Just received WASDkeyboards keycaps... pretty disappointed :(

[jakemfbacon]

So I ordered a set of the iso keys in white blanks for my new iso layout cm quickfire. I had a full 104 keycap set of PBT white with engraved letters from qtan on my razer blackwidow that I was using for about year  and a half that I put on the quickfire but wanted blanks and needed the iso enter key etc.
Anyways the first think is I knew they weren't going to be PBT but the quality seems a lot cheaper and the full WASD keycap set is only like 4 dollars less than the pbt caps from qtan.
Secondly they are not even fully white! They are like an off white and do not match my pbt keycaps. I will post a picture below. Is this normal or did I get a bad batch?
Lastly, I ordered the escape sign keycap from them and in the picture online the guy is black but on the keycap the guy is grey and not even printed very well.
Overall disappointed. Is this how WASD is? I'm surprised because i see them talked about all the time.

[PointyFox]

They look light yellow?

[jakemfbacon]

They look light yellow?

they do.... they are supposed to be white.... probably because the pbt keycaps are actually white

[Sifo]

PBT and ABS white are different. That's the normal WASD white, yes... mine are like that too compared to my PBT. As for the printing I don't know. White comes in various tones.

[cwang1004]

I'm happy with all my wasd keysets. They are actually better than some other ABS key sets I have from other places.

Colors are different on ABS and PBT.

[jeroplane]

Every manufacturer has different processes and different plastic sources. White is one of the colours with great variance between manufacturers. There will always be this problem if mixing sets, let alone different plastics. One good example is rowdy's comparison of yellow keycaps in his "When yellow is not quite yellow" thread. The only solution is to buy full sets and not to mix.

WASD's printing process is laser etching. They do not colour the printed parts black - it is burned in using a laser. The image online shows it printed on a red key, which of course will burn darker than a white key. This is why it looks lighter.

Sorry that it hasn't worked out for you :\ Lesson for next time I guess.

[rowdy]

WASD have a sampler kit, which contains one of each keycap colour.  From that I was able to determine that their yellow really is a bit faded compared to what I was looking for.

The white one however looks quite white to me, but then I do not have other whiter than white keycaps to compare it to.

[jakemfbacon]

thanks guys i guess that all makes sense just didn't even think about it. Are abs keycaps easier to dye than pbt? also is there somewhere that I can buy pbt white blank keycaps for not too expensive? qtan doesn't have blank. Or I might just buy the rest of the keys from wasd.
Are they even actually a good white color? Like are the pbt whiter or just different?

[TotalChaos]

Trying to match the color of 2 different objects made by different manufacturers is a horrendously difficulty problem that has plagued business since forever.

This whole situation is what the sampler pack is for.

I agree with you that the gray on white is not an appealing contrast ratio.  But that is just the way their laser technology works.

Maybe they could dial up the knobs on the laser and really burn the hell out of the plastic to make it blacker?  But this would make it bumpier too.

[MissMurd3r84]

My WASD white key from the sampler doesn't look yellowish like the one in the OP. Mine looks white, even on a white keyboard next to the rest of my white PBT keys.

[Zehkul]

Whites are different. Black is black, mostly, that’s no problem, but there are tons of different whites. Ever tried painting just one part of a wall?

Filco white is even more off, and you could say that KBC PBT is just too white — normally you don’t use such extreme whites. (But well I like it that way too )

There are pictures of how the laser will turn out on the different keys, and the website says you should check that out before ordering:
http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/index.php/gallery2/keycap-laser-etching-and-engraving-example
So you’re to blame if you didn’t.

[samwisekoi]

I am typing on a WASD keyboard with White alphas, Light Gray num row, Dark Gray mods, Black function keys, and red arrows and escape key.  All laser-etched by WASD.  You can see my keyboard here: 

The Black keys have really white legends and the Light Gray and Red keys have the darkest gray legends.  The legends on the White and Dark Gray are indeed lower contrast.  I think the images on the WASD website are pretty accurate.  The White isn't quite as white as the video makes it look, but it is pretty white.

However, ABS White isn't PBT White, and that point has been covered pretty well above.  For a Gray-on-White keycap, IMHO, they look fine.  However, I would never put them next to PBT or double-shot keycaps of similar colors.

For white with bold black legends, try SP's Standard Doubleshot set here:
  http://keycapsdirect.com/marketplace.php

For lees money and more customization options, but with Laser Etched legends, design your own WASD keycap set here:
  http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/index.php/wasd-v1-custom-keyboard.html

I have both, and like them each for their own virtues.

Good luck with keycaps!

 - Ron | samwisekoi

[baldgye]

personally im not a big fan of there caps at all, I have two sets a yellow and a grey and don't really like either...

[TotalChaos]

personally im not a big fan of there caps at all, I have two sets a yellow and a grey and don't really like either...

I am planning to buy some sets of my own... possibly just plain old black keys with white legends.

Why do u not like yours?

I thought the Yellows came out looking good?

[baldgye]

personally im not a big fan of there caps at all, I have two sets a yellow and a grey and don't really like either...

I am planning to buy some sets of my own... possibly just plain old black keys with white legends.

Why do u not like yours?

I thought the Yellows came out looking good?

they look ok, the thing I dont like about them is that they are too thin just didn't feel 'stable' if that makes sense... i probally needed spacers or something for them, but they where uneven (some caps sat higher than others for no real reason) and just didn't feel all that good.
Mine also had legends and they were super thin/small and looked faded when they wern't...

[jakemfbacon]

My WASD white key from the sampler doesn't look yellowish like the one in the OP. Mine looks white, even on a white keyboard next to the rest of my white PBT keys.

alright thanks guys... just never really thought about all this lol my fault. Is there anywhere you guys know of right now that I can get blank pbt caps?

and I don't think they are yellowish I think it is just the picture and that they are next to the pbt caps. I did get a sampler back to see the other colors but just assumed white was white lol. The white in the sampler back is the same as the other white keys so I guess that is just their white color.

I am just not sure how I feel about any of their colors yet though. The dark grey doesn't seem to be very grey and comparing their red to the red keycaps that came with the quickfire they look more orangish than red like the quickfire ones. The color is nice but I wouldn't call it red.

[Findecanor]

Lastly, I ordered the escape sign keycap from them and in the picture online the guy is black but on the keycap the guy is grey and not even printed very well.

Laser-etched key legends are never quite black. I have a whole bunch of laser-etched keys from various manufacturers and all of them are dark grey.

[jakemfbacon]

put the sampler set on lol not sure what colors I want to do yet... suggestions? also is there anywhere that I can buy different color keycaps besides wasd? Most of the sites you need to buy in bulk.

I also put on all the o ring samplers and I think i like them just not sure which ones I like most. What are the most common and can anyone describe the differences a little better than what is on WASD's website? So far I think I like the blue ones most

[TotalChaos]

they look ok, the thing I dont like about them is that they are too thin just didn't feel 'stable' if that makes sense... i probally needed spacers or something for them, but they where uneven (some caps sat higher than others for no real reason) and just didn't feel all that good.

ur scaring me!  That won't work for me at all.  I can't deal with keycaps of random height.

I am trying to dezine my ultimate snazzy keyboard and was going to buy at least 2 of them....  Now I donno what to do....

Mine also had legends and they were super thin/small and looked faded when they wern't...

Did u dezine ur legends to be super thin and small?

[IvanIvanovich]

They just aren't very good keycaps. None of the oem style keycap are though. The thing they have going for them is how flexible it is on legends style and able to make any layout for cheap. If cheap and highly custom is not what you are looking for, there are much better choice.
I don't know where you live since you didn't add it to your profile, but if you want white pbt in ISO I know it's available from Ducky Nordic. Also if you don't mind getting an entire keyboard to steal it's keycap you should go for Cherry keycap.

[longweight]

As lysol said, WASD are cheap and I think that they are pretty nasty. OEM profile is no fun for anyone and they are very flimsy.

[jakemfbacon]

They just aren't very good keycaps. None of the oem style keycap are though. The thing they have going for them is how flexible it is on legends style and able to make any layout for cheap. If cheap and highly custom is not what you are looking for, there are much better choice.
I don't know where you live since you didn't add it to your profile, but if you want white pbt in ISO I know it's available from Ducky Nordic. Also if you don't mind getting an entire keyboard to steal it's keycap you should go for Cherry keycap.

what exactly is OEM? And so then I guess there isn't really any other place atm that you can buy better quality keycaps in different colors or blanks? And Buying a whole keyboard is too expensive.
WHere is ducky nordic? And I live in ORegon USA but I can order from other sites.

[tsangan]

They just aren't very good keycaps. None of the oem style keycap are though. The thing they have going for them is how flexible it is on legends style and able to make any layout for cheap. If cheap and highly custom is not what you are looking for, there are much better choice.
I don't know where you live since you didn't add it to your profile, but if you want white pbt in ISO I know it's available from Ducky Nordic. Also if you don't mind getting an entire keyboard to steal it's keycap you should go for Cherry keycap.

As lysol said, WASD are cheap and I think that they are pretty nasty. OEM profile is no fun for anyone and they are very flimsy.

While I do like Cherry keys/profile more, I don't know how you can say OEM profile is no fun for anyone.

Sure you might not prefer them but in the end they aren't as bad as you say they are.

[longweight]

They look nasty, accentuate cap wobble and feel cheap.

[TotalChaos]

OEM profile is also called 12mm profile because the keys are around 11.8mm tall.

I love 12mm profile!  It is the most ergonomical profile because it fits O-Rings or crashpads under the keycap without trashing your travel distance.

If you put an O-Ring on a cherry keycap you just lost a ton of your travel, which is silly, as you need more travel not less.

Obviously PBT is a higher quality plastic than ABS.  I donno how it does with lasering though.

I would also like to try POM keycaps but I donno how they do with lasering either.

[longweight]

Why do you need more travel?

[tsangan]

They look nasty, accentuate cap wobble and feel cheap.

Someone has a one sided taste of things
keyboard wobbles?
please define this cheap feeling you don't get with Cherry keys

[longweight]

They look nasty, accentuate cap wobble and feel cheap.

Someone has a one sided taste of things
keyboard wobbles?
please define this cheap feeling you don't get with Cherry keys

It's called an opinion.

The OEM caps on my Poker wobbled a lot, this was less noticeable with a nice set of RA 2.0 caps.

The OEM caps on my Filco and Poker both felt cheap to touch, original Cherry and SP caps have a much nicer texture.

[IvanIvanovich]

OEM is profile type, like on wasd, Filco, CM Storm, Ducky, etc and then there is SP DCS profile and Cherry profile are the three most common.
Ducky Nordic stuff is stocked by some retailers in Finland, Sweden... have Ducky brand ISO pbt set in black or white. For color things there is SP and also qwerkeys though they are more expensive the quality is also better.
Buy whole keyboard dosen't have to be expensive. I buy Cherry G80 boards pretty often for less than WASD keycap sets. Also if only interest in keycap you can often get Cherry G81 for even less.

[TotalChaos]

The OEM caps on my Poker wobbled a lot, this was less noticeable with a nice set of RA 2.0 caps.

That might be because of OEM profile or it might not.  It might just have been bad keycaps.

The OEM caps on my Filco and Poker both felt cheap to touch, original Cherry and SP caps have a much nicer texture.

Texture has absolutely nothing to do with the OEM profile.  And it has nothing to do with WASD keycaps.   You can make any profile of keycap have any texture you want.

[longweight]

The OEM caps on my Poker wobbled a lot, this was less noticeable with a nice set of RA 2.0 caps.

That might be because of OEM profile or it might not.  It might just have been bad keycaps.

The OEM caps on my Filco and Poker both felt cheap to touch, original Cherry and SP caps have a much nicer texture.

Texture has absolutely nothing to do with the OEM profile.  And it has nothing to do with WASD keycaps.   You can make any profile of keycap have any texture you want.

Of course the texture has nothing to do with the profile but it is related to the price point, OEM caps are the standard cheap caps that you get on most boards and all of the ones that I have used feel cheap.[/quote]

[longweight]

OEM profile is also called 12mm profile because the keys are around 11.8mm tall.

I love 12mm profile!  It is the most ergonomical profile because it fits O-Rings or crashpads under the keycap without trashing your travel distance.

If you put an O-Ring on a cherry keycap you just lost a ton of your travel, which is silly, as you need more travel not less.

O-rings do not make the board more ergonomic, why do you think that you need more key travel?

[rowdy]

personally im not a big fan of there caps at all, I have two sets a yellow and a grey and don't really like either...

I am planning to buy some sets of my own... possibly just plain old black keys with white legends.

Why do u not like yours?

I thought the Yellows came out looking good?

WASD yellow is rather washed out, compared to a few other yellows that seem to have been available at some stage.

[Zehkul]

Of course the texture has nothing to do with the profile but it is related to the price point, OEM caps are the standard cheap caps that you get on most boards and all of the ones that I have used feel cheap.

They are all ABS, except for KBC PBT, which is, obviously, PBT, and which you obviously haven’t tried, because those are way better than your standard Cherry caps.

I do like the standard filco caps though, except for their wear characteristics of course. I guess I’d like WASD keys, too.

[wasdkeyboards]

they look ok, the thing I dont like about them is that they are too thin just didn't feel 'stable' if that makes sense... i probally needed spacers or something for them, but they where uneven (some caps sat higher than others for no real reason) and just didn't feel all that good.

Our keycaps are the same thickness as pretty much all the other keyboards being produced in Asia right now. I know they are considered thin by some people, but ours is not any thinner than the other "OEM" keys.

Also, the keys do not vary in height. Of all the keyboards and keycap sets we've produced, I have never ran into a single key that was deformed where the height is not the same. What is more likely the issue is that the keycap was not fully seated onto the stem. This is pretty common as most people are usually overly cautious installing new keys. Just give it a firm push and the key should go in all the way.

If you do have a freak set of keys for whatever reason, please contact us and we'll take care of it.


As for colors, well... we can only do so much. When colors are mixed between different manufacturers, you will almost certainly always have differences in color. Keep in mind that sample kits can always be returned for a refund. So please do not hesitate to pick one up to compare for yourself

[rowdy]

Hi wasdkeyboards

If the response about colours was aimed at me (with my obsession with yellow keycaps) I completely understand that you cannot stock every single shade of yellow, and that you selected one particular shade to sell.  This particular yellow appeals to me less than some of the others I have seen, but this is just my personal preference.  I really like most of your other colours.

I have a sample kit - but no way returning it!  It is a great idea.  I am using some of the O-rings, switch the keycaps around for a small rainbow on some of my boards, and keeping the switches in case of emergency

[wasdkeyboards]

Not aimed at anyone. I know color preference is very subjective, but just pointing out that when we order keys, we basically get the choose from an entire color palette. We just pick what we feel would be a nice looking color and works well with laser etching. A lot of deep (dark) colors don't laser etch well. Other companies would go through a similar process when ordering their keys. The likelihood of picking the same exact shade is pretty hard.

[rowdy]

That would be it - the yellow I am seeking is a sort od deep yellow.  Thank you for the response