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Good quality keycap brands

Triboal

Hey guys,

 

So I posted a few days ago asking for suggestions for a new keyboard and mouse and was kindly pointed towards getting a Glorious gmmk keyboard and building it myself. I've since got a switch tester to see which switch I prefer and look forward to receiving that very soon. My only point of call now is a suggestion for good quality keycaps to put on my new keyboard. I've read that PBT should be a go-to and that doubleshot key caps are a bonus too. I was hoping someone could point me towards reputable brands that produce good quality keycaps - or does that not really matter, as long as it's PBT and doubleshot? Or have I missed the point entirely?

 

This is my first time building a keyboard (never thought I'd be doing this) and am looking forward to the process (lockdown has been boring after all) so I'm open to any suggestions and recommendations. I would preferably like to have white keycaps as that goes with my black and white build although I'm, again, open to other recommendations - as long as it's not black, bored of black keycap keyboards and now that I have a choice I'd like to go for something else.

 

Thanks!

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51 minutes ago, Triboal said:

I was hoping someone could point me towards reputable brands that produce good quality keycaps - or does that not really matter, as long as it's PBT and doubleshot? Or have I missed the point entirely?

Hey there. Here are some better-known names floating around when it comes to PBT keycaps:

  • EnjoyPBT: PBT Blank, PBT Dye-Sublimation. (Not Double-Shot.)
  • Tai-Hao: PBT Double-Shot. "Thinner" compared to Vortex's.
  • Varmilo: PBT Dye-Sublimation. (Not Double-Shot.)
  • Vortex: PBT Double-Shot. "Thicker" compared to Tai-Hao's.

My GMMK's outfitted with EnjoyPBT's Black PBT Keycaps (link), and I haven't found any problems with 'em so far. Although, they aren't double-shot, they're blank. Also, they're advertised as "Gateron," but they fit just fine over my board's Kailh BOX Blacks.

 

Also, eh, it wasn't requested, but here are some links to some merchants selling PBT double-shot keycaps:

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10 hours ago, Eschew said:

Hey there. Here are some better-known names floating around when it comes to PBT keycaps:

  • EnjoyPBT: PBT Blank, PBT Dye-Sublimation. (Not Double-Shot.)
  • Tai-Hao: PBT Double-Shot. "Thinner" compared to Vortex's.
  • Varmilo: PBT Dye-Sublimation. (Not Double-Shot.)
  • Vortex: PBT Double-Shot. "Thicker" compared to Tai-Hao's.

My GMMK's outfitted with EnjoyPBT's Black PBT Keycaps (link), and I haven't found any problems with 'em so far. Although, they aren't double-shot, they're blank. Also, they're advertised as "Gateron," but they fit just fine over my board's Kailh BOX Blacks.

 

Also, eh, it wasn't requested, but here are some links to some merchants selling PBT double-shot keycaps:

Oh nice, thanks a lot for the information! This is really helpful! I had actually come across Tai-Hao and their keys looked really good. I'll happily look into the others.

 

Thanks for sending the links to merchants, I look forward to browsing through as I'd like to find keycaps that look good and fit the theme of my build.

 

3 hours ago, gloop said:

I’d also suggest spending a while browsing sites like Drop, KBDFans, etc to find a kit that you like. 

I agree completely and want to take my time finding a nice set of keycaps. Just thought it would be helpful getting someone to point me in the right direction to get some good quality and nice looking keycaps.

 

Thank you both for your help, much appreciated.

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The keycaps I bought are from YMDK and I found them on amazon or ebay cause it was way cheaper for me to get them there. 

 

Take some time to look into keycap profile as I found that it influence the typing experience quite a lot for me.  Here are my 2 sets.

 

Retro look OEM profile double shot pbt.  I like the look of it ... but not the profile.20200610_114930.thumb.jpg.25f4f38020c58bcc9c5a3129c6aac5a0.jpg

20200610_114615.thumb.jpg.419736357319c9e6719b036d23e560f7.jpg

 

Some random set I got just to try the dsa profile ... which I really like more than the OEM profile. 

 

20200610_130523.thumb.jpg.ba393be18a6b8df40c17ab90aab59b35.jpg

20200610_130543.thumb.jpg.4dc97f62470db30845e76e4f144817c4.jpg

 

None of them are shine through.  You can see the light surrounding the white retro keycaps.  Those are Thick double shot pbt, they sounds and feel really solid. 

 

The dsa keycaps are really thinner and even tho they are not shine through, from mid to max brightness you can see the led through the plastic which is not really nice.  They feels a bit cheaper cause they are so thin but I really like the profile more than the OEM profile.  It's strange how different it can feel typing on those 2 set. 

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@Dr0y cool man I'll look into that as well, I'll compare keycaps I'm looking at to my previous keyboard (Corsair K70 Rapidfire) and take it from there. Thanks a lot for your input, didn't remember to consider keycap profiles but that's also important especially for playing MOBAs and that.

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1 hour ago, Triboal said:

@Dr0y cool man I'll look into that as well, I'll compare keycaps I'm looking at to my previous keyboard (Corsair K70 Rapidfire) and take it from there. Thanks a lot for your input, didn't remember to consider keycap profiles but that's also important especially for playing MOBAs and that.

I don't know how important it might be for games and such but for comfort and speed while typing it makes a good difference for me. 

I9 10850K

EVGA RTX 3080 TI FTW3 ULTRA

32 Gb Crucial Balistix ddr4 3600mHz 16-18-18-38

MSI Z490 Tomahawk

Fractal Design Ion+ 860W platinum

Arctic Liquid Freezer II, 360mm

WB Black SN750 NVMe ssd

TeamGroup L5 3D Lite 1 Tb sata SSD

 

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