deskthority

Please suggest nominees for the Best keycaps in 2012. You have to give a short motivation for each suggestion. It is not a requirement that the keycaps were released in 2012. If you think some vintage keycaps were the best, you can suggest them.

Current suggestions (this list is frequently updated):

Thick imsto PBT keycaps
Cherry dyesub keycaps
IBM Model M/F keycaps
Realforce/Topre /HHKB keycaps
QWERKeys B series
Boilermaker's billiard set
Ducky (Nordic) PBT sets in ISO
The Keycap of Mystery
Sony OA-S3400 Word Processor NIB keycaps
Orange on charcoal keycaps from the Skidata keyboard
Vintage double-shot blue/white Cherry keycaps
Cherry keycaps with Russian legends in red
IBM beam spring keycaps
White engraved PBT from Ducky
Dye-sublimated blue/white Olivetti keys
girldc keycaps
QWERKeys J series

Thick imsto PBT's

Thick imsto PBT's. I don't know how anyone can give a proper reason tbh... I think they feel nice and have great looks for a good price.

Cherry Dyesubs definitely seem to be in this year, at least towards the latter half.

Either IBM Model M/F or Realforce/Topre /HHKB

2 pieces IBM Model M/F keycaps

QWERKeys B series

Fantastic feel and great colour combinations.

I vote for Boilermakers billiard set

Ducky (Nordic) for making PBT sets in ISO available.

The Keycap of Mystery, for, well, bringing some mystery into keycaps!

Can't nominate anything for this year, but for 2013: Round 4.

These beautiful NIB keycaps of old. From a Sony OA-S3400 Word Processor.
(Fujitsu Reed Switch btw)

I counter-nominate these vintage cherries.

The cherry set with Russian letters in red.

Those Sony caps look nice, but I'm going to nominate the caps used on IBM beam spring boards, such as 7361073 (the keyboard for the IBM 5251 terminal).

ftw!
http://deskthority.net/resources/image/5825

Whoever nominated the boiler pool caps, I think the idea came from ripster, boiler just ran the group buy (very well too)

dirge wrote:Whoever nominated the boiler pool caps, I think the idea came from ripster, boiler just ran the group buy (very well too)

I remember ripster yelling that lots of things were 'his idea' (even when they weren't)... but not those. The Pi keys, maybe.

ah fair enough Pikeys.. still makes me laugh

tinlong117 wrote:ftw!
http://deskthority.net/resources/image/5825

What should I call them?

webwit wrote:

tinlong117 wrote:ftw!
http://deskthority.net/resources/image/5825

What should I call them?

Um...caps from skidata board?

Orange on charcoal?

Red on black?

I don't know

So many caps to choose from.
White engraved PBT from Ducky.
They feel great, and look great.

I would like to nominate:
Blue on White, Cherry double-shot, OEM:d for Olivetti computer keyboards (and Triump-Adler typewriters, owned by Olivetti at the time).

Did they make dye-sublimated white caps with blue legends? In that case, that would have been better.

Findecanor wrote: Did they make dye-sublimated white caps with blue legends? In that case, that would have been better.

http://deskthority.net/w/images/4/4f/Olivetti_sub.jpg

They don't look as good.

Just wanted to nominate girldc keycaps as well. All handmade metal keycaps.

rodtang wrote:http://deskthority.net/w/images/4/4f/Olivetti_sub.jpg

They don't look as good.

It looks like the printing press was misaligned when these were made. I would not be surprised if there are dye-sublimated Olivetti keys that are better.

Put it in the list then webwit!

HaaTa wrote:

I second these ludicrously monolithic slabs of plastic goodness.

Most of the keycaps I thought of nominating have already been nominated, so I'll nominate something else: QWERKeys' J series keycaps thanks to their profile and promising nature - when these can be double shot with the original Cherry font, my dreams will have come true.