Das Keyboard 4 Pro Arabic Keycaps

[Yajee]

Hello folks, first time posting here so bear with me,

I have a DasKeyboard 4 Pro and had Arabic lettering added to it, the problem is that some of the Arabic lettering is already beginning to fade after only a few months, I was limited as to where I could go to get the Arabic added and it seems as though they machine painted (?) it on, I wanted it done by laser, apologies for my lack of correct terminology. Anyway, I'll be buying another Das Keyboard soon and was wondering whether you guys know where I can get high quality Arabic lettering added to it which hopefully won't fade? Lettering which will at least last as long as the original English that the keybaord came with. What, in fact, is the highest quality I can get since I have no idea what specific type of etching I'm supposed to be looking for?

Any solutions and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[IvanIvanovich]

You could get one of these and pull the alpha numeric caps (many of the modifiers won't be compatible) off to use on your Das. They are OK keycaps, at least as far as the lasering quality is concerned. I've had similar models made by Dah Yang that were well used but still had perfectly readable lasered legends. The keyboard itself isn't the best, but it would be an OK spare. I think they will take best offer of $35.

[Yajee]

Thank you for your reply.

Is that the only option I have though? Is there no where I can go where I can pay to have the Das keys lasered onto?

[IvanIvanovich]

You could go with WASD keyboards custom option. You will need to have access to something like illustrator or inkscape as the online editor doesn't allow to change/add Arabic. It's more expensive, but you have more color options, can use whatever typeface you like and so on.

[Yajee]

Interesting that you should say that since I had emailed them earlier today and they replied saying:

"Welcome to the world of mechanical keyboards! Unfortunately, we cannot print on anyone else’s keycaps, since all our equipment is set us specifically for ours. However, our keycaps will fit on your Das and we can print a custom keycap set with both English and Arabic. We don’t currently have a pre-made Arabic/English layout on our website, it is something we’re working on but have not completed yet. There is an option for you to create your own layout exactly as you want it, and we’ll print it for you. More info on that process can be found here: http://support.wasdkeyboards.com/customer/portal/articles/1518370-creating-a-custom-layout.  Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns."

So this seems ideal.  Only problem is that I downloaded and installed Inkscape which is what they recommended to use to customise the keys but the program itself doesn't seem to allow me to type in Arabic. Every time I select an Arabic font to type the letter it just types it as a normal English alphabet character. I'm using this on a Mac, by the way, and am wondering how to get around this, any ideas? Otherwise this seems like a perfect solution.

[Yajee]

Ok so I've been looking around and am kinda confused now. I emailed a few companies and these seem to be my options:

1) Get custom keys printed at WASD Keyboards, this seem good since you can be very precise as to what you want, but then I read that people are saying their keys are no good? How do they compare to the keys that come with a Das keyboard? Is there really that much of a difference?

2) Another company said that they could put the Arabic onto Filco keys, this is the first I've heard of them, are Filco keys any good? Better than WASD ones?

3) Third question is that if I were to go with WASD keys and mixed and matched them with the original DAS keys, would there be a noticeable difference in terms of their height? With some keys maybe sitting higher and others lower?

Advice much appreciated.

[IvanIvanovich]

In your case you want a harder to find layout. So your choices are more limited. You can either find some nice high quality vintage ones off old boards (depending on what it is can be VERY expensive like dyesubs from Cherry), or settle for the costar type (Filco, Das, WASD, etc) with lasered or pad printing, or use some variety of legend stickers.

[Yajee]

Ok, but what do you say about the quality of the WASD keys compared to the ones that come with the DAS?

[IvanIvanovich]

They are like the exact same thing. Though WASD printing is supposedly better now that they switch to using UV printing method. Legends should be harder wearing than simple lasering.

[Yajee]

Aha, ok, well that settles it then, I'll go with WASD. Do you know where I can get a ready made template for a Mac layout, instead of me trying to find all the Mac symbols that I want?

Thank you.