Popular Custom Keycap Sets

SA Camping

The great outdoors and keyboards don't usually mix, but SA Camping brings a little of the outdoors to your keyboard. This is a sculpted SA keyset produced by SP (doubleshot ABS) and designed by Camp-Team China. As the name suggests, it's all camping themed, with a green, white, and red colorway. There are also numerous delightful novelty caps like mountains, trailers, campfires, compases, and more. This group buy happened in the summer of 2016, but it's already in high demand in the aftermarket. We've seen it sell for upwards of $350.


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Nantucket Selectric

Nantucket Selectric is half old-fashioned typewriter and half nautical-themed, but it's all awesome. It was designed by the makers of the popular Clueboard custom keyboard kit and produced in SA profile with doubleshot ABS by Signature Plastics. The colorway consists of cream and navy with yellow accents. There's also an "Amity Island" add-on kit that includes red accents with a more "dangerous" vibe. It's got shark fins, sea monsters, and skulls. It's a gorgeous set, but it’s also tough to find now. The base set without any fancy add-ons often sells for over $200.


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DSA Lightcycle

Designed by Evangs of The Van Keyboards, DSA Lightcycle is an homage to everyone's favorite '80s sci-fi film, Tron. The black, gray, and cyan keys perfectly replicate the feel of that movie, and the novelty caps are fantastic. There's an identity disc, light cycles, and "MCP," among others. It was produced by Signature Plastics, so it has sharp doubleshot legends. Unlike most sets, this one was available for both MX switches and the much less common Alps mount switches. This set just shipped recently, so it's not too overpriced on the buy/sell/trade pages, going for $175 or so.


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GMK Plum

A lot of GMK sets are mashups of the same few colors, but GMK Plum is something distinctive. This set uses custom colors that look like a plum—there's a nice, pulpy tan and a deep, muted purple. The set also has red accents in a similar muted tone. Because it's GMK, the set is Cherry profile in thick doubleshot ABS. The set looks great, and it was sold on Massdrop just last year. That means plenty were sold, and supply isn't too constrained. Still, the resale price is creeping closer and closer to $200.


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Grand Budapest

Grand Budapest is another SA keyset manufactured by SP, but this one is much more cheerful and bright than most. It uses pink, purple, and red in the style of the film The Grand Budapest Hotel. The tall, SA profile keycaps work with the aesthetic well, and there are novelties fitting for a keyset based on a fictional hotel. The old-fashioned key legends are particularly nice, and there's a "Lobby Boy" enter key.


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MORE: Tenkeyless Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Price List


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  • Ne0Wolf7
    Carbon is number 12 now!?!?! That's magnesium, carbon is 6 lol. Unless the thing called carbon is dedicated to magnesium... Either way, how is orange and white carbon themed?
    Reply
  • lsatenstein
    What about US language or other keyboard keytops? for PC105
    KBDID: 058
    Description: Canadian French old style
    Status: Registered
    National Layout: Yes
    Regions: Canada
    Registration Date: 1991-01-01
    Last Revision Date: 1995-05-08
    Notes:
    Required for Canada

    Or Latim layout
    Reply
  • doubletake
    Forgot the best caps available: blank PBT in black/dark grey so that anyone who wants to use your keyboard but hasn't learned to type ends up fumbling and regretting having asked you in the first place :D
    Reply
  • AnimeMania
    What is the name of the standard for the hole in the keycap/post on the key so that you know the keycaps are compatible with your keyboard.

    What do people do when the number of keycaps that are supplied are less than the number of keys on their keyboard? I noticed that the ones pictured did not include keypad or function keycaps. Is there a standard number of keycaps for a set?
    Reply
  • lsatenstein
    20158421 said:
    Forgot the best caps available: blank PBT in black/dark grey so that anyone who wants to use your keyboard but hasn't learned to type ends up fumbling and regretting having asked you in the first place :D

    My keyboard is 10 years old and going strong. Four keytops showing wear are:
    c, v, '.' and ',' with a close second for < and for >
    Reply
  • kitfaaace
    animemania- i don't know how to reply here but your answer is this: what most of these minimalist keyboards use is covered under a "base set". most keycap set drops also include things like "numpad set", and also options for unusual layouts. some of these minimalist keyboards have smaller than usual ctrl alt etc keys and there will usually be a "compact set" or something similar to cover those. and finally. depending on the set, there will also be a european set or two, for things like é and ñ and ö, and the ISO enter.
    Reply
  • doubletake
    20158587 said:
    What is the name of the standard for the hole in the keycap/post on the key so that you know the keycaps are compatible with your keyboard.
    There are several, but the most common by far are the Cherry MX-style post (cross shaped). The switch compatibility is pretty much always clearly stated in any product listing for aftermarket keycaps, just look for it.

    20158587 said:
    What do people do when the number of keycaps that are supplied are less than the number of keys on their keyboard?...Is there a standard number of keycaps for a set?
    That doesn't happen unless you mistakenly order the wrong set. The 3 most common sets (assuming U.S. layout) include the 100% - 104 key (typical full layout + number pad), the TKL (ten key-less) 87 key, and the 60% - 61 key layouts.

    There are quite a few other layouts that require shopping at dedicated sites for compatible caps, but unless you went out of your way to buy such a keyboard, your board should be compatible. If your board happens to have any additional keys not covered by the usual standard counts (e.g. macro keys, multimedia, etc), you'll have to buy those separately.
    Reply
  • bloodroses
    I'm surprised not to see the typewriter keycap set. I get compliments all the time about mine on my cherry blue keyboard:

    https://www.massdrop.com/buy/typewriter-abs-keycap-set
    Reply
  • bit_user
    I was sure the article was building to something like this:

    http://www.tomshardware.com/news/jelly-key-forbidden-realm-keycaps-mechanical-keyboards,35016.html

    Now, I see the word "Popular" in the title. Plus, I guess it's about full sets, which those aren't.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    It'd be interesting if some small/medium-sized company commissioned a custom keycap set for the workstations & laptops provided for employee use.
    Reply