For those who play mechanical keyboards, keycaps are an indispensable part to create a perfect and outstanding keyboard. It can be said that keycaps are the complete coat that brings unique beauty to each keyboard. However, for those who are new to keyboards, not everyone has the experience to choose keycaps for their keyboards. A beautiful and good set of keycaps depends on many factors such as material, style, color, ... so choosing a satisfactory set of keycaps is quite difficult, here are things to keep in mind when choosing to buy keycaps for mechanical keyboards.
1. Keycap material
Almost all keycaps/keycap sets on the market are made from high-quality ABS or PBT plastic.
ABS plastic
ABS is the base plastic of most keycaps. It is commonly found in low-cost and mid-range mechanical keyboards. The plastic is quite soft (It can bend when pressed hard) and feels comfortable when pressed. Printing methods for ABS plastic are: Double-Shot, Pad Printing, UV Printing, Lasering, Engraving, Pad Printing and Coating …
Advantages: very tough, durable and very difficult to break
Disadvantages: the surface will become shiny after long-term use, and will turn yellow when exposed to sunlight (due to UV rays).
PBT plastic
PBT is a high-quality plastic, and better than ABS. PBT plastic is durable, sturdy, does not fade, and PBT plastic usually does not have bright LED lights like ABS. However, there are many PBT plastics on the market that have LED lights. PBT plastic is often found on keyboards such as Ducky, Pok3r, HHKB, and Realforce. The common printing technology for this keycap is the Dye-Sublimation method (thermal printing technology - using heat to put ink on the keycaps).
Advantages: does not become shiny or turn yellow after long-term use
Disadvantage: brittle plastic material so easy to break
There are also some special types of keycaps made from cheap rubber and some high-end types made from anti-corrosion, anti-collision alloys with super high prices (used for some special keyboards like old-fashioned typewriters).
2. Keycap printing technology
Doubleshot keycap: This is a way of printing keycaps with extremely high durability, because it is essentially a form of molding characters on the keycap, not normal printing. The character part and the keycap part are separated by 2 different layers of plastic.
Keycap Dye-sub: This is a method of using heat to penetrate ink deep into the surface of the keycap. This printing method makes the characters more durable and sharp. However, it can only be done on PBT plastic material, because this plastic has good heat resistance and does not deform when printed.
Laser keycap: This printing method uses a laser to apply ink to the surface of the keycap. Characters printed this way have relatively good durability.
Keycap pad-printing: This is a printing method that uses a pad, dips it in ink, and then sticks it to the surface of the keycap. This printing method does not provide high character durability.
3. Keycap Profile
Keycap profile is the height and tilt of the keycap set. These two factors create a unique style for each type of keycap in each row and contribute to the comfort when typing as well as the aesthetic feel of mechanical keyboards.
Some popular keycap profile types:
- OEM Profile Keycap : This is a fairly popular type of Keycap, most mechanical keyboard models will use OEM Profile made and designed by the manufacturer specifically for a series of keyboard models of the company.
- Cherry Profile: Cherry first designed this profile specifically for genuine mechanical keyboards, and then it became so popular that it was copied many times by Chinese suppliers.
- SA Profile: SA stands for Spherical All, meaning all rows are spherical, referring to the top surface shape of all keycaps in the SA profile set (all have a concave spherical shape with different inclinations according to the row). SA is a keycap style created by SP.
- DSA Keycap: Also a pioneering product of SP manufacturer. And has many differences compared to the SA profile mentioned above.
4. Buy a keycap set or a few keycaps
Some suppliers produce keycaps in sets (called keycap sets) to help users change all the keys on their mechanical keyboards. These types have a high degree of aesthetic consistency, often produced according to a color theme, theme or specific symbol. And some manufacturers specialize in providing individual keycaps. You can change each key individually according to your personal preferences to create a highlight for the keyboard.
5. Penetration
If you are using a backlit mechanical keyboard, make sure the keycaps/keycap set you are about to buy are transparent so that light can pass through easily and achieve maximum starlight effect. Some keycaps that are not transparent will not be suitable.
6. Switch and keycaps
Most of the keycaps and even keyboards sold today follow Cherry, if you have a keyboard using Cherry switches, then going out to find a set of keycaps from the same brand is very simple. But when using rare or unpopular types, you should consider carefully, looking for suitable keycaps pins to attach to the type of switch you are using.
7. Keyboard layout
This is the keycaps layout on your keyboard, depending on the type - brand - place of manufacture, the layout will be different. This is also a very important factor in addition to checking if the switch is suitable for the keycaps, because if you buy a new set of keycaps, fit all of them but when it comes to the Enter key, it does not fit, its shape is different from the one you are using.
ANSI 101
ANSI
TKL
ISO 102
ISO
Asian 101
Asian 102
Focus
And those are the things you need to keep in mind when choosing keycaps for your mechanical keyboard. Each different keyboard will have different ways of choosing the keyboard, so when choosing to buy keycaps, you should pay attention to choosing the right keycap that matches your keyboard layout.
