Realforce Grey with Black Keys Readability Solutions

[SonicRevolution]

So I love this board.  I reviewed it a month or two ago.  I'm facing a problem now of readability.  More and more I'm typing at night time, and while I don't need to see the alphabet keys to type, I DO need to see the number keys.  (enter passwords on websites with numbers is incredibly annoying without seeing the keys since you don't see the numbers on the screen)  I can crank out the numbers on the NUM pad without looking yeah, but I wonder if there's other ways that geekhackers have found.

Possible Solutions.

1) get a sticker and place it "ninja style just below the number keys" - but it's kinda ugly. and I don't like stickers on my mechs! NO!
2) get custom topre caps for the number keys that doesn't suck. (dont' know of any that's not a novelty? i guess)
3) go crazy and see of someone's ever done a LED mod to a Topre board.
4) get better lighting. (NOOOO! - me likes the dark!)

Any thoughts?

[tuxsavvy]

There might even be yet another solution available, wait for Cooler Master to come out with those Cherry MX compatible Topre slider (a.k.a. Novatouch) and see if one can harvest the sliders for use on your Realforce keyboard. Once using Cherry MX compatible Topre slider I guess you have more choices to look at.

In terms of everything else, I think choice 2 would be the alternative option. With Topre keycaps comes limited options made available therefore nothing could be done without making a sacrifice somewhere along the lines.

[neunelfer]

Just practice, you'll get used to the numbers. Tons of people type on completely blank keyboards.

[intelli78]

Get a white/gray 87u, swap the caps, and sell the unwanted board. Black 87u with white keycaps is very arousing

[Polymer]

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So I love this board.  I reviewed it a month or two ago.  I'm facing a problem now of readability.  More and more I'm typing at night time, and while I don't need to see the alphabet keys to type, I DO need to see the number keys.  (enter passwords on websites with numbers is incredibly annoying without seeing the keys since you don't see the numbers on the screen)  I can crank out the numbers on the NUM pad without looking yeah, but I wonder if there's other ways that geekhackers have found.

Possible Solutions.

1) get a sticker and place it "ninja style just below the number keys" - but it's kinda ugly. and I don't like stickers on my mechs! NO!
2) get custom topre caps for the number keys that doesn't suck. (dont' know of any that's not a novelty? i guess)
3) go crazy and see of someone's ever done a LED mod to a Topre board.
4) get better lighting. (NOOOO! - me likes the dark!)

Any thoughts?

Either be able to touch type numbers or use a few plain keycaps as markers...maybe every other one or every 3rd one..something that will give your eye a mark so you know where each number is...

So eg.  1 2 redkey 4 5 redkey 7 8 redkey

Your eye will be able to figure out where the appropriate number is...

[Hull]

I wonder if you can spray legends with luminescent paint? That would require some real nifty stencil work but doable I guess.
Best would be semi-trans luminous colored keycaps with custom made white LED lighting and pitch dark legends. That way the entire keycap is somewhat glowing forcing the black legend into contrast.

More

[reziak]

Get a white/gray 87u, swap the caps, and sell the unwanted board. Black 87u with white keycaps is very arousing

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I love this look!

[Elrick]

Get a white/gray 87u, swap the caps, and sell the unwanted board. Black 87u with white keycaps is very arousing

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I love this look!

It's the only possible way to make a dark keyboard more palatable, especially at night  :thumb: .  Couldn't type anything with those damn dark keys at night.

[longweight]

If you use Chrome, right click on the password box, inspect element, change "password" to "text" and you will be able to see the characters that you are entering.

Bit long winded but it will help you on the road to not needing legends.

[berserkfan]

one simple solution: change your password to something that is easily typed correctly.

eg fVr4nJi( has symbols, upper and lower case, numbers, total of 8 characters, and is very easy to locate from the home row.

1z2X#c4v is also very easy to type correctly without looking.

of course, there is the time honored password 12345678.... but if you make it three rows down at 1xcvBnm< it's much harder to guess and still incredibly robust.

[spiceBar]

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So I love this board.  I reviewed it a month or two ago.  I'm facing a problem now of readability.  More and more I'm typing at night time, and while I don't need to see the alphabet keys to type, I DO need to see the number keys.  (enter passwords on websites with numbers is incredibly annoying without seeing the keys since you don't see the numbers on the screen)  I can crank out the numbers on the NUM pad without looking yeah, but I wonder if there's other ways that geekhackers have found.

Possible Solutions.

1) get a sticker and place it "ninja style just below the number keys" - but it's kinda ugly. and I don't like stickers on my mechs! NO!
2) get custom topre caps for the number keys that doesn't suck. (dont' know of any that's not a novelty? i guess)
3) go crazy and see of someone's ever done a LED mod to a Topre board.
4) get better lighting. (NOOOO! - me likes the dark!)

Any thoughts?

I have the TKL version of this keyboard and had to put stickers on it to make it useable.

I purchased stickers from this site:
  http://www.clavier-azerty.com/stickersqwerty_us_uk.html

They have stickers for every language.

[Macsmasher]

The feel of a fine PBT keycap is like the feel of Shania Twain's nipples. Do you really want to put a sticker (i.e. key condom) on those awesome keys? I vote for getting better at typing without looking.

[spiceBar]

The feel of a fine PBT keycap is like the feel of Shania Twain's nipples. Do you really want to put a sticker (i.e. key condom) on those awesome keys? I vote for getting better at typing without looking.

I vote for writing the legends using cream or something like that, so by your analogy he will want to lick them.

Anyway, the OP does not care what we "vote" for. He wants a solution I think.

[quickcrx702]

Learn to touch type symbols.  It should take you a day at the most, then you can rock a totally blank keyboard if you wanted.  If that's not an easy option, get a white piece of paper to make a cheat sheet, and put it under your keyboard so that you can pull it out and use as a reference until you learn.

[tbc]

^

lets please not propagate the idea that it will take everybody only a day to learn the symbols.  that's a ridiculous statement to be making.

[quickcrx702]

^
How is that a ridiculous statement?  It took me maybe an hour or two after getting a blank TKL board.  Then again I enter passwords all day in my line of work, so maybe I subconsciously knew them already. It might be different for others, but how long could it take?  It's only ten keys, unless you include `-=, but that's only three more.  I'm sure you could do a typing tutorial online and have it knocked out ASAP.  I also gave a suggestion:

If that's not an easy option, get a white piece of paper to make a cheat sheet, and put it under your keyboard so that you can pull it out and use as a reference until you learn.

[spiceBar]

^
How is that a ridiculous statement?  It took me maybe an hour or two after getting a blank TKL board.  Then again I enter passwords all day in my line of work, so maybe I subconsciously knew them already. It might be different for others, but how long could it take?  It's only ten keys, unless you include `-=, but that's only three more.  I'm sure you could do a typing tutorial online and have it knocked out ASAP.  I also gave a suggestion:

If that's not an easy option, get a white piece of paper to make a cheat sheet, and put it under your keyboard so that you can pull it out and use as a reference until you learn.

tbc is right. It takes a lot of time and some people may just not be able to it.

Besides, the OP said it had problems touch-typing at least the number row.

So everyone suggesting that the OP should learn to touch-type is not really helping.

The idea of a cheat sheet may be an acceptable compromise for the OP, especially if it's only for the number row and is done in a durable material.

[quickcrx702]

The cheat sheet works.  I used it when I learned DVORAK on the blank keyboard mentioned above.  Basically I just drew out a keyboard diagram.  Having to pull it out every time makes you try not to use it, but it's there just in case.  I've since gone back to QWERTY because I didn't really see an improvement after a while, and it becomes a PITA when you have to use other computers besides your own on a regular basis.

[aref]

I agree with quickcrx702: learn to type without having to rely on looking at the keyboard. Give yourself a couple days of practice, numbers too. I have the same all-black, it's close to an Otaku KB, keyboard and a white-and-gray 87U. I like both of them and appreciate Topre's 55-gram switches. If you have to, make a cheat sheet, it's okay; the idea is to learn. Also, I think the all-black 87U looks great with as is.

[Macsmasher]

For a cheat sheet, just download a jpg of your layout to your desktop.

[SonicRevolution]

I considered stickers but I'm definitely  not fond of the feel.  I guess my option is to just practice a bit more learning to type without looking and perhaps consider getting the white caps.

Thanks guys!

[SonicRevolution]

Get a white/gray 87u, swap the caps, and sell the unwanted board. Black 87u with white keycaps is very arousing

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I agree this does look amazing! 

[1pq]

Get a white/gray 87u, swap the caps, and sell the unwanted board. Black 87u with white keycaps is very arousing

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lawl dat word choice

[intelli78]

Get a white/gray 87u, swap the caps, and sell the unwanted board. Black 87u with white keycaps is very arousing

Show Image

lawl dat word choice