Keycap shine - nice or not?

[Oobly]

Hi all,

When replacing my Cherry Legend Replica set with Penumbra on my 60% board I noticed just how smooth the "E" keycap has become after just a few months.



I don't think it feels bad, just different and I like the look of a board that's well-used. I was surprised how quickly it wore smooth, but not upset about it by any means. This is not a set I will ever sell and I'm fine with the smoothness for my own use.

Do smooth ABS keycaps bother you and give you a sad? Which keycaps have you experienced this with and which seem least susceptible?

-Ooblius maximus.

[SpAmRaY]

For me the spacebar is by far the worst offender. It doesn't really bother me much. I think on cherry doubleshots shine gives a different feel, some like it some don't.

[munch]

much sad, such greasefeel. I like PBT way more due to this reason mostly.

[CPTBadAss]

I like shine but prefer it if I'm the one who is adding the shine to the caps. Otherwise, I get a little paranoid and wash the caps like 4 times.

[cookie]

I hate shiny caps... Shiny caps feels greasy to me, and I don't like it.
PBT all the way! My Pro1 has developed much shine but I think its okay for a 10 year old keyboard. Time to get some new caps I think.

I'd probably pay tripple the money if they would come up with "shine resistant" material.

[inanis]

I wouldn't want shine on every set I own, but I do really enjoy the look of a well worn in set of caps. The smoothness of a shiny keycap can feel pretty nice. I think of it kind of like a kids favorite stuffed animal, you might say it looks grungy, but I think it looks well loved.

[jdcarpe]

I don't mind at all. This is my keyboard at work, a Rosewill RK-9000 with SP WoB keycaps:

[cookie]

^ I'd hate to type on this, no offence! 


My Pro1 I have at work, it received a ton of love and still do. But thw shine is bothering me :/
Time for a brand new set of caps.

[hwood34]

I don't mind a little, but it gets to a point where the functionality gets affected. Hate that slippery feeling

[noisyturtle]

Yeah, spacebar and ASD are the worst.

[evolveS]

My shiny BoW Cherry caps don't bother me. In fact I wish I could get my homing keys on other boards to feel similar.

[frvrngn]

They dont bother me at all.  Typing on some shiny BoW Cherry caps right now!  Kind of goes along with the look of the board (G80-1800)

[Frenir]

I much prefer PBT because of this, my filcos ABS caps just started to get shiny and it really ruins the clean aesthetic for me.

[Puddsy]

I quite like keycap shine.

I wish I could take pics of my QFR's set, but it's at school.

[Touch_It]

hate the look, but don't mind the feel overall.  After a certain point though I'm sure that either the feel or the look would bother me too much.

[CPTBadAss]

Just wanted to point out that PBT caps will wear. I've got a set of airport keyboard caps from a Model M on my SSK. The reason I use them is that their so worn, they're slightly shiny and smooth now. I much prefer the feeling of smooth caps so I've kept using them.

[nubbinator]

I love the feeling of shiny Cherry caps.  Shiny SP caps, not so much.

[jacobolus]

Just wanted to point out that PBT caps will wear. I've got a set of airport keyboard caps from a Model M on my SSK. The reason I use them is that their so worn, they're slightly shiny and smooth now. I much prefer the feeling of smooth caps so I've kept using them.

Sure, daily heavy use for 25 years will wear down PBT. That’s gonna be hard for geekhackers to pull off though, since from what I can tell they switch keyboards every few days.

[Puddsy]

Just wanted to point out that PBT caps will wear. I've got a set of airport keyboard caps from a Model M on my SSK. The reason I use them is that their so worn, they're slightly shiny and smooth now. I much prefer the feeling of smooth caps so I've kept using them.

Sure, daily heavy use for 25 years will wear down PBT. That’s gonna be hard for geekhackers to pull off though, since from what I can tell they switch keyboards every few days.

Been using my KUL almost non-stop since I got it, used one of my Filcos for 8 months before that, QFR for a year before that

might switch back to the Filco, the KUL is starting to get boring

[DasHHKBProM]

I think it adds character to your keyboard as long as you are the one who did it "nice". However, when you're reassigned to work at a temp workstation and the keyboard/mouse has been polished by other users, well to me that's disgusting / gross "or not".

[pbtforever]

SHould have bought PBT.

[user 18]

I'm like a lot of people here -- a shiny or worn cap feels well-used, and well-loved. Kind of gross if it's a used shiny set, but still tolerable.

I prefer the smooth feeling of a shiny cap to the slightly grippy feel of a new cap or a gently used PBT cap.

[mozaiq]

hate the look, but don't mind the feel overall.  After a certain point though I'm sure that either the feel or the look would bother me too much.

This sums it up for me as well. Although I might get used to it if all caps showed roughly the same shininess. Really dislike the two thumb marks space bars tend to have.

[keymaster]

I don't mind at all. This is my keyboard at work, a Rosewill RK-9000 with SP WoB keycaps:

Show Image

Pics like this remind me just how greasy most of our ABS keycaps will look in a few years from now. In 10 years or so, the keyboards we built/bought recently will be considered antique/vintage by some. I'd like my sets to still look nice -- even then.

tl;dr = GMK is nice, but PBT today makes the shine go away

[ideus]

I have been using PBT for a while and I like its always dry-no-shine appearance. However, I also like the feeling of original cherry keycaps that are worn off and shiny. What I really can't use is a space bar with shine on its middle, thus, I only using PBT space-bars.

[katushkin]

Ooooo, Cherry Replica set...

HEY SECRET SANTA. THIS IS WHAT I WANT

[Muzi]

I like PBT way more due to this reason mostly.

[rowdy]

I have too many keycap sets and keep switching them around, so there is no bad shining yet.

A couple of space bars have a little bit of shine where my thumb hits - it doesn't bother me.

With the space bar, you can put some transparent tape across it to stop shining.  This is especially true for HHKB where all keys are PBT except the space.

[cookie]

what a shame they don't make the spacebar in PBT :/

[davkol]

Just wanted to point out that PBT caps will wear. I've got a set of airport keyboard caps from a Model M on my SSK. The reason I use them is that their so worn, they're slightly shiny and smooth now. I much prefer the feeling of smooth caps so I've kept using them.

Sure, daily heavy use for 25 years will wear down PBT. That’s gonna be hard for geekhackers to pull off though, since from what I can tell they switch keyboards every few days.

Daily heavy use for 5 years is enough to wear down PBT.

source: plenty of "refurbished" Cherry keyboards from German drugstores

[Heliosphere]

I don't mind at all. This is my keyboard at work, a Rosewill RK-9000 with SP WoB keycaps:

Show Image

It's like a mirror finish!

[Oobly]

Thank you all for your replies

cookie, your pic is very interesting. That spacebar has a dent where your thumb has worn it down I love to see well-used boards like this.

Keycap shine gets a bad rep on this site and since it doesn't bother me too much I was wondering how others really felt, thank you for your replies, I believe it has shown that while a lot of people hate ABS shine, for some it's quite tolerable. I get the feeling that a person with a board that has shiny PBT would actually feel slightly proud of it

My preferences in terms of material is still POM > PBT > ABS, but I still love my good ABS sets, even when shiny and "greasy"

I have a feeling my new SA profile sets with "semi-gloss" tops will have "gloss" tops after very little use.

[dashing_girlboy]

I dont quite mind the shine since i dont look at my keyboard when im using them. But damn, the spacebar started shining within 2 months of usage. :x

[divito]

This thread kind of reminded me of something. Has anyone at GH ever tried like, anti-skid tape on their shined keycaps? I have to wonder what that would be like.

[z_weenie]

I prefer the hard, textured feel of PBT, but that's because my fingers will slip around on shiny ABS. I know this as a fact since the heavily used keyboards at my school are such a pain to type on, and not because they're rubber dome (that's a separate problem entirely.)

[Oobly]

I have to say, I find the speed at which ABS wears to be a little disturbing. It really doesn't last very long. Small bumps which make up the texture on keycaps can wear smooth within a couple of months of use, which is okay if you have doubleshots and don't mind the feeling, but a little shortsighted from a design point of view for components which will see a LOT of use. It means a set of keycaps can go from "new" to "well-used" in a relatively short time.

This isn't to say it doesn't happen to PBT or POM, just take a look at some old IBM Model M boards or some vintage Cherry boards with their shiny caps, but it seems to take a significantly longer time to wear to the same extent.

I also happen to like the look of a worn-in board, but it does happen a little faster than I expected with ABS.

[Zombii]

I don't mind capshine that much because I despise when caps feel slippery  (the backlit POM caps on my stock Pure Pro were a big offender), and keys with shine on them seem to 'grab' onto the pads of my fingers more and prevent them from slipping around.

[usno_oj]

much sad, such greasefeel. I like PBT way more due to this reason mostly.

This is exactly how I feel! I don't think I can ever use ABS again after switching over to PBT.

[Grim Fandango]

In terms of how it feels, I do not mind it at all.

About the way it looks, I only dislike it because it is always uneven. And it looks worse on black keycaps than any other color.

Overall, it is not nearly as big of a deal to me as it is to some people around here.

[berserkfan]

I don't mind at all. This is my keyboard at work, a Rosewill RK-9000 with SP WoB keycaps:

Show Image

I just can't believe it, I just can't. JDcarpe is the guy with like 30 Filcos and 100 customs on top of every model possible in the keyboard world, and he uses a low end Rosewill with standard SP keycaps as his daily driver?

Sounds as though he works in an open layout office or some place where it is wise not to have something expensive and easily stolen on the desk.