A question about Model Ms

[elecplus]

Back when I had them NIB, I noted that the legends on the numpad were brown, not black, and I thought that was unusual. I was assured that these legends are supposed to be brown. Now I have some with heavy bold black legends on the numpad. Is this unusual? I am confused!

[Muirium]

Secondary numpad navigation legends are meant to be brown. Like my NMB:



But manufacturers cheaped out, of course, and eventually most went all monotone. Which isn't as nice, and I think is pretty generally valued less than the dual tone original style.

[andrewjoy]

That is not unusual at all. Some models used 2 colour printing on the caps , others did not. Someone who it more up on the model M than me would be able to tell you what one came fist.

I am jamming on my 122F at the moment that is rocking XT caps and they are all black legends. My SSK has 2 colour legends for the embedded number pad. My only model M is the fab 102 silver label you sold me and that one had all black as well but it was a later lexmark ( it still feels sweet and has a thick ass backplate so i thin it was re-labled old stock). The other M i had was a IBM UK piece of junk and that too had single colour legends.

It looks however that the original 101 M ( the one with the black AT cable) had 2 colour legends model 1390131

[fohat]

If you ask clickykeyboards.com for a numpad set, they will ask whether you want the secondary legends light or dark gray, light or dark brown, or black. Personally, I think the lighter ones look nicer than the darker ones, but the dark brown is a pretty rich tone.

I also have sets with blue and orange secondary legends. The blue is really nice, and there are a few other blue pieces, too, such as CapsLock and Tab.

[Chyros]

If you ask clickykeyboards.com for a numpad set, they will ask whether you want the secondary legends light or dark gray, light or dark brown, or black. Personally, I think the lighter ones look nicer than the darker ones, but the dark brown is a pretty rich tone.

I also have sets with blue and orange secondary legends. The blue is really nice, and there are a few other blue pieces, too, such as CapsLock and Tab.

The blue ones are fantastic, I think they predate the brown ones. Really nice-looking. The black ones are the most recent ones I suspect.

[andrewjoy]

Whist they are , my XT caps are blacka nd they pre-date most Ms, but there is black and then there are XT caps.

[keycap]

My 122 key Model M from Unicomp has blue legends all over the place. They look awesome. It's unfortunate that the keycaps are all shiny now, though (never knew that was even easy to do with PBT, but I suppose the previous owned used it all the time )

[snuci]

I have three different styles of Model M numeric keypads for reference:

Early Model M (Jan 1986) with brown legends

Early Model M.jpg (470.61 KiB) Viewed 2218 times

Middle Model M (February 1990) with gray legends

Middle Model M.jpg (429.55 KiB) Viewed 2218 times

Later Model M (Lexmark) with black legends

Later Model M.jpg (465.45 KiB) Viewed 2217 times

[andrewjoy]

that 1986 one is amazing , loverly legends
All the best things came from 1986

[snuci]

One more thing I noticed while taking these pics. The legends on the Print Screen/SysRq are different colors.

For the 1986/1990 keyboard, they have the green SysRq label like this:

Older Green SysRq Labelled Print Screen key

Old Green SysRq.jpg (452.99 KiB) Viewed 2178 times

For the later Lexmark keyboard, the SysRq label is black.

Newer Black SysRq Labelled Print Screen key

Newer Black SysRq.jpg (572.62 KiB) Viewed 2178 times

[Muirium]

My SSKs have green SysRq. One of them is a Lexmark, but it definitely has non-original caps, as some are 2-piece while others are 1-piece.

Green SysRq is obviously nicer, and is there on my favourite NMB of course:



Losing all the secondary colours was a sign of the keyboard carnage to come!

[snuci]

Never thought to look. The SSK I use at work is an IBM from September 1992. It also has the green SysRq and has one piece key caps. For reference, the num pad legends are gray. It's hard to tell from the pic but the legends printed on the vertical front face are also gray.

Here's a quick pic:

IBM SSK Num pad legends

SSK Num Pad Legends.jpg (360.4 KiB) Viewed 2170 times