Best new thick PBT lowish profile keycaps cherry mount?

[codemonkeymike]

Opinions on what are the best PBT keycaps available now? By low profile I mean OEM, DCS, Q-series etc. I've seen Gateron keycaps seem nice but haven't been in the market in a while for keycaps.

[Menuhin]

Thought of DSA and XDA immediately upon reading the title.

[codemonkeymike]

DSA from signature plastics?

[Sigmoid]

If you go with Signature Plastics, it's probably wiser to get ABS keycaps. They are NOT tooled for working with PBT, and only do PBT keycaps to ride _TEh HyP3 tR4iN_, while profusely apologizing for the subpar results. While people do say that the PBT keycaps they make are "good enough", and "the warping isn't really visible when installed on a keyboard", but... well I mean if we're talking about "luxury" keycaps, I'd prefer ones that aren't warped.

I own a set of PBT DSA, and while the key surfaces do feel pretty nice, they are also a lot more warped than what I'd consider preferrable - in retrospect I'd probably prefer more slippery ABS in exchange for smooth, unwarped spherical profiles.

[Menuhin]

But there's no where to get the Granite set (which is in PBT) other than from SP.
The Granite set is just meticulously designed, the choice of icons, colors, etc.

I have ABS caps in DSA profile from SP too, feel about the same. Actually the stems of arrow keys in that set are consistently not straight and inclined to a specific side, and this makes them look unaligned especially when the arrow keys are on the edge of the keyboard. :\

[codemonkeymike]

I would rule out SP DSA because the issues @Sigmoid said. ABS doesn't work for a textured keycap really unless you are fine with them feeling and looking inconsistent in less then a year of heavy typing which I am not fine with.

[andrewjoy]

I love my http://imsto.cn/index.php?route=product ... duct_id=59

And no i will never shut up about it they are just fantastic !

[seebart]

I love my http://imsto.cn/index.php?route=product ... duct_id=59

And no i will never shut up about it they are just fantastic !

Nice indeed, I've never seen those before!

[Menuhin]

Given DSA is a low profile cap, if DSA from SP (especially DSA in PBT, e.g. the DSA Granite set) has so many machining issues, then there is probably no actually good 'low profile' PBT set.

I see Cherry/GMK/Gateron profile and 'OEM'/Filco/Poker profile as the normal profiles.
Gateron PBT caps are quite decent, even BSP makes use of them for their dye-sub work in recent years AFAIK.

[codemonkeymike]

@andrewjoy Could you post a picture of the underside of a keycap? They do look quite nice

@menuhin I'm not looking to define what is and is not low profile more of looking at profiles that are not as high is hi-pro and SP. Also who/what is BSP?

[andrewjoy]

@andrewjoy Could you post a picture of the underside of a keycap? They do look quite nice

https://goo.gl/photos/HZqMMGJBvpWFXsq76

[Menuhin]

BSP is a Danish company specializes in customized dye-sublimation processing of PBT keycaps. It is regarded as the leading company of dye-sub work by enthusiasts in keyboard forums (where EnjoyPBT follows after a quantum step), however it is very difficult to get a group buy from BSP because of its high MOQ.

I just try to make your question more on point. It is fine to see Cherry/GMK/Gateron/DCS profiles are 'lowish profile', it is just that according to the lingoes around here, for 'low profile', I believe we are probably talking about DSA or G20, or the recently introduced XDA profiles.

There's also some popular opinion that uniform profiles (i.e. that's no row difference), e.g. DSA are good for their look, but not as nice to type on.

Some photos for your reference:

Spoiler:

Warping of thin PBT issues of SP's DSA (e.g. in Granite Round 2) mentioned above by a few:







Profile comparison 1: DSA, XDA, SA, SA



Profile comparison 2: DSA, G20, DCS, SA


Perhaps I should put my hope on the new XDA profile: it seems that they have done a relatively decent job in producing these lowpro PBT caps.

[Findecanor]

I still recommend Leopold. There are sets on eBay for $40. Cherry profile but crisper than Cherry and Gateron.
However... very limited colour choices and only blank or side-printed, only ANSI. The most common colour is navy blue, which is near black.
Two styles of Caps Lock: LED window in front or stepped, both centre-stemmed. Two styles of Num Lock and Scroll Lock, with or without LED window.

[Laser]

They (Leopold) also have some sublimated, more expensive sets in the same ~Cherry profile, for example:

- http://www.ebay.com/itm/Geek-Standard-K ... 2140778059

- http://www.ebay.com/itm/Geek-Compact-Ke ... 2345322956

[Findecanor]

They (Leopold) also have some sublimated, more expensive sets in the same ~Cherry profile, for example:

How do you know these are of the same make as Leopold?
The stepped Caps Lock in the Leopold set is actually 1.5+0.25 while the Geek set is 1.25+.5

[Laser]

You're right, now that you ask, I didn't actually check that - I assumed, just because at the same time the keycaps you mentioned appeared on ebay, also a sublimated set surfaced (blue alphas, grey modifiers) which looked otherwise pretty much the same (thick PBT, korean). When I recently looked after that set, it disappeared, but was replaced with the sets I linked in my previous post. So, maybe they are not Leopold ... but I wonder how many PBT keycap factories are actually in South Korea? (well, the more, the merrier )