KBT ONI keycap lettering... fading? WTF!?

[Deceit]

Hey everyone. I recently purchased a KBT ONI from mechanicalkeyboards.com

When I got it, I noticed some small "fading" on some of the keycaps lettering. I did some research and I thought these were suppose to be laser engraved?

For example, my left control and alt key fades from left-to-right. The left half the lettering is clear and looks new, the right half looks old and worn out.

My A, S, D, F , K, L, O, X, C, V, N, and M keys all have some sort of fading - most are very slight/minimal, but a few are fading very badly. This was something that came out-of-the-box (the keys with fading), but it seems that the amount of fade on these particular keys are getting worse as well.

I sent an email to them explaining this problem and asking if it was normal, no reply yet. I'm not very happy about this as you can see, $120 on keyboard, I expected something better with these PBT keycaps.

Thanks and please let me know if anyone else has experienced this issue before.

Maybe my research is wrong, and the keys are NOT laser-engraved? Thanks.

[Glod]

they sure look pad printed to me, they look very similar to the pad printed KBT RACE pbt caps that i had that faded badly after a week of use.

[laffindude]

Laser foaming legend is porous, and hand gunk gets stuck in it. They usually get permanently stained if you don't keep your hands clean.

[mashby]

Laffindude is spot on.

I've found the same issue with my ABS key caps that are heavily used. Thankfully there are tons of replacement key caps out there. Granted it's an additional expense, but part of the customizing process I'm afraid.

There are a lot of nice sets out there right now, such as Klaxon, or Coffee.

Hope that helps!

[dante]

I know it seems 'uncool' but my HP rubberdomes use stickers for the legends and look almost as new as the day I got them.  I'm not sure why they don't offer this for mechanical keyboard caps.

[Rule16]

I know it seems 'uncool' but my HP rubberdomes use stickers for the legends and look almost as new as the day I got them.  I'm not sure why they don't offer this for mechanical keyboard caps.

Pad printing is essentially stickers, they're just really thin

[Deceit]

So... are these pad printed or lasered?

[ideus]

Public computers here at the University campus have stickers with legends and all of them seem with full texture and no fading at all, why the mechanical keyboards cannot be like that, these are 20 or 30 dollars boards.

[BlueBär]

I had a Logitech K120 before that had pad printed keycaps and two letters were halfway gone after a month of not even heavy use. It really depends on the manufacturer I guess.

[rootwyrm]

They're Vortex. Which means no matter what they are otherwise, above all else, they are cheap garbage.
Vortex has proven this time and time and time and time again. Pures with peeling paint, faded out of the box ONE and ONIs, you get the point. They have no damn business demanding the prices they do, since no matter what model, you'll be dropping another $100 on keycaps.

[pichu23]

Don't worry, the ones on my Poker II are fading as well. It's kinda sad that the pbt's are nice just the printing. I swapped them out anyways.
IF there's away to remove the printing from the keycaps it would be great. Free blank PBTs

[tp4tissue]

I told you this would happen.. blank keys FTW

[rootwyrm]

The ONI is supposedly, and I do say supposedly dye sub PBT keycaps.
See for yourself.

So once again, sounds like Vortex lied and they're neither dye-sub nor PBT. So why do people keep buying Vortex? This is not the first time they've shipped garbage.

[tp4tissue]

The ONI is supposedly, and I do say supposedly dye sub PBT keycaps.
See for yourself.

So once again, sounds like Vortex lied and they're neither dye-sub nor PBT. So why do people keep buying Vortex? This is not the first time they've shipped garbage.

that clearly says laser etched..

and since it's white lettering on black, that means white infills

You need more experience

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Not all lasering is infill. You can engrave and infill, or etch. Laser etching with dark plastic causes the plastic to turn dark "gold" (Topre), beige (older WASD) or white (Matias, current WASD). WASD and Matias modern etching is pure white, unlike the cream-coloured lumpy spooge that Cherry use with their engraved keycaps.

From what I understand, pad printed keycaps are not stickered: the decal look comes from a clear coating applied around the lettering to prevent wear. To avoid wasted coating, it only covers the area around the letters, giving keys the decal look. In many cases, the "ink" is not coated at all: it's been suggested that it's UV-coated ink; such ink is hard-wearing enough by itself as to not need a protective coating. Pad printing is fairly robust, but some people can wear through the ink in a few months! In other cases, it lasts intact for decades. Double-shot molding of course gives you a 100% guarantee of the legend remaining, and you don't get the grime build-up that you get with laser etching and laser engraving.

I've never found an authoritative source of information on pad printing for keyboards that explains the exact procedures used.

[laffindude]

I prefer to call it laser foaming, since that is roughly how they translate from Chinese. Laser etched IMO refers to the laser blackened legends. Modern ABS keycaps formulated for laser foaming do produce whiter "foam" legends.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

I'm going by what WASD and Matias call it.

[blizzardcraft]

they sure look pad printed to me, they look very similar to the pad printed KBT RACE pbt caps that i had that faded badly after a week of use.

hi, i have the same problem too ! just not even one week into use >< my " WASDERFC" letters show sign of greyish shades on the letters =X

is it dirt or its fading? =(

[dante]

Can anyone confirm if the ONI uses same spacebar spacing as the Leopold FC200R?  If not will any of the Vortex dyesub sets have spacing for the ONI?

[laffindude]

No. Yes.