Custom Keycap Ideas Thread - all ideas welcome

[decarabia]

i want to try my hand at design, but for some reason i feel lost as to where to even begin (or i could be getting way ahead of myself when i dont even have a rough draft yet)
there are a couple of things i'm wondering about regardless, so if anyone has answers or insight i'd appreciate it a lot

• would pmk's templates be useable with other manus, should i get to that point? i want to have cuneiform sublegends, so kle definitely doesn't have support for that really works as long as it's a unicode char wao why did i not realize that sooner. i'm thinking it'd also be pretty useful when it comes to novelties too
• is metallic-looking plastic possible? what sort of colour codes or specifications should i be looking into if i want to achieve that?
• assuming a gb goes through and moqs are hit, do designer(s) at least break even? including pre-ic and prototyping costs

fiddled around in kle for a bit since posting, modelled after gilgamesh. i personally find yellow (and in extension, gold) incredibly hard to work with as a main colour, and i was thinking a bit about how neat metallic legends would look, hence the question above, but maybe red is fine too? it's certainly one of gil's secondary image colours
tho i didnt put too much thought into the sublegends other than the numbers since i'm no historian and i dont know a lick of sumerian/akkadian aha

[monstermandude]

i want to try my hand at design, but for some reason i feel lost as to where to even begin (or i could be getting way ahead of myself when i dont even have a rough draft yet)
there are a couple of things i'm wondering about regardless, so if anyone has answers or insight i'd appreciate it a lot

• would pmk's templates be useable with other manus, should i get to that point? i want to have cuneiform sublegends, so kle definitely doesn't have support for that really works as long as it's a unicode char wao why did i not realize that sooner. i'm thinking it'd also be pretty useful when it comes to novelties too
• is metallic-looking plastic possible? what sort of colour codes or specifications should i be looking into if i want to achieve that?
• assuming a gb goes through and moqs are hit, do designer(s) at least break even? including pre-ic and prototyping costs

fiddled around in kle for a bit since posting, modelled after gilgamesh. i personally find yellow (and in extension, gold) incredibly hard to work with as a main colour, and i was thinking a bit about how neat metallic legends would look, hence the question above, but maybe red is fine too? it's certainly one of gil's secondary image colours
tho i didnt put too much thought into the sublegends other than the numbers since i'm no historian and i dont know a lick of sumerian/akkadian aha

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Hahaha this is super cool and also coincidental because I decided to start looking around the keycaps section of the geekhack forums to look at making cutsom keycaps with Cuneiform sublegends just like you're talking about now, although I was going for a bit of an easier alphabet of the Archaemenid Empire of 5th century BC Persia since they only have 36 symbols in their alphabet and are less complex in form. I was thinking a similar layout and some ancient armor and the symbol of the Archaemenid Empire for the novelty keys. I am still stuck on color though but I am interested in doing something like the colors of clothing commonly worn during that era.

glwkc!

[NingWang]

What about a Halloween themed keycap set? Then maybe a pumpkin artisan on top of that.

[dipincoke]

nice color

[EchoKeys]

This purple keycap looks great

[dipincoke]

i want to create carbon fiber keycap with motif similar to carbon fiber cloth. I dont know why haha  but i love that theme. Also how about beehive theme ? that sound amazing to me. Tell me what you think
t

[KeyGeak]

What about a Halloween themed keycap set? Then maybe a pumpkin artisan on top of that.
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What's that above the space bar? Is that a brain?

[KeyGeak]

Tomorrow is Halloween night, I think it's time to show my Halloween keycaps

[NingWang]

What about a Halloween themed keycap set? Then maybe a pumpkin artisan on top of that.
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What's that above the space bar? Is that a brain?

Yes indeed, you got a cool halloween set as well btw )

[Exquite]

I want some more colorful keycaps made by big brands such as GMK and SP.

[CMYKatt]

Personal keycap design I've been working on, but wanted to see if there was any interest from others? Current working set name is "DOMINO"

ANSI 108-key Cherry Profile Keycap Set
5-sided dye sublimation printing on 1.5mm PBT

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[transeurasian]

I want some more colorful keycaps made by big brands such as GMK and SP.

me too..

[Orangeeky]

Hey All! I've been working on a custom set of caps and I wanted to see what others thought of it. I'm currently looking at getting them printed (sublimated) from GoblinTech but I'm new to this, so if there's other quality options for Cherry PBT, I'm all ears. Ideally looking for 108 key ANSI.
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[sarahn27]

Hey All! I've been working on a custom set of caps and I wanted to see what others thought of it. I'm currently looking at getting them printed (sublimated) from GoblinTech but I'm new to this, so if there's other quality options for Cherry PBT, I'm all ears. Ideally looking for 108 key ANSI.
*Fixed images
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Nice set! One thing, I think the ENTER, BACKSPACE, etc. might look better capitalized, like the individual letter keys. I'd at least capitalize the CTRL so it matches the ALT in your novelties render.

[Orangeeky]

Thanks.. I can't believe I didn't catch that myself. I'm going to try it both ways (all caps vs 1st letter capped) to see how it looks.

[Piperaceae]

This is a project I've been working on recently, SA SMRT. SMRT is a tribute to Wyse terminal keyboards of the 1990s, using the same classic navy-on-grey color scheme, but transposed to SA profile. I've seen Wyse redone in DCS and Cherry, but never as a tall, chonky sculpt.

Besides modern kitting, SMRT sports optional bright navy and yellow accents, including a "Yellow Alert" monolegend top row, and WASD gamer keys.

Here's some renders of how it's shaping up so far:

ANSI 1800 layout on TKC 1800, with accent keys

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ISO HHKB layout on Rama M60-A


Modified 40's layout on DeDeDecline Serendipity, with accent keys


ISO 75% layout on a TKC Portico75, with Yellow Alert accents

I do wish the Keyboard Render Kit contained some ortho models so I could show those keys...

Still working on kitting, but it'll likely be similar to SP's SA Standard Black and White sets, with an additional accent kit or two. No novelties per se, but I'm drawing upon elements from a variety of classic Wyse keyboards for legends, and trying to identify fun ones that already exist as SA molds.

[Piperaceae]

I thought SA SMRT should have the option for brighter colors, even if the old Wyse terminals were mostly grey. So I cooked up an alternate alphas set, called Thin Client, featuring navy keys and ASCII sublegends. So now you can pick between grey and navy alphas, and mix either of those with the Yellow Alert accent row, to be as colorful or grey as you prefer.



Yeah, this project has a logo now, reminiscent of Wyse's.

[Handke]

what colors did the original olivetti have? I mean the base of the alpha keycaps? any idea? thanks

[Piperaceae]

This is sort of a pre-interest check, since I don't have a ton of details sorted out yet (dates, vendors, pricing, etc.) But I want to get some early feedback anyway.





This is SA Selectresque. It's an IBM Selectric-esque design, based on the Selectric I blue key colorway available from roughly 1962 to 1974. There's quite a few photos of original Selectrics with blue caps here.

Kitting is fairly straightforward - a generous base that includes UK ISO (because I'm a UK ISO user myself and dammit, I want to be able to use own designs), and numpad and 40s/bars kits.

Kit Renders:




I'm not looking to make huge changes to this; I'm pretty happy with the base, and not sure that any more or bigger child kits would be feasible, no matter how much I want to offer full 40's and international options. I'm hoping that combining basic 40's and small bars into one kit here will benefit both, and ensure they're produced.


Goodies:
There are a handful of Selectric text novelties included (Lock, Margin Release, Clear, Index, and Set), plus a throwback GeekHack key that may cross the line into sheer bribery for goodwill.


Couple more renders:

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Colors are WFK white, BGW bright blue, and NEZ faded black.

What do y'all think? Would something like this be of potential interest, and worth developing into a full IC? I feel like it's potentially niche, and definitely geared towards folks nostalgic for that 60s/70s chonky retro aesthetic. But I also think it's clean, simple, and potentially modern-looking on the right board.

[Piperaceae]

Another possibility would be MTNU Selectresque. GMK seems to favor monokits for that profile, so kitting like this may be feasible:



Plus there haven't been many colorful MTNU sets yet.

Then again, I haven't ever even seen an IC for MTNU; they just sort of appear fully formed, in-stock. So I don't really know what the secret is for successfully running a set in that profile.

[madmax13]

I like this. However, I like the diamonds in the SA set more than sys. Also, we need to add an R4 fn 1u key to support 65s with 7u spacebar. I see that's what "set" is for. Matt3o (who designed the MTNU profile) has a Discord where he is pretty responsive—you might want to contact him.

Another possibility would be MTNU Selectresque. GMK seems to favor monokits for that profile, so kitting like this may be feasible:

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Plus there haven't been many colorful MTNU sets yet.

Then again, I haven't ever even seen an IC for MTNU; they just sort of appear fully formed, in-stock. So I don't really know what the secret is for successfully running a set in that profile.

[Piperaceae]

I like this. However, I like the diamonds in the SA set more than sys. Also, we need to add an R4 fn 1u key to support 65s with 7u spacebar. I see that's what "set" is for. Matt3o (who designed the MTNU profile) has a Discord where he is pretty responsive—you might want to contact him.

Thanks! For the MTNU concept, I went with "System" and "Sys" because I knew those OS mod molds existed already, and I was hoping to minimize the number of new ones needed. That said, I've decided to move forward with SA profile as I originally planned, because the glossiness and height is just such a big part of the Selectric aesthetic. I'll work on an MTNU set someday, it just won't be this idea.

I'm just about ready to do an IC; here's what's I'm looking at in terms of SA kitting:

     

I've embraced the weirdness of the Selectric instead of trying to work around it, and incorporated more of the original unique legends into my design. And because branding matters, I'm theming everything like classic IBM magazine ads of the 60's:
 

[Piperaceae]

I still haven't launched an IC for Selectresque yet, because I'm back to considering running it in MTNU again.

Why? Despite my complaints about designers being bullied away from working with Signature Plastics over their pricing, I'm not unsympathetic to concerns about cost. I want this to be affordable, and I doubt it would be as an SA set.

MTNU may not have the height or shininess of SA, but it does have the IBM beamspring aesthetic cooked into its DNA. It has the right scoop, and the period-appropriate font. And a bright blue set would break new ground in MTNU, whereas it wouldn't be as original in SA.



To make this set even more affordable, I'm considering cutting it down to focus very specifically on smaller boards, with coverage for 40%-75% layouts. I'm not 100% committed to this, but a more narrowly-targeted monokit is appealing to me. Maybe it's just because the Selectric itself didn't have a number pad.

[thelaughingman]

I still haven't launched an IC for Selectresque yet, because I'm back to considering running it in MTNU again.

Why? Despite my complaints about designers being bullied away from working with Signature Plastics over their pricing, I'm not unsympathetic to concerns about cost. I want this to be affordable, and I doubt it would be as an SA set.

I'm also not sure whether I want to work with SP on another set yet. I have one in manufacturing, and another they've said they want to sell. But I have no idea what the exact status of either is right now. They take months to reply to my emails, if they do at all. It makes working with them very frustrating.

MTNU may not have the height or shininess of SA, but it does have the IBM beamspring aesthetic cooked into its DNA. It has the right scoop, and the period-appropriate font. And a bright blue set would break new ground in MTNU, whereas it wouldn't be as original in SA.

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To make this set even more affordable, I'm considering cutting it down to focus very specifically on smaller boards, with coverage for 40%-75% layouts. I'm not 100% committed to this, but a more narrowly-targeted monokit is appealing to me. Maybe it's just because the Selectric itself didn't have a number pad.

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6u spacebar pls

my take is either you expand the kit to cover TKL or shrink it back down to just 60%/HHKB only. AFAIK those 2 layouts are much more popular than 75%

[Piperaceae]

I didn't realize the 6u mold for MTNU existed - I'll definitely add that! HHKB support is something I feel is essential for 60% coverage, when the mold actually exists.

Hmm, I wonder which would be better - shrinking to 65% and lower, or expanding to 80%? It's only six more keys, and I feel like there are a lot of TKL users potentially. As much as I want to keep the cost down, expanding to cover TKL may make it more viable. On the other hand, shrinking it to 65% eliminates twice as many keys, which surely would make it cheaper?

I wonder if there's any such thing as a per-key cost with MTNU sets? There have only been a handful so far, and the pricing has been about the same in spite of vastly different base kits. Quantity seems to matter more than key count.

At any rate, here's a 40-80% kit:


And here's the 40-65% version, swapping the F row for a few more small bars:

[thelaughingman]

I didn't realize the 6u mold for MTNU existed - I'll definitely add that! HHKB support is something I feel is essential for 60% coverage, when the mold actually exists.

Hmm, I wonder which would be better - shrinking to 65% and lower, or expanding to 80%? It's only six more keys, and I feel like there are a lot of TKL users potentially. As much as I want to keep the cost down, expanding to cover TKL may make it more viable. On the other hand, shrinking it to 65% eliminates twice as many keys, which surely would make it cheaper?

I wonder if there's any such thing as a per-key cost with MTNU sets? There have only been a handful so far, and the pricing has been about the same in spite of vastly different base kits. Quantity seems to matter more than key count.

At any rate, here's a 40-80% kit:

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And here's the 40-65% version, swapping the F row for a few more small bars:

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on 60% vs TKL - I'd say many 60% users would be okay with TKL kit, think Alpha + mod kit from SP. But if you go 60% kit only then for sure you're losing the TKL crowd

on pricing - I don't have insight on MTNU but IIRC with CYL the biggest determinant of price per key is actually the colour. if it is 'stock' colour for GMK then it will be cheap. if it is custom colours that requires a lot more additional working (mixing, matching) then it will be more expensive. can refer what is 'stock' for MTNU GMK Stock Color kit with PBT MTNU keycaps

[Piperaceae]

The more I think about it, the more I want to prioritize smaller boards with this set, by including 40's and minibars in the base. I think having TKL in there too might make it too big and expensive. But yeah, I imagine TKL users are a large group, and excluding them altogether cuts into potential sales.

As averse as I am to having a bunch of child kits, I wonder if just one TKL add-on kit would be feasible, including the missing keys to cover 75% and TKL, and also the "normal" versions of the keys that have weird typewriter legends in the base.

Something like this:


It's just the reverse of the typical 40's and bars sold separately, with the TKL keys sold separately instead.

I've looked at the stock GMK PBT colors before, and the light blue is close to what I want, though a little greenish. My ideal color is matched to SP's BGW blue. I really wish there was a PBT equivalent to GMK's N5 ABS blue; that would be pretty darn close.

Quantity seems to matter a lot in terms of pricing, too. MTNU Susu's numpadless base sold for $125. Dolch is going for $135 for a much larger set, while the "limited stock" R&D '73 is a whopping $180-189 depending on whether you go through Novelkeys or Norbauer. I don't know if Dolch is using stock colors (I don't think Susu or R&D do), but I imagine they made a lot more Dolch than they did the other sets.

[thelaughingman]

Quantity seems to matter a lot in terms of pricing, too. MTNU Susu's numpadless base sold for $125. Dolch is going for $135 for a much larger set, while the "limited stock" R&D '73 is a whopping $180-189 depending on whether you go through Novelkeys or Norbauer. I don't know if Dolch is using stock colors (I don't think Susu or R&D do), but I imagine they made a lot more Dolch than they did the other sets.

some context on these sets:
- Susu uses custom colours, but is part of the '1st runs trio' so it got discounted, i.e. it should have been more than 125usd despite being smaller kitting
- Dolch is definitely stock colour, and not part of the initial run discount so you should consider its pricing 135usd as the baseline
- R&D is, yes, limited in a sense and it's definitely uses custom colours thus the higher pricing. but the bigger contributor of that high price is what the Topre-community calls Norbauer-tax, wherein the designer, Norbauer focuses on expensive / premium offerings. So you should factor that in as well

[Piperaceae]

Yeah, I figured the Norbauer brand adds something to the cost. I wasn't sure if fewer Susu sets were made for some reason like GMK hedging their bets with the launch sets, versus manufacturing more for sure-fire hit colorways like Dolch. $135 feels like a good sweet spot to aim at for a base kit.

I posted the IC this afternoon, after being up all night flip-flopping on kitting. I must have gone through ten variations between my last post and finally deciding to put TKL in the base after all at the last minute. I really wanted to prioritize small boards for once, but it also seemed like I'd be shooting myself in the foot by excluding so many people.