Favorite backlight color?

[Bramster]

For an other project, membrane keyboard (I know you guys are Mechanical fans), would be awesome for some feedback. So what is your favorite backlight color?

Blue:

Green:

Red:

White:


And no RGB is not an option, 1 color

[Greystoke]

Green

[scottc]

I'm not a huge fan of backlit keyboards but I like the idea of blank black caps with white backlight seeping from under them. It just seems cool!

[Rea]

I like white the most, but I think it has to match with the Keycap colour.

[Compgeke]

White. Colors are just annoying to me.

[matt3o]

I don't want to be that guy but... definitely amber (if not possible... well... let's go with white)

[Muirium]

Oh really?


I'd say white, actually. Make it classy!

[Broadmonkey]

White is definitely the best! especially with with a color scheme like on a macbook pro! looks baller!
Colors can look good too, but it always depends on which color the the key caps and case has, so no real preference there.

[Spharx]

According to some folks, like the f.lux devs, anything that contains blue in the mix makes you think that you are hit with sunlight and therefore you can't sleep so well.
Doubt that this is true but hey I liked the orange color that my rubberdome Cherry Stream XT emitted for the num- and capslock status.

Spoiler:

[bazh]

Pink!


And purple

[Monkay]

White because it looks simple and clean.

[bloodyredd]

Green for me

[Muirium]

Blue's horrible, because of how bright those little LEDs are. A good even white is my favourite (not too blue, now!) and then green, yellow and red all have a nice look to them. Gotta match the caps and case style though.

[bhtooefr]

Look at the automotive sector, and what they use for instrument lighting - something that needs to be readable in low-light conditions without impairing night vision capability too badly (but without the constraints that aircraft have, due to the headlights). A car instrument cluster and a backlit computer keyboard are actually a fairly similar application due to the light distribution.

The following colors are what I've seen:

Blue-green (KEEP THE POWER LEVELS DOWN, the eye is very sensitive to this - a lot of American cars used this)
Red (Pontiac, Mazda, some others I can't remember)
Orange (BMW)
Amber (Mercedes)
White (older stuff (Mercedes, Honda) used a warm white, newer stuff uses a cool white)
Blue (KEEP THE POWER LEVELS DOWN, but Volkswagen pulled it off (towards the violet end, rather than a solid brilliant blue). It's not my favorite, though, even though I OWN a Volkswagen. It's telling, though, that they use white now.)
Green (older VWs, Mazda used this)

Mind you, I don't buy backlit keyboards, but I think I'll go with this, in descending order of preference:

Amber, warm white, orange, green, cool white, red, blue-green.

Not certain on that, though.

[Muirium]

Red's an excellent colour for keeping your night sight. Most astronomy software has a red on black mode so you can use it out in the field, next to your telescope. I'm not sure how many people use backlit keyboards in that kind of dark, but I could use a much fainter MacBook Pro for just this kind of thing!

[7bit]

I like black most.

ps:
for my car: Orange (BMW) is my favorite for almost 2 decades!

[IvanIvanovich]

Why not go for those bicolor? You know like the ones that are white, then when you flip the polarity it becomes red or whatever. Might be a nice feature to have day/night led mode. Mode one have bright color like bright white, blue or bluegreen, pink... and mode 2 have easier on eye night color red, amber, orange, yellow.

[Muirium]

Why not? Cost.

Also, for a fully programmable backlight (like the Ducky Shine 3) you have to use an LED matrix, just like you do with switches. And those LEDs are the diodes…

[Greystoke]

Green is still my favorite, as noted above, but I ran the LED color options past my sibling, who works in a lot of remote construction shacks, and he said there's only one backlighting option for him. Red.

[IvanIvanovich]

I'm not talking about any fancy nonsense disco circus modes or any programability, just ability to switch polarity. This could be done as part of the backlight brightness key cycling 1hi 1md 1lo OFF (reverse polarity) 2hi 2md 2lo OFF. The led are just normal 2 leg and don't really cost any more than standard single color. I have seen this on some cheaper MX backlight keyboard that changed between green and red but I forgot which... maybe that funny Rosewill backlight model with odd key layout.

[Muirium]

I agree. But backlighting is exactly the kind of feature sold for show. People who know nothing about keyboards can all agree they want a lit one!

Wouldn't surprise me if most backlit boards look like Saturday Night Fever in a few years. Every colour on the floor!

[davkol]

Black, as in none. There are already enough issues with LED flickering and blue-light hazard.

I really like the looks of black-red (the original QFR) and black-green (Matrix) combo, although I wouldn't want to use it anyway.

If there's anything I'd like to see, it's something like thinkpads with their reflective keycap printing and a diode above the screen... maybe reflective strips around some key clusters?

[mr_a500]

Mind you, I don't buy backlit keyboards, but I think I'll go with this, in descending order of preference:

Amber, warm white, orange, green, cool white, red, blue-green.

I guessed your location just by your colour preference.. and I was right. Americans have a thing about amber and "warm white" lighting. I've written several rants about how the American obsession with "warm white" has made it nearly impossible to find my preferred "daylight" or "cool white" lighting in Canada. (...but that's a long and painful story..)

Red's an excellent colour for keeping your night sight. Most astronomy software has a red on black mode so you can use it out in the field, next to your telescope. I'm not sure how many people use backlit keyboards in that kind of dark, but I could use a much fainter MacBook Pro for just this kind of thing!

Yes, red is good for night lighting. I like to go hiking in the dark (also to look at stars) so I have red mini lights in the house to avoid ruining my night vision. My VW also has red backlit buttons that look quite nice.

[rindorbrot]

Red or Orange/Amber/Gold would be my favourites, too.

[M'er Forever]

[Account and posts deleted on request]

[wheybags]

Perfect if you hate money

[M'er Forever]

[Account and posts deleted on request]

[Dubsgalore]

Amber/Orange, and Dark Blue. I like Ice blue but only with Beige caps.

No too much lighting either, just a little bit, just the right amount. If going full backlit at all, only enough so that you can see the glow underneath the caps, and that the light doesn't bleed through thick abs.

[Findecanor]

Warm white. Because white looks the most classy, but colour temperature is important for the eyes and general well-being.

Then use three different colours for the indicator lights: amber, green and red.
Why different? Because then you would only need to see the colour in your peripheral vision to see what lock is on. The indicator lights also need to be different from the general backlight.

I know that bicolour white/red 3mm LEDs that fit in a Cherry MX switch (reverse polarity) exist. Finding other colours and finding the right warm white and matching low-power warm white LEDs might be a bit more of a challenge, though.

[Bramster]

Hi all, during the weekend I see a lot of posts in this forum. Where I would like to thank you for because I was a little fearing with posting about a membrane keyboard on a mechanical forum.. But you guys (&girls) are awesome. Thanks for once again a nicely filled thread with feedback..

How about the brightness in the pictures? I see a lot of 'votes' for white. How is the brightness and the color of the white? (Or the other colors)