Which of these keycap color sets do you like best?

[Lunatique]

I've been trying to decide on what custom colors to go with for my WASD V2 custom keycap  set, and it's so damn hard to settle on one. I've gone through at least a hundred  variations over the last month, and I've got it narrowed down to three candidates, and I'm  curious as to what other people would pick among the three.

To put the choices in context--since I already have a bunch of other keyboards with  "normal" or "classy" or "boring" colors (black, beige/gray, white/gray), I wanted something  a bit more colorful, but with a sense of harmony instead of lots of clashing primary colors  (which tends to look a bit disjointed/noisy).

I also wanted to have the different modifier and navigation keys visually differentiated,  while the least used keys are in black as to not distract. The GH keys are highlighted as  an alternative method to highlighting F and J, because is makes more sense that when I  reach down, if I can see the highlighted G and H, it means I'm in the right position, but  if it's F and J, they'd be covered up when the hands are in position and I prefer seeing  the highlighted G and H even when my hands are down--it "feels" more secure for some  reason.

The CapsLock is colored the same as the Control keys because I plan to change it Control,  but I'm also keeping the normal Left Control in its original position too because in some  software, the hotkeys were designed with that Control position in mind, and I don't really  need the CapsLock, so I prefer to have two Left Controls instead.

On top of the colors for the keycaps, I also plan to do what I've done on my other  keyboards, which is to cut little color strips and tape to the front of the keycaps I want  to further highlight, such as often used F-keys I've bound to Photoshop actions, or 4/$ and  7/&, for identifying hand positions when I need to type numbers on the numbers row. I  prefer not to highlight any more keys by differentiating the keycaps colors because doing  too much of that will destroy the overall color harmony and symmetry and the overall sense  of design becomes a lot less coherent.

Anyway, vote and let's see which one wins. (You can also choose D, which is none of them.)

[intelli78]

Respectfully-- none. You talk about symmetry and harmony but I don't see it. These boards look very busy and are just one notch below unicorn. I think the purple/pink color scheme is interesting and deserves further exploration, but in my opinion you need to dial it down and make far more conservative decisions w/r/t placement of colors.

[Lunatique]

I did have more conservative/toned down designs, including just grays and white, but since my other keyboards are already like that, I went for a more colorful aporoach.

Here are a couple of more tone-down versions (let's call them E and F, with the white alphas version as E, and lavender alphas version as F):

[Oobly]

They're all way too busy for me. I prefer a more uniform scheme with colours that complement each other better. The only scheme I like with more than 2 or 3 colours in is Penumbra. It uses the Solarised palette.

[SpAmRaY]

I think you will find some inspiration here https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=36709.0

[hwood34]

Don't really see the "harmony" you're looking for, just looks like some crazy colors thrown together haphazardly, very unicorn vomity

[Lunatique]

I don't know if you guys have ever studied color-theory, but having more than a couple of colors doesn't automatically make the color palette "unicorn vomit." There are different ways to harmonize a color palette, including using complementary colors, tertiary colors, same family colors, neighboring family colors, etc, and when using a contrasting color, the ratio of the strong contrast color to the dominant colors is also a factor (for example, having the ESC key be a contrast color, but it's isolated as just a dab among the dominant colors). Also, how many colors are used and how close they are placed together (and how much contrast they have with each other) also matters. It's not nearly as simple as most people think.

I did try really subdued color palette, but like I said, all my other keyboards are already like that, and I wanted something more colorful. A gray color palette with the Esc and Delete in accent colors is pretty subdued, but a bit boring (not by itself, but when considering all my other keyboards are all already very normal/basic looking):


Anyway, I'm just curious what others might think about the choices I have, and it's fine if I'm the only one who digs these designs. After all, I'm the one who's going to be using the keyboard so I'm the one who has to live with it.

I'm very curious as to what you guys would come up with though, if you were to use the WASD custom keyboard designer tool:
http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/index.php/products/mechanical-keyboard/wasd-v2-87-key-custom-mechanical-keyboard.html

How would you guys design a color palette that isn't the same standard look as most stock keyboards, feels a bit more colorful and fun, but isn't "unicorn vomit"?

[ideus]

Try to limit the combination of colors to three maximum.

[SpAmRaY]

I get it now I'm not smart enough to understand.

[ianxblog]

I too agree that's kinda messy, however I would not describe it as unicorn vomit, and I don't see a reason to be rude about such a subjective matter. However I also don't see the point in asking for opinions on a keycap setup if you clearly have a waay different taste.

[Lunatique]

I too agree that's kinda messy, however I would not describe it as unicorn vomit, and I don't see a reason to be rude about such a subjective matter. However I also don't see the point in asking for opinions on a keycap setup if you clearly have a waay different taste.

I didn't think I had such a different taste though, especially when there are some legitimately "unicorn vomit" keyboards that a portion of this community seems to like. My designs are a lot more tame compared to those with clashing primary colors right next to each other, and every color in the rainbow represented in random order.

[hwood34]

I too agree that's kinda messy, however I would not describe it as unicorn vomit, and I don't see a reason to be rude about such a subjective matter. However I also don't see the point in asking for opinions on a keycap setup if you clearly have a waay different taste.

I didn't think I had such a different taste though, especially when there are some legitimately "unicorn vomit" keyboards that a portion of this community seems to like. My designs are a lot more tame compared to those with clashing primary colors right next to each other, and every color in the rainbow represented in random order.

Examples? It's just the fact that you have so many different colors scattered all around the board. Just because you have two very different colors doesn't make it unicorn vomit. The term just means a ton of different colors all around the keyboard, essentially what you have here.

[intelli78]

You may very well be right about color theory, but I think the problem is that you're mapping colors to functions without adequate regard for the placement of the keys... You are paying a lot of attention to visually differentiating mods and nav keys, control keys, G and H, and so on, which makes sense logically but it just doesn't look right on a keyboard. Also I don't think "blacking out" keys to de-emphasize them looks good. And IRL I think it will look even less good than on the WASD previewer.

How would you guys design a color palette that isn't the same standard look as most stock keyboards, feels a bit more colorful and fun, but isn't "unicorn vomit"?

Here are a couple ideas drawing on your examples, but simplified.

[jacobolus]

I don't know if you guys have ever studied color-theory, but having more than a couple of colors doesn't automatically make the color palette "unicorn vomit."

I’ve studied color extensively for >10 years (as a photographer, information designer / user interface designer, and in general fan of human color vision), including plenty about various theories of color harmony, and I think all of these look like someone’s bad acid trip.

Edit: to clarify, the problem is that there’s no clear vision or reason behind the choices. It’s just a jumbled mess of unrelated (in the first post directly clashing) colors. What are you trying to express with this color scheme? If you want the keycap colors to just be a diagram showing where different blocks of keys with different function types are, I’d recommend a much more conservative and more closely related set of colors. (But then, the better question is maybe why would you want your keyboard to look like a diagram showing various functional key blocks? It’s not like you’ll be able to productively use that in practice while typing.)

Edit #2: I made a diagram like this at some point, but I don’t see the advantage of turning it into a physical artifact:

[hwood34]

You may very well be right about color theory, but I think the problem is that you're mapping colors to functions without adequate regard for the placement of the keys... You are paying a lot of attention to visually differentiating mods and nav keys, control keys, G and H, and so on, which makes sense logically but it just doesn't look right on a keyboard. Also I don't think "blacking out" keys to de-emphasize them looks good. And IRL I think it will look even less good than on the WASD previewer.

How would you guys design a color palette that isn't the same standard look as most stock keyboards, feels a bit more colorful and fun, but isn't "unicorn vomit"?

Here are a couple ideas drawing on your examples, but simplified.

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Show Image

at least these look somewhat less crazy

[intelli78]

at least these look somewhat less crazy

Not to brag, but I have studied color theory in depth for 30 seconds.

[digi]

feels a bit more colorful and fun, but isn't "unicorn vomit"?

racist

[Lunatique]

You may very well be right about color theory, but I think the problem is that you're mapping colors to functions without adequate regard for the placement of the keys... You are paying a lot of attention to visually differentiating mods and nav keys, control keys, G and H, and so on, which makes sense logically but it just doesn't look right on a keyboard. Also I don't think "blacking out" keys to de-emphasize them looks good. And IRL I think it will look even less good than on the WASD previewer.

How would you guys design a color palette that isn't the same standard look as most stock keyboards, feels a bit more colorful and fun, but isn't "unicorn vomit"?

Here are a couple ideas drawing on your examples, but simplified.

Show Image

Show Image

Ahh, so it's the highlighting/separating each of the modifier and navigation keys and the GH keys that is the main culprit for you. For me, that approach is the most logical and efficient, because it makes jumping between all the important landmarks on a keyboard much easier/faster for me. So the way I design the colors has to implement that approach, otherwise, I might as well just get a normal looking keyboard.

The habit started for me a few years ago when I got the idea to use enamel paint on my keyboards to differentiate the keys according to my way of thinking, like in these photos:
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=66431.msg1556388#msg1556388

It's stayed with me ever since. Now, I don't paint the keys like that anymore since it's a PITA to maintain, but I do stick little colored strips to the front of the keys to highlight them, like in this photo:


I color my RGB keyboards with the same approach:


The WASD custom keycap colors are basically an extension of that habit--one that has made my keyboard usage much more efficient than without.

I don't know if you guys have ever studied color-theory, but having more than a couple of colors doesn't automatically make the color palette "unicorn vomit."

I’ve studied color extensively for >10 years (as a photographer, information designer / user interface designer, and in general fan of human color vision), including plenty about various theories of color harmony, and I think all of these look like someone’s bad acid trip.

Edit: to clarify, the problem is that there’s no clear vision or reason behind the choices. It’s just a jumbled mess of unrelated (in the first post directly clashing) colors. What are you trying to express with this color scheme? If you want the keycap colors to just be a diagram showing where different blocks of keys with different function types are, I’d recommend a much more conservative and more closely related set of colors. (But then, the better question is maybe why would you want your keyboard to look like a diagram showing various functional key blocks? It’s not like you’ll be able to productively use that in practice while typing.)

Not when I'm just touch-typing, but when I jump between different content-creation software where lots of hotkeys are used in each (art/design/photography, audio/music, video editing/compositing, etc), being able to visually identify different function blocks or even within each block, speeds things up for me or simply is less taxing for me when my brain's already working too hard at squeezing out every last drop of creativity I have for the project I'm working on.

As for the color palette, I think maybe it's just part of what I gravitate towards when it comes to colored lights and physical controls in general. I mean, take a look at one of the music production studios I designed/built:








Seeing a pattern yet? 

Outside of LED lights and control knobs/keys, I actually have very earthy preference in wardrobe, car, and home furnishing--lots of black, gray, beige, brown, white, etc. Not a single bright/vivid color in sight. Maybe the colorful keycaps are there to balance out my earthy palettes in daily life?

[Paranoid Android]

I choose D.
I think that the different colours for the G and H key, as well as the disturbance of the home row fingers with the different colured ; is not very good.
Not my type...

[Dongulator]

If I had to choose one of them, I would pick B since I like pinks and purples. I would also have to agree that they all are a little to busy.

[Oobly]

Too many colours, or too many groups, it's just cluttered.

I'd say don't mix the two use cases.

If you're using the keyboard primarily for typing, make it nice and subdued / classy. If you're using the keyboard for music production, buy a few DSA keycaps / sets and put the individual colours on each key that you feel match the function best. DSA and SA profile seem to work best with lots of bright colours.

[tbc]

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I don't get why the OP's pattern isn't more like this.

for example. what is the significance of having g and h be different?

[hwood34]

Show Image

I don't get why the OP's pattern isn't more like this.

for example. what is the significance of having g and h be different?

Ahh, so it's the highlighting/separating each of the modifier and navigation keys and the GH keys that is the main culprit for you. For me, that approach is the most logical and efficient, because it makes jumping between all the important landmarks on a keyboard much easier/faster for me.

seems odd to me too

[Data]

Like others, I'm not feeling any of those.  There's no theme, unless the theme is "chaos".

If you find it necessary to "call out" individual keys for your given application, then you need to use subtlety/uniformity in the other keys.  You shouldn't really be looking at your keys anyway.   

Likewise, if you want to find symmetry and use the colors you like to create something pleasing to the eye, then you've got to find a theme and use it across the entire board.

It feels like you're trying to do BOTH and that doesn't work.  You can still try, if you insist, but it's going to look silly.

[Lunatique]

Like others, I'm not feeling any of those.  There's no theme, unless the theme is "chaos".

If you find it necessary to "call out" individual keys for your given application, then you need to use subtlety/uniformity in the other keys.  You shouldn't really be looking at your keys anyway.   

Likewise, if you want to find symmetry and use the colors you like to create something pleasing to the eye, then you've got to find a theme and use it across the entire board.

It feels like you're trying to do BOTH and that doesn't work.  You can still try, if you insist, but it's going to look silly.

Yeah, that's pretty much the crux of the issue. I do have this stubborn need to hit both goals, likely because all my other keyboards are already very normal/classy, and I'm already highlighting specific keys with the little color strips like I showed in the photos. For the WASD custom, I don't really want another keyboard that I'm sticking color strips on again, and as I'm designing the colors to be more vibrant/fun, I couldn't help but want to also highlight the keys I normally highlight with the color strips on my keyboards, so the results end up looking like they do.

But strangely, because I'm so used to looking that approach now, it doesn't even look messy/chaotic to me--in fact, it looks very logical, with precise segmentation of all different clusters and functions. But I can still appreciate designs where that level of segmentation isn't implemented. The ones I've seen around GH that I really liked are ones like these:















I guess if I were to abandon my obsession with segmenting/highlighting clusters and most-used keys, I'll end up with a design similar to one of those, or just buy one of those sets and call it the day (except it seems like it's nearly impossible to buy any of them due to complications with group-buys, no longer being made, and other issues).

[ianxblog]

I think it starts to get messy when you throw more than one color per "key group" or "Key section".

Most notably, the alpha keys. I think it's cool to separate modifiers/alpha/function keys by colors, but don't mix colors between alphas and alphas .
Obviously I don't like the homerow coloring or F and J, but mostly because I touch type, so to each his own.

[Lunatique]

I think it starts to get messy when you throw more than one color per "key group" or "Key section".

Most notably, the alpha keys. I think it's cool to separate modifiers/alpha/function keys by colors, but don't mix colors between alphas and alphas .
Obviously I don't like the homerow coloring or F and J, but mostly because I touch type, so to each his own.

Yeah, that seems to be the case.

BTW,I do touch-type and have been ever since 6th grade (1985). I just like to visually highlight keys--it's a personality thing.

I'm surprised no one realized the highlighted G and H actually stands for "Geek Hack".  *Sigh* 

[berserkfan]

as a guy who often uses colourful keycaps on the same board, I still think all your options look terrible. I particularly dislike the gray-beige colours when used in conjunction with lilac and pink. Think about it this way: how often are they used in conjunction?

[hwood34]

I'm surprised no everyone realized the highlighted G and H actually stands for "Geek Hack".  *Sigh* 

FTFY

[berserkfan]

I'm surprised no everyone realized the highlighted G and H actually stands for "Geek Hack".  *Sigh* 

FTFY

Hey Heywood

I've been meaning to ask you this for a while - but what does your sig mean?

'A real Southern man' implies many things and not everyone will have a flattering view.

[bueller]

Honestly I can't ever recommend WASD caps, they're just horrible. For the price you can get a much nicer set that will last you much longer.

Check out some Ducky or Vortex PBT caps, they offer some colourful options that are very high quality.

[hwood34]

I'm surprised no everyone realized the highlighted G and H actually stands for "Geek Hack".  *Sigh* 

FTFY

Hey Heywood

I've been meaning to ask you this for a while - but what does your sig mean?

'A real Southern man' implies many things and not everyone will have a flattering view.

TBH, I don't even know, just thought it was kinda funny

[Lunatique]

Honestly I can't ever recommend WASD caps, they're just horrible. For the price you can get a much nicer set that will last you much longer.

Check out some Ducky or Vortex PBT caps, they offer some colourful options that are very high quality.

I considered that route too, but in order to put together a fully customized set of various colors I want, I'd end up spending far more money, and I'm not nearly as picky about keycaps as a lot of people here. I can certainly appreciate nice ones (like the PBT dye-sub ones on my RealForce 87U and Leopold FC660C), but I'm kind of pragmatic and utilitarian too in some ways.

[Lunatique]

I ended up getting the Retro set, which has always been my number choice, so it all worked out. *Does a victory dance*

Those weeks spent mulling over the custom color choices weren't spent in vain though, since they increased my understanding of keyboard layouts and what color-coding keys does to my productivity, as well as my threshold for colorful keycaps.  )

Now I'm feeling that itch to also get the other sets I like (Toxic, Nostalgia GH60, and maybe the Bro Set). I can approximate the GH60 set pretty closely with WASD's custom colors though, since they allow you to customize the legend color too, but the quality will be a bit lower than the double-shot of the original.

[Huxley2500]

Ditch the Orange and you will be OK.

[Lunatique]

Just purchased the Hana DSA keycap set from Massdrop, which shares a lot of similarities with one of the old custom sets I designed but never purchased: https://www.massdrop.com/buy/hana-dsa-custom-keycap-set

Here's a composite of what the final result would look like after I put together the different kits I purchased (Base, Flextras, Matcha, Pink-F-Row):

[iLLucionist]

As for the color palette, I think maybe it's just part of what I gravitate towards when it comes to colored lights and physical controls in general. I mean, take a look at one of the music production studios I designed/built:

Show Image

Show Image

Show Image

Show Image

Seeing a pattern yet? 

Duuuudeeee. that looks awesome!

[MOZ]

Just purchased the Hana DSA keycap set from Massdrop, which shares a lot of similarities with one of the old custom sets I designed but never purchased: https://www.massdrop.com/buy/hana-dsa-custom-keycap-set

Here's a composite of what the final result would look like after I put together the different kits I purchased (Base, Flextras, Matcha, Pink-F-Row):

Show Image

The two white keys on the num row are annoying. I'd go with pink for that and use one of the more exotic green keys for the esc.

[zslane]

My issues with the original colorways come down to two things:

1. My brain does not see a keyboard the same way the OP does, with regard to functional blocks. What his brain regards as logical and organized just looks random and incoherent to mine. There's no way I'm going to understand or appreciate what he is going for.

2. I hate green, purple, and orange on a keyboard. And I don't like mixing grayscale keys with lots of color keys because grayscale (i.e., black/white/gray) and color are opposing paradigms. Pair up grayscale with one other color and you're okay, but pair it up with more than one other color and now the design is fighting with itself over whether it is a color-oriented design or a grayscale-oriented design. This might not normally be an issue if it weren't for the fact that grayscale keyboards were the standard for two decades and have become a paradigm all of their own.

The Hana set is very pretty except I'm not sure there is enough contrast between caps and legends. And, of course, the "touch of green" really turns me off, but that's just because I hate green. Nevertheless, that Hana set is a vast improvement over the original proposals.

[MasterZebra]

You may very well be right about color theory, but I think the problem is that you're mapping colors to functions without adequate regard for the placement of the keys... You are paying a lot of attention to visually differentiating mods and nav keys, control keys, G and H, and so on, which makes sense logically but it just doesn't look right on a keyboard. Also I don't think "blacking out" keys to de-emphasize them looks good. And IRL I think it will look even less good than on the WASD previewer.

How would you guys design a color palette that isn't the same standard look as most stock keyboards, feels a bit more colorful and fun, but isn't "unicorn vomit"?

Here are a couple ideas drawing on your examples, but simplified.

Show Image

Show Image

I like these quite a bit. Where do I sign up?   

[1swt2gs]

TIL there is a science behind choosing color of each individual keycap

[Lunatique]

The Carbon SA set is another one I purchased not long ago that I really like--it's probably my current favorite. I love the combination of the orange, charcoal gray, and beige. Here are some photos of the set. The last one is mine (obviously, from the odd way I always set up my keys):

[-musubi]

Pretty sick room setup you have. But yeah personally for me I like having multiple colors, but I still like to follow the classic alphas a certain color pairing and modifiers a certain pairing. Still gives you 4 colors to work with!

[Anole]

I would choose D, as IMO these patterns are too busy.

[eohmiller]

I like the first one, but the colours are a little too much for me as well.