I’m considering getting a Keychron K8 Pro or Q3 keyboard, but the keycaps don’t have backlit letters. Annoyed. Anyone got other recommendations for a bluetooth TKL mechanical keyboard with backlit keys?
I’m considering getting a Keychron K8 Pro or Q3 keyboard, but the keycaps don’t have backlit letters. Annoyed. Anyone got other recommendations for a bluetooth TKL mechanical keyboard with backlit keys?
Yeah the whole north vs south facing thing just seems silly. The right keycap profile seems to eliminate any keycap-switch interference issues so designing a decent north facing keyboard with the appropriate features should be trivial. Hell keychron made a good one (K10) just didn’t have qmk/via.
Pudding keycaps are another good possibility but I’m a Mac user and I’ve yet to find pudding keycaps with Mac legends.
I can kind of see why keyboard manufacturers do this with their nicer models. Another issue with shine through keycaps is that they have to be very thin for the shine through to work properly, which makes them feel cheap to enthusiasts, who usually prefer thicker, higher quality keycaps. Therefore, most enthusiasts do not care about shinethrough (and, as a result, the orientation of the LEDs) and would rather trade shinethrough compatibility for keycap profile compatibility.
On the other hand, it is still annoying. For a hobby that puts pReFeReNcE on a pedestal, it can be hard to find a perfect endgame. It’s already basically impossible to find the pudding keycaps with Mac legends like you said, but it would be even more challenging to find those same keycaps in an obscure format like ISO Nordic or something. It’s why so many folks in the EU use ANSI keycaps even though they’re inconvenient for them to use.
Pretty sure there is no endgame with me 😀 I will constantly see something newer and shinier.
I’m fairly certain I could come up with some design or process that isn’t thin and would let the light through if given enough time and money but I don’t have a lot of either unfortunately. So I guess I will search and search until my twilight years 🪦😂
Maybe before than my 3D printer would be capable of making what I eventually would want. I’ve actually gotten pretty good results already. We shall see.