[IC] Clean - PBT/DCS Keyset

[DWawa]

SIXTY



FULL-SIZED



This PBT/DCS keyset is devoted to simplicity, readability, and comfort. That's it.

• High contrast black and white
• Selectively colored modifiers
• Mono legends
• F-less Fn keys
• Numbers differentiated slightly from letters
• Geometric typeface
• PBT/DCS for happy fingers
• Less concretely, lightness plus seriousness

The nonlegended (AKA blank, though color-differentiated) modifiers have the side effect of being less expensive, more available, and more swappable. Tsanganites, for instance, can get singles without worrying that their base kit will be stranded without the proper modifiers.

I'd really appreciate your ideas on whether this is a worthy set or not.

[WinterIsle]

I like that num lock symbol, reminds me about sudoku or other similar maths game somehow.
Not sure what is the PBT/DSC keyset, probably TS u mean the DCS profile with PBT material?

[DWawa]

Yes, PBT material, keys in DSC profile. With the legends I aimed--with whatever success--to depict function rather than an object such as a house or a lock. For number lock, I think this is a better choice than a squished-down calculator (though still not necessarily the best choice). What icons there are, on a set that avoids them on the main modifiers, are as simple and strong as I could make them. Screen print had a P in various settings, including the thin square frame; in the end I thought the frame by itself best represented the screen in the "screen print" and jettisoned the P. There will be legended backtick and backslash keys if this goes to production, incidentally.

[DWawa]

DCS! DCS! OP modified. Thanks to WinterIsle.

[frosty]

May buy if you have white versions for coloured keys.

[DWawa]

Part of the idea of the set is that the blank modifiers should be inexpensive to produce in color variants. Depending on demand and production considerations, it might make sense to fold them into the base set, but they definitely should be available in any case.

[Elocutive]

Like the idea, but the inser, delete, home, end, pgdn, pgup, look really strange and not very clean. Other than that, I really like it.

[DWawa]

Apart from the home/end pips, what might you change about this cluster?

[BunnyLake]

may be worth considering as the mods are blank, adding ones in the correct profile for the jd40, as the set would look consistent across various platforms

[mogo]

Apart from the home/end pips, what might you change about this cluster?

The Home and End keys might be better represented with an arrow to bar symbol, i.e. |< and >|

⌦ makes more sense as a delete (erase to the right) and if you decide to offer legend modifiers, the ⌫ (erase to the left) symbol would compliment it well on backspace.

The scroll lock is a bit strange. Perhaps just offer a padlock icon for that key? It doesn't need to visually represent scroll, capslock is its own size and color, numlock has a unique legend, vis a vis it represents scroll lock. The print screen is too vague in my opinion. Why not a simple camera icon?   

In all, I'm loving the set. Consider this my formal vote of interest

[DWawa]

After people have had a chance to consider the set and offer their ideas, we can see where they want to go with it, and I may be well be in the minority on various questions here. I like solid, unified symbols for home and end, Mogo, though I'm not married to the current choice; I am not crazy about |< and >|, but the users will decide that. (|< and >| are also common and I would prefer something different).

Delete is also commonly used nondirectionally, and I do like the big fat X, especially if there is no pitchfork rabble demanding legends on the big mods.

On scroll lock, I plead 100% guilty. I went round and round trying to figure out the right legend, and SCROCK is almost a placeholder. As text, it does not fit in with the rest of the legends, though the letters are arranged gridwise rather than as a normal word or abbreviation. This is the key I think is most likely to change.

[DWawa]

The current Print Screen may be too radical--"it's just a square!"--but it is visually strong and clean, and it does nicely stand for the monitor image. Like the other icons, it may or may not have enough appeal to survive.