Blank key
A blank key is a key with no legend on the keycap. A blank keyboard with only blank keys can have keys in any colour, different colours on different keys or even a pattern but no symbol.
Blank keyboards were made popular with early Happy Hacking Keyboards by PFU and with the first Das Keyboard by Metadot.
Otaku
The term "Otaku" for noting a blank keyboard was coined on June 12, 2009, by keyboard store EliteKeyboards. It was used on their site's product pages and in a newsletter[1] which announced a limited edition of white Filco Majestouch tenkeyless keyboards. On Geekhack, member Majestouch (fronting for EliteKeyboards) explained this was picked as a catchy marketing term[2].
Outside keyboards, "Otaku (お宅 / オタク) is a Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly anime, manga or video games."[3]
List of blank keyboards
Although many keyboards can be modified with a blank keycap set, some are blank from the start:
- Some Happy Hacking Keyboards
- Das Keyboard Ultimate
- Variations of the G80-3000: sightings: G80-3000LSCXX, G80-3000LPCXY-2, G80-3000LPCXX-2, although these are intended for OEMs to add their own legends.
- Cherry G83-6000 can be ordered unlabled with language code "XX" for every variant, for example at http://keybo.de/, although they are not listed.
- Variations of the Filco Majestouch line.
- Variations of Leopold Cherry MX keyboards.
- Variations of Unicomp keyboards.
Pictures
The original Filco "Otaku" keyboard.
IBM blank keyboard.
Cherry G80-5000, with blank "Otaku" style keys.
