domains the hobby from the very beginning of the customized keyboard history. It’s so sensitive to all variables including plate, PCB, switch and keycap. It acts, responses or even magnifies all these subtle changes more directly. In another word, you shall get more genuine feel of typing.

Of cause, it can also tell the real quality of the keyboard itself. Personally, instead of saying it’s a conservative structure, I would call it purity.



Attributes to one of Vertex’s ongoing project’s solution, we insert a PC cushion in-between the screw and case to absorb quiver when typing. You may wonder its necessity. Interestingly, Lolo(another funny pal) accidentally discover some tiny differences when switching PCB and plate of MAJA from PC case into aluminium case in which way he felt slightly better in PC surrounding. So in order to restore that little improvement, we installed this little PC experiment to optimize bounds and sounds.



As a result, it worked perfectly well. 

Next, like others do, we split the PCB & plate into main and num which is quite normal to see nowadays. And you may want to try with two kinds of switches since they can be allocated from separated area.

Weight:≈3.5-3.7kg (Fully built)

For a full size keyboard, its weight might not be heavy enough especially comparing with Glare. (Guessing Simon might not want to kiss it) But regarding to gym needs, it works indeed.

Front height: 9°



After three rounds of sampling, I didn’t lower its front height maximally. Because this final profile came with a better consolidation of look and feel.

Case Material:

Aluminium anodized

Silver






Black






Red






Very Peri






Brown






Blue






E-coated

Cold Gray






Pink






Weight Material:

Brass AF



Copper AF



Brass Patina




PVD SS milled





Plate:

Aluminum




FR4




PC



Support:

ANSI / ISO, Soldering / Hotswap, PCB based on QMK, supporting VIA3.0&VIAL






Set including:

Aluminium case up & bottom x 1
Brass badge x 2
Aluminum badge(inner) x 1
Carry pack x 1
Plate x 1
PCB & cable x 1
PC cushion x 10
Daughter board and JST x 1
Rubber feet x 1

One more thing:

Seal and its PCB supports ALPS, but we couldn’t be able to provide compatible plate during GB. We’ll open-source the ALPS plate file later.

True love of keyboard drives us this far. Hope you’ll like this product.

Thanks for reading this much.

How to follow news of the Seal:

For now, Clickclack is the confirmed vendor in NA, and we will continue to update other vendors in other regions.



(The method of sale has not been confirmed yet, and we're willing to make a in-stock sell)

[MartinThePolarBear]

Always happy to see more full size boards on here

GLWIC

Sent from my Pixel 8 Pro using Tapatalk

[Manukbs_]

Peak

[Adelscott]

hotswap PCB with ANSI+ISO support, that's a nice feature!

[busytimmy]

Purity indeed. Hooray for FS boards 

[mr_foggy]

what the hobby needs rn. any price estimates?

[性之]

what the hobby needs rn. any price estimates?

we're gonna try to achieve the close price as China GB ($400-$460), but doesn't include pp+shipping

[white_rabbit]

You have my interest

[marcowhatever]

YEAH BABY, YEAH

[PerpetualCatLady]

YES PLEASE, that purple looks so good.

[mongoose27]

Nice to see built-in ALPS support with PCB and  on ALPS plate file release.  I'm definitely interested.

[Kaptain Mike]

Very excited to see more of this

[MoarCoffeePlzzz]

Very interested in a brown unit. I know this won’t change but would have loved to see the USB port above the tkl pad and not centered but still not a deterrent for me. Stoked!

[mozaic]

This looks so nice. Also glad to see more options for full size custom keyboards. GLWIC! 

[Rob27shred]

Oh hell yes! I've been wanting to get a full sized custom in my collection for some time now, but nothing really caught my eye other than the Bina until this! Love the design (would've loved to see a Cherry lip on it though) & will be keeping an eye on this one!

[Cringelord]

This is really nice! With that price though... subjectively Pangea from Bowl is a more compelling purchase. That being said, I love the bronze alu plate and the brown color way.

[Necrolegion]

Please consider a southpaw version too!

[Chorple]

Looking forward to getting my hands on a brown unit!

[niten]

Excited to see a full-size project. I will be following the updates.

[FlashBombGod]

This keyboard looks great! Are there any plans to offer a Southpaw variant, out of curiosity?

[Keebzncables]

make full size great again

[Apachez]

Looks awesome! Always a fan of seeing full size boards

[Bubbleprick]

This thing is sharp. Love the brown unit.

[n1sm0__]

The black with the green patina'd copper is just 💚💚💚. Prolly too late to recommend but a dark green color way would be absolutely banger with that weight. Regardless, I'm on board simply for the fact that it's a fullsize and they hardly get any love

[An Angry Swan]

I don't think a full size is for me (unless you end up running a southpaw variant) but I like the reserved styling coupled with the more exotic looking weights.

Also appreciate that you had the restraint not to slap a big old engraving on the real estate next to the led indicators. Hope that stays.

GLWIC

[性之]

Please consider a southpaw version too!

not yet

[clay]

Hopefully foamless and 1.6mm PCB

[51p50x]

nice board, please consider a red alu plate.

[s4r9am]

This is already really amazing with ISO and split options. Any chance for knob support?

[Mr.RotKiv]

Any news on international sale..?

[hwalker84]

I like what I see as a lover of full-size.

[fuhaha01]

I missed the previous GB. Because the GB time was too short, and there was not much information about this keyboard. Is it possible to open more GB times in the future, or extras slots? I really like this keyboard, but when I found out about it, the GB registration time was over. 

[denizany]

I'd be also interested in a second group buy.

[KOBO ISSHI]

FS cases making a comeback. Love to see it. Well done guys!

[BossKeebs]

I might be looking forward to buying this actually

[Baron]

also interested in another gb

[Tune Lab]

The Seal is genuinely a great product

[WoodApe]

Definitely would be in for a second group buy

[deviousdayz]

I would also like another group buy, this keyboard looks amazing

[MartinThePolarBear]

I would also like another group buy, this keyboard looks amazing

Likely not happening, but ClickClack (and other vendors) have the Etar87 currently in Group Buy at a lower price. That's a great full size too

[Baron]

Likely not happening, but ClickClack (and other vendors) have the Etar87 currently in Group Buy at a lower price. That's a great full size too

it's very nice too but with no function row it feels weird as a "full size"

[clay]

Good day, will there be another round of GB, or extras? I missed the extras round and was supposed to buy at least 2 extra PCBs. Not sure what my options are at this point