deskthority

So Signature Plastics announced the come back of the DSS profile more than a year ago, it seems it will be finally out in the coming months.

I've never seen it in person, below some photos posted I've found on the interweb
It's basically a low profile SA. Still sculpted but as far as I can tell the suggested layout is:
R1 R1 R2 R3 R4 R3

That honestly I don't find terrible.

Anyone had the chance to see them in person? I was asked to release Retro in DSS but now that I think of it, it might not be tall enough if we plan on side printing it.

I think that prototype was displayed at some keyboard party in the US ...

matt3o wrote: 26 Feb 2019, 13:28 it might not be tall enough if we plan on side printing it.

Isn't it taller than DCS and Cherry profile? Those get side-printed all the time.
I think also the side-printing will be more visible on this than on SA because it is more angled.

Findecanor wrote: 26 Feb 2019, 13:44 Isn't it taller than DCS and Cherry profile? Those get side-printed all the time.
I think also the side-printing will be more visible on this than on SA because it is more angled.

yeah it can be done technically, just I want the side legends to be visible, but good point on the angle

hmm side profile looks similar to the pingmaster from watching Chyros' review of it. Almost looks like the profile of SA but in reverse being flat at the top yet aggressively sculpted at the bottom

Man that looks very nice. Like a more comfortable SA.

So they needed over a year from the announcement to the first actual pictures?

Looks like a very steep profile, not sure if that works well on modern boards which are rather flat.

hansichen wrote: 26 Feb 2019, 14:23 So they needed over a year from the announcement to the first actual pictures?

no, they needed over a year (actually possibly 2) from the first prototype (above) to final product.

I agree R4 is really steep, I'd like to try it in person.

Anakey wrote: 26 Feb 2019, 14:03 hmm side profile looks similar to the pingmaster from watching Chyros' review of it. Almost looks like the profile of SA but in reverse being flat at the top yet aggressively sculpted at the bottom

I threw this together from a screenshot of his review and the image above. (The coloured lines are from the other profile)
The Pingmaster's profile is a bit more aggressive, both at the top and the bottom. But it does have a convex bottom row, so your thumb would be more comfortable pressing those.

hansichen wrote: 26 Feb 2019, 14:23 So they needed over a year from the announcement to the first actual pictures?

There had to make new moulds for a few key sizes, and they had another project that they wanted to complete sooner.

consider that the bottom row is R4 in the picture but should be actually R3 (R1, R1, R2, R3, R4, R3)

Here, a comparison with DCS profile, which is very similar to Cherry profile except for the ZXCV row. It's from one of Signature Plastics' own charts of its profiles with both in them, unfortunately I could find it only in pretty low resolution on short notice.
Here, they look very similar, except for being cylindrical vs. spherical. The front edge of the Space Bar looks softer, even.

BTW, there have been a short discussion somewhere of the possibility of combining DSS and SA profiles, using a different profile for different rows. I dunno if that is feasible or if the features and finishes would be too different.

Findecanor wrote: 26 Feb 2019, 16:33 BTW, there have been a short discussion somewhere of the possibility of combining DSS and SA profiles, using a different profile for different rows. I dunno if that is feasible or if the features and finishes would be too different.

that would be interesting

DSS comes only in matte top, semi-matte sides. From what I can see from the pictures, matte is pretty rough, looks like DSA.

matt3o wrote: 26 Feb 2019, 16:57

Findecanor wrote: 26 Feb 2019, 16:33 BTW, there have been a short discussion somewhere of the possibility of combining DSS and SA profiles, using a different profile for different rows. I dunno if that is feasible or if the features and finishes would be too different.

that would be interesting

DSS comes only in matte top, semi-matte sides. From what I can see from the pictures, matte is pretty rough, looks like DSA.

I like it rough , will be intresting to see what sets will come from it.

I think I can safely say that I am not a fan of SA profile, but I do quite like DSA.

The sculpting + rough matte texture, and only a little bit taller than DSA might be really nice actually. Interested to see what comes of it.

I talked to Melissa and we agreed to keep Retro to SA, so we are doing something new.

As far as I understand they plan a July/August release