deskthority

Some information an photos of different Alps keycaps:

• SGI
• Northgate Omnikey
• Mitsubishi MP 286L
• Toshiba T3100SX (and T3200, T5100, T5200)
• Ortek MKB 84 SX
• Tai Hao Alps Dolch

SGI (Indigo, Onyx, Indy/Indigo 2) Keycaps

Standard ANSI winkeyless, PBT dyesub (the new, rubberdome, granite Ocyane keyboard has thick PBT caps with other legends, but unfortunately useless mounts).

Non-standard keys: stepped caps lock, 7U Space, 1.5U Alt and Ctrl
Northgate Omnikey Plus Keycaps

Big ASS Enter (plate compatible with ANSI Enter and backslash), 1.75U right shift, most function keys in 2 columns to the left, , ABS double shots with colored Ctrl (red), Alt (blue), Shift (green) and Esc (red) keys (same keycaps as Focus 2001).

Non-standard keys: swapped caps lock and Ctrl (an option for all Omnikey keyboards AFAIK) 1.5U caps lock, 1.75U and 1.5U Ctrl, big ass enter, 7U Space, 1.5U Alt and Ctrl, 1.75U right shift, Esc in number row, [\|] right of right shift, [~`] and [*] at space row, [+] at num pad split into [+] and [=], F1-F10 in 2 columns on the left, F11 - F15 on normal function row, special nav cluster
Mitsubishi MP 286L Keycaps

ANSI Winkeyless 60% caps with 8U space and a non-standard stepped caps lock, double shot ABS caps (same manufacturer - Alps? - as the Toshiba caps)

Non-standard keys: 8U Space, 1.5U Alt and Ctrl, 1U blank key in space row, stepped caps lock with stem in non-standard location
Toshiba T3100SX keycaps

Almost all non-alphanumeric keys are non-standard, no [~`] key, ABS double shot, colored Fn key (blue) (same manufacturer - Alps - as the Mitsubishi caps)

Non-standard keys: 5.75U space, 2U ANSI enter, 1.75U backspace, 1.75U and 1.5U space, a single 1.5U Alt, stepped 1.25U Ctrl in caps lock position, 1U caps lock, 1U Fn, 1U tab with 1/4U 'step' on the upper left, 1.25U stepped [\|], [~`], Del and Ins in space row, only PrtScrn, no Pause or ScrlLck, Ins and Del at space row, Home, End, PgUp and PgDwn in a column to the right
Ortek MKB 84 SX keycaps

ISO 84 key layout, ISO enter, 5U space (space with Cherry-style wire stabs), 1U keys are ABS double shots, all bigger keys printed(?).

Non-standard keys: 5U space, 1.75U right shift, ISO enter, [\|] left of enter, 1.5U Alt and Ctrl, Ins and Del at space row, Home, End, PgUp and PgDwn in a column to the right
Tai Hao Alps Dolch

ANSI Layout, ABS double shots
Color comparison
Backsides

Great thanks for your work, all this is usable information for our wiki if you don't mind.

seebart wrote: Great thanks for your work, all this is usable information for our wiki if you don't mind.

Feel free to use the images and text.

Great stuff, thanks for sharing! I've been after nice SGI caps like that in ANSI for a while. I got the German ones a while ago and they're really quite nice too. The various grey doubleshots are all very nice too.

For color calibration: your gray card - is that a 40% gray?

XMIT wrote: For color calibration: your gray card - is that a 40% gray?

AFAIK it's an 18% (reflectance IIRC) card, RGB value would be a bit below 128 (50%).

It does seem like 18%, but having all that white in there makes it simple. Correcting white balance is essentially picking a neutral colour, and tweaking the settings until R=G=B! So from white all the way to almost black will work. As long as the greys are actually grey and not tinted. In my card set, the white card is a bit bluish, so I usually use either the grey, or a plain A4 piece of paper.

Cool project! Maybe consider adding these pictures to the wiki on a page about Alps keycaps (to be created if it doesn’t already exist)?

I think someone had concluded a while ago that Tai Hao was the producer for the Northgate keycaps; I don’t know what the source for that was though. Not sure about the Ortek.

The Mitsubishi and Toshiba laptops are indeed Alps-made keycaps. They were also originally the same color scheme, before the sun got to one of them.

stepped caps lock with stem in non-standard location

I’m not sure there’s a meaningful “standard” location for Alps stepped caps lock. I’ve seen 3 different ones on various keyboards.

More generally, I don’t think there’s a meaningful “standard” layout for old Alps keyboards.

It seems like you’re defining post-1995 Dell AT101W to be “standard”, but that seems like an anachronistic definition to apply to keyboards from the 80s or early 90s.

The "1.75x, 1.50 of which is raised" is also used on Acer boards with ALPS-style switches.

I’ve seen all of the following shapes for Alps caps lock. There might be other shapes besides these:

Great work. Thanks for sharing!

Can I also add keycap images from a Zenit XT style that I have?

jacobolus wrote: Cool project! Maybe consider adding these pictures to the wiki on a page about Alps keycaps (to be created if it doesn’t already exist)?

I had actually thought about adding this to the wiki, but I'm not familiar enough with it's structure to add that info to the right places, it doesn't really fit in any of the keycaps subcategories wiki/Category:Keycaps

jacobolus wrote:
It seems like you’re defining post-1995 Dell AT101W to be “standard”, but that seems like an anachronistic definition to apply to keyboards from the 80s or early 90s.

Oh, I've forgotten to clarify that: 'standard' means current, 'modern' (MX) ANSI standard (including win keys).