[GB] Typewriter 68 - ONE WEEK LEFT!

[venderzhao]

GB only 10 days left!

GB Link

Typewriter 68 is a retro looking keyboard designed by scarecrow.

His account is too new to post, so I help him to post here 

You can see his IC post here: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=98084.0

Typewriter 68 is a keyboard with:
solid and retro design
unique layout
typewriter looking case
super heavy weight
many color options including white by ALF and coffee
RGB light bar
custom engravinng!

design:


options:
mid-piece( with integral plate)
HHKB layout:


Full bottom row layout:


You can choose to have engraving, and customize!

colors:
Silver, Gray, Black, Coffee, Blue, Light Blue, Purple, Red, Orange, Pink, Gold, Green, White(upgrade)


prototype:




You can ask me questions and I will answer with my best         

Some FAQ:
Can I have no engrave sentence on the front?
YES

I dont see this in option, can I have this?
Tell me what you want and we will add!

How thick is the plate?
1.6mm. Some other keyboard design has 4mm+ plate but I think that is too many. Typing on 4mm+ plate will be too solid and a thinner plate will have more flex and let you feel the switch better! it will be made by high quality aluminum, I believe it will be as good as thicker plates!

Normal font for logo?
YES, will have picture of new design!

[Signature]

Approved! Please fix some photos and try to upload it via imgur or similar

[lanyusea]

terrible HHKB layout...

hope can fix it as the usual ones

[Scarecrow]

terrible HHKB layout...

hope can fix it as the usual ones

yeah，we will fix it soon.
BTW we have another layout.you can choose it.

[venderzhao]

Approved! Please fix some photos and try to upload it via imgur or similar

Fixed!

[mrpetrov]

Do you have any detailed shots of the PCB that will ship with this?

[lanyusea]

terrible HHKB layout...

hope can fix it as the usual ones

yeah，we will fix it soon.
BTW we have another layout.you can choose it.

Show Image

besides L-shift, you need to support the split backspace and the split R-shift.

but I don't think it can be achieved in your design since it is more like a 65-style instead of 60-style

[venderzhao]

bumping this up!

[elmo]

daaaamn. My Paycheck came today.
Going to buy this now

[ZyBeR]

So who's in already? I'm really tempted, just which there were more renders of different colors and more information about it.

I'm tempted by either a green/gold or gold/black design.

Is tomorrow (30/11) still the final day of the GB?

[elmo]

I'm in now
pretty hyped on this and can't wait to see how it looks with the MT3 Susuwatari set.
Waiting on both will be hard 

[anfledd]

I'm in, but is there any way to make those two 1.25u keys at the top into just 1u? It's super painful to try to find top row profile 1.25, but I love having a couple extra buttons up there. I think it's quite likely that most people on the drop would prefer 1u keys up there with how hard sculpted top row 1.25u keys are going to be to find.

[Morgan3Wheeler]

I'm in, but is there any way to make those two 1.25u keys at the top into just 1u? It's super painful to try to find top row profile 1.25, but I love having a couple extra buttons up there. I think it's quite likely that most people on the drop would prefer 1u keys up there with how hard sculpted top row 1.25u keys are going to be to find.

Also I am in....I agree with this.

[anfledd]

I am planning on doing a build with the MT3 Godspeed, and it's going to run into the same thing that @elmo is going to run into: MT3 does not have a single R0 or R1 1.25u cap anywhere in the sets. You'd think Godspeed would have one in one of the 20 sets, but there is none. I almost think I may have to cancel my GB entry if we can't make an option for the plate to be 1u for those two keys. There are so many nice 1u novelty caps on both Gospeed and Susuwatari that I would love to have sit there, but 1.25u just isn't going to work. What do you think @Scarecrow ?

[oldcat]

great!

[elmo]

I'm in, but is there any way to make those two 1.25u keys at the top into just 1u? It's super painful to try to find top row profile 1.25, but I love having a couple extra buttons up there. I think it's quite likely that most people on the drop would prefer 1u keys up there with how hard sculpted top row 1.25u keys are going to be to find.

I am planning on doing a build with the MT3 Godspeed, and it's going to run into the same thing that @elmo is going to run into: MT3 does not have a single R0 or R1 1.25u cap anywhere in the sets. You'd think Godspeed would have one in one of the 20 sets, but there is none. I almost think I may have to cancel my GB entry if we can't make an option for the plate to be 1u for those two keys. There are so many nice 1u novelty caps on both Gospeed and Susuwatari that I would love to have sit there, but 1.25u just isn't going to work. What do you think @Scarecrow ?

I agree it is unfortunate that most sets don't have r0 or r1 1.25u keys but 1u keys would look really weird in that place.
I would rather keep the 1.25u and go with r3/r4 keys there which I think wouldn't look that bad.

[anfledd]

I know what you're saying, 1.25u is more interesting than 1u, and I think I should be able to still put 1u in there without too much showing underneath. I guess I was just bummed there is not a single 1.25u R0/R1 at all! But yeah, I'll probably try using the 1.25 R4 extras and/or see how bad 1u looks in those spots.

[elmo]

GB is over for a while now.
Any news on production yet? 

[anfledd]

Any update on this one? In the IC thread you mentioned you would provide some additional logo examples, anything to report?

[elmo]

Updates on this would be nice.
If nothong comes I am going to pull my money out of this via PayPal buyer protection.
First groupbuy and the no updates after the buying phase has ended leaves a really bad smell... 

[anfledd]

Totally agree, I'm not feeling too confident, although the main reason I decided to pull the trigger was that it was going through zFrontier is some way, so hoping they can help keep this on track somehow. Maybe email them?

[elmo]

Totally agree, I'm not feeling too confident, although the main reason I decided to pull the trigger was that it was going through zFrontier is some way, so hoping they can help keep this on track somehow. Maybe email them?

You won't get a reply from zF.
Their support is pretty nonexistent atm. People from the Kira TKL GB are also pretty pissed already because all mails and requests to zF are being ignored.
The only way to reach them is via Discord or Reddit and even there you need a good amount of luck to get a response from them.

[Morgan3Wheeler]

Zf told me today that type writer68 is under production.

[Morgan3Wheeler]

[Scarecrow]

Typewriter is manufacturing！



The backplane has been cnc finished.

[Scarecrow]

Regarding the logo, I will update the logo font later.But in the end, i can only choose one type of font for final processing.

[Scarecrow]

This is the two fonts to choose from.

After comparing several fonts, i decided to use the thick font as the forehead logo font.
Too thin line fonts do not match the typewriter's metal industry style.
Given that Vietnam, South Korea, Europe, North America, and Thailand all have their own ideas, they cannot be unified, and they cannot be unified.
So i just make a public version of the logo according to my own ideas.

The bottom case has been produced, and the top cover and outer casing are initially scheduled to be processed on January 21st.

[Morgan3Wheeler]

This is the two fonts to choose from.

Show Image

Show Image

After comparing several fonts, i decided to use the thick font as the forehead logo font.
Too thin line fonts do not match the typewriter's metal industry style.
Given that Vietnam, South Korea, Europe, North America, and Thailand all have their own ideas, they cannot be unified, and they cannot be unified.
So i just make a public version of the logo according to my own ideas.

The bottom case has been produced, and the top cover and outer casing are initially scheduled to be processed on January 21st.

I would like the 'typewriter' logo to be engraved but not the sentence along the front.

Is it Possible?

[Scarecrow]

This is the two fonts to choose from.

Show Image

Show Image

After comparing several fonts, i decided to use the thick font as the forehead logo font.
Too thin line fonts do not match the typewriter's metal industry style.
Given that Vietnam, South Korea, Europe, North America, and Thailand all have their own ideas, they cannot be unified, and they cannot be unified.
So i just make a public version of the logo according to my own ideas.

The bottom case has been produced, and the top cover and outer casing are initially scheduled to be processed on January 21st.

I would like the 'typewriter' logo to be engraved but not the sentence along the front.

Is it Possible?

Show Image

YES！
The purchase page at the time has such an option.If you choose not to engrave，we will follow the order requirements.

If you want to change, please contact ZF in time.Because of the Chinese New Year，most companies will have a holiday including zf，so they may not reply to you in time.There are other questions you can contact me on GH.I will often visit GH during the CNY.

[Scarecrow]

I am planning on doing a build with the MT3 Godspeed, and it's going to run into the same thing that @elmo is going to run into: MT3 does not have a single R0 or R1 1.25u cap anywhere in the sets. You'd think Godspeed would have one in one of the 20 sets, but there is none. I almost think I may have to cancel my GB entry if we can't make an option for the plate to be 1u for those two keys. There are so many nice 1u novelty caps on both Gospeed and Susuwatari that I would love to have sit there, but 1.25u just isn't going to work. What do you think @Scarecrow ?

My intention is that the top row is placed R3 1.25u keycap.I have already indicated this in IC，because Signature Plastics has a lot of R3 1.25u personality keycaps，so i want to put them in top.

[anfledd]

@Scarecrow so I'm unclear: I liked the original script font for the word "Typewriter68" that you can see in your latest image with SA Carbon, but I didn't like the other text to the right of it. I asked zFrontier to keep the logo, but get rid of the text, just like @Morgan3Wheeler called out. But now it sounds like you are NOT doing the script font, but instead will be using the blocky font visible in your other post. Can you verify if the script font with the red "T" is still an option? If not, then I will need to let zFrontier know to cancel engraving as the blocky font replacement will not work with the design I'm doing.

[BunnyLake]

very cool project <3

[Morgan3Wheeler]

This is the two fonts to choose from.

Show Image

Show Image

After comparing several fonts, i decided to use the thick font as the forehead logo font.
Too thin line fonts do not match the typewriter's metal industry style.
Given that Vietnam, South Korea, Europe, North America, and Thailand all have their own ideas, they cannot be unified, and they cannot be unified.
So i just make a public version of the logo according to my own ideas.

The bottom case has been produced, and the top cover and outer casing are initially scheduled to be processed on January 21st.

I would like the 'typewriter' logo to be engraved but not the sentence along the front.

Is it Possible?

Show Image

YES！
The purchase page at the time has such an option.If you choose not to engrave，we will follow the order requirements.

If you want to change, please contact ZF in time.Because of the Chinese New Year，most companies will have a holiday including zf，so they may not reply to you in time.There are other questions you can contact me on GH.I will often visit GH during the CNY.

For about two months, English zFrontier site's supporters have not responded to any of the buyer's emails.

[elmo]

I am planning on doing a build with the MT3 Godspeed, and it's going to run into the same thing that @elmo is going to run into: MT3 does not have a single R0 or R1 1.25u cap anywhere in the sets. You'd think Godspeed would have one in one of the 20 sets, but there is none. I almost think I may have to cancel my GB entry if we can't make an option for the plate to be 1u for those two keys. There are so many nice 1u novelty caps on both Gospeed and Susuwatari that I would love to have sit there, but 1.25u just isn't going to work. What do you think @Scarecrow ?

My intention is that the top row is placed R3 1.25u keycap.I have already indicated this in IC，because Signature Plastics has a lot of R3 1.25u personality keycaps，so i want to put them in top.

Show Image

I agree with that.
I already stated in another post, that 1u keys would look extremely out of place in that spot next to the escape key.
And there are definitely a lot sets that have r0 or r1 1.25u switches. Just becuase Godspeed doesn't shouldn't be the reason to change the whole design.

Another thing that isn't fully clear to me yet:
I chose the option to not engrave the case (the weird line of text just doesn't fit the design I think).
Will the Typewriter logo on the left top of the case be engraved anyways? Or will it be completely without engraving and only the nametag?
Also will the nametag have the swirled font or will that get the bold letters that you showed in the post earlier?
Because I think the bold letters on the nametag would look as good...  :-X

[Scarecrow]

This is the two fonts to choose from.

Show Image

Show Image

After comparing several fonts, i decided to use the thick font as the forehead logo font.
Too thin line fonts do not match the typewriter's metal industry style.
Given that Vietnam, South Korea, Europe, North America, and Thailand all have their own ideas, they cannot be unified, and they cannot be unified.
So i just make a public version of the logo according to my own ideas.

The bottom case has been produced, and the top cover and outer casing are initially scheduled to be processed on January 21st.

I would like the 'typewriter' logo to be engraved but not the sentence along the front.

Is it Possible?

Show Image

YES！
The purchase page at the time has such an option.If you choose not to engrave，we will follow the order requirements.

If you want to change, please contact ZF in time.Because of the Chinese New Year，most companies will have a holiday including zf，so they may not reply to you in time.There are other questions you can contact me on GH.I will often visit GH during the CNY.

For about two months, English zFrontier site's supporters have not responded to any of the buyer's emails.

sry，I will give feedback to ZF.

[anfledd]

Yeah, I'm fine with the 1.25u on the top, I think it's more critical to get our answers on the engraving: will the red letter "T" Typewriter logo be an option on the top left or not? If not, are you planning on replacing that logo with the blocky font?

[Scarecrow]

I am planning on doing a build with the MT3 Godspeed, and it's going to run into the same thing that @elmo is going to run into: MT3 does not have a single R0 or R1 1.25u cap anywhere in the sets. You'd think Godspeed would have one in one of the 20 sets, but there is none. I almost think I may have to cancel my GB entry if we can't make an option for the plate to be 1u for those two keys. There are so many nice 1u novelty caps on both Gospeed and Susuwatari that I would love to have sit there, but 1.25u just isn't going to work. What do you think @Scarecrow ?

My intention is that the top row is placed R3 1.25u keycap.I have already indicated this in IC，because Signature Plastics has a lot of R3 1.25u personality keycaps，so i want to put them in top.

Show Image

I agree with that.
I already stated in another post, that 1u keys would look extremely out of place in that spot next to the escape key.
And there are definitely a lot sets that have r0 or r1 1.25u switches. Just becuase Godspeed doesn't shouldn't be the reason to change the whole design.

Another thing that isn't fully clear to me yet:
I chose the option to not engrave the case (the weird line of text just doesn't fit the design I think).
Will the Typewriter logo on the left top of the case be engraved anyways? Or will it be completely without engraving and only the nametag?
Also will the nametag have the swirled font or will that get the bold letters that you showed in the post earlier?
Because I think the bold letters on the nametag would look as good...  :-X

bold letters and will only be carved in the left top

[Scarecrow]

Yeah, I'm fine with the 1.25u on the top, I think it's more critical to get our answers on the engraving: will the red letter "T" Typewriter logo be an option on the top left or not? If not, are you planning on replacing that logo with the blocky font?

the red letter "T" Typewriter logo just a font，of course is an option，i will use the bold font that showed in the post earlier instead of the current one in the production.

[anfledd]

Okay, so just to be clear, you are NOT going to be engraving the Typewriter logo with the red "T" and the script font, you WILL be engraving the blocky font you have posted in this thread instead on the top left of the top piece. Thanks, I will be reaching out to zFrontier to remove the engraving all together.

[Scarecrow]

Okay, so just to be clear, you are NOT going to be engraving the Typewriter logo with the red "T" and the script font, you WILL be engraving the blocky font you have posted in this thread instead on the top left of the top piece. Thanks, I will be reaching out to zFrontier to remove the engraving all together.

YES.
You can email me and provide your order number on zFrontier.
Let me help you with the changes.
My email address is tuizi9608@163.com

[anfledd]

Just emailed you, thanks!

[Morgan3Wheeler]

I just emailed too.

[Scarecrow]

Because many people are not satisfied with the changed fonts now.so I ended up counting once，Do you want to change the font? Minority obeying majority

[anfledd]

Well, that is a bummer, but I would be happy if we could do what is attached in this image. In other words, keep the original Typewriter68 font with the red "T", but don't engrave the other text. See attached image for what I'd prefer.

[Morgan3Wheeler]

Well, that is a bummer, but I would be happy if we could do what is attached in this image. In other words, keep the original Typewriter68 font with the red "T", but don't engrave the other text. See attached image for what I'd prefer.

Me too.

I sent email to you.

[anfledd]

So, this is getting a bit awkward, is there any way to know what was engraved on the top? I realize of course that whatever was done must have already happened, but it would be helpful to know where we end up on these things.

[elmo]

Any news yet what the engraving actually will look like?
Production or shipping status?

Im actually getting a bit fed up with how few communication is being made here.
It's even worse than the Kira-TKL GB... 

I'm seriously considering to withdraw my money via PayPal if there aren't at least a few updates every now and then.
Paying nearly $500 and then being left in the dark is not cool. 

[ZyBeR]

I was all set on joining this GB, but ended up not doing so. Now I'm glad I didn't, the lack of communication is down right respectless.
I hope you all get what you payed for in the end.

[elmo]

We haven't even seen a production pic yet.
The one picture that was shared was just a blurry shot of a few metal plates.
That could have been anything and didn't even look remotely thick enough for the case.

[elmo]

That's it.
I'm going to open up a PayPal dispute now.