Do all G80/81-3000 WoB doubleshot boards have a printed bottom row?

[Ars4l4n]

There's an oldschool Cherry G80/81-3000 with white on black doubleshots on this wiki page with the description "bottom row printed".

I'm not sure if this is the norm or exception. Looking at the pictures, it could be the case with others too. Though, the picture quality is never good enough for me to be absolutely sure. Perhaps one of you knows the answer?

[Myoth]

The Windows and Menu keys are indeed always pad-printed on G8x-3000 board where they appear. This picture will help you understand better

3000hrmus-3 by photekq-gh, sur Flickr

[Ars4l4n]

The Windows and Menu keys are indeed always pad-printed on G8x-3000 board where they appear.

Any idea why they actually do that? I mean, as far as I can see even keys like ä ö ü on german boards are doubleshots and they should be more rare than a CTRL key so the argument can't be that the manufacturing quantity is too low to justify the expensive doubleshot molding procedure, right?

Btw, your statement regarding the bottom rows always being pad printed on these keyboards may be true but the picture you showed looks like some of the bottom row caps are doubleshot actually. Didn't white caps use to be dye-sub only and not doubleshot? This leads me to the assumption that he replaced the original bottom row caps

How is the durability of those bottom row pad prints?


Note 2 myself: Looking at the wikis' pictures, it seems like the bottom row being pad printed is more noticable on black keycaps rather than on white ones

[Rayndalf]

The Windows and Menu keys are indeed always pad-printed on G8x-3000 board where they appear.

Any idea why they actually do that? I mean, as far as I can see even keys like ä ö ü on german boards are doubleshots and they should be more rare than a CTRL key so the argument can't be that the manufacturing quantity is too low to justify the expensive doubleshot molding procedure, right?

Btw, your statement regarding the bottom rows always being pad printed on these keyboards may be true but the picture you showed looks like some of the bottom row caps are doubleshot actually. Didn't white caps use to be dye-sub only and not doubleshot? This leads me to the assumption that he replaced the original bottom row caps

How is the durability of those bottom row pad prints?


Note 2 myself: Looking at the wikis' pictures, it seems like the bottom row being pad printed is more noticable on black keycaps rather than on white ones

The arrival of the windows keys coincides with many keyboard manufacturers tightening their belts and cuttings costs to compete in a collapsing market (it wasn't just high end machines that shipped with keyboards anymore, a rubber dome board and a ball mouse were shipping with nearly every new machine). Pair that with the fact that the windows (95) symbol pixelates on one side...

Cherry was just trying to stay in business, maintaining old tooling was feasible, but their primary customer wasn't consumers so many of their boards were sold for legacy and POS systems (which didn't use the key anyway).

I believe complete doubleshot bottomrows are more modern (if they exist pre GMK) and show that corporate customers need Winkeys or that Cherry was breaking out of "the race to the bottom" working to establish themselves as a premium consumer brand.

[kbdfr]

The Windows and Menu keys are indeed always pad-printed on G8x-3000 board where they appear.

Any idea why they actually do that? […]

Cost cutting. Windows symbols change with every new Windows version.

[…] Didn't white caps use to be dye-sub only and not doubleshot? This leads me to the assumption that he replaced the original bottom row caps.

There were dye-sub keycap sets and doubleshot keycap sets.
The photo (by photekq) posted by Myoth is that of a perfectly legit keyboard with doubleshot modifiers except for the Winddows and Menu keycaps.

[…] How is the durability of those bottom row pad prints? […]

Excellent, in fact obviously much longer than the 2 years of heavy use suggested by (DT founder and Cherry expert) sixty in the following (nearly 9 years old) conversation dealing with the same question. Have a look at the pics, you'll bee able to see their protective coating.
viewtopic.php?p=26662#p26662

[Ars4l4n]

I believe complete doubleshot bottomrows are more modern (if they exist pre GMK) and show that corporate customers need Winkeys or that Cherry was breaking out of "the race to the bottom" working to establish themselves as a premium consumer brand.

Okay but do you actually know a Cherry keyboard that has white on black keycaps with most of the bottom row being doubleshot?
Because on the Wikipage of the Cherry G81 the WoB boards don't look like that - They often look pretty unconvincing with the bottom row letters appearing thinner than the rest
And for the derivatives I browsed through like G80 1000/1500/9013 there were no black versions at all

[photekq]

Okay but do you actually know a Cherry keyboard that has white on black keycaps with most of the bottom row being doubleshot?
Because on the Wikipage of the Cherry G81 the WoB boards don't look like that - They often look pretty unconvincing with the bottom row letters appearing thinner than the rest
And for the derivatives I browsed through like G80 1000/1500/9013 there were no black versions at all

Yes. Any WoB winkeyless Cherry keyboard, like the G81-3000HBU.

It just so happens that WoB, winkeyless, full-size layout Cherry keyboards are extremely rare. There are only a few known models, like the G81-3000HBU, and they don't get found very often. The winkeyless G81-1800HBU and other similar models are more common and also fully doubleshot.

However, the bulk of Cherry's WoB boards are the more modern, winkey models like the 7000 and 8000 series which is why, as discussed above, you won't be able to find any with a fully doubleshot bottom row.

I think you're being a bit hyperbolic when you say the printed bottom row looks unconvincing. I own plenty of printed WoB bottom rows, and from typing distance, you can't really tell the difference. Unless they're worn, or if you've got it under lighting which really brings out the slightly lower contrast. Cherry's pad print was good; the font and font size always matched the doubleshots, unlike GMK.