I’ve been using mechanical keyboards for a while now, but the fact that I’m working in more than one place now has required me either carrying a keyboard everywhere I go or having more than one keyboard. I have of course chosen the latter, and it seems that customising keyboards has become a new hobby.
I’ve tried out a number of different models and layouts, but always seem to keep coming back to a 61 key ANSI layout keyboard (my current favourite is an Epomaker SK61); partly because I love the form factor but also because it’s easier to buy keycaps for them. I’ve now got a keyboard on each of my desks, and I’m happy enough with how they work and with the aesthetics of the keys. I have also now got a perspex box full of the black keycaps that many keyboards come with, but that don’t work for me unless they are backlit (and even then…). What I generally prefer is something lighter; with black or grey lettering on a white, grey or beige background. All of my keyboards have some variation on this, with slightly darker keys down the side and different coloured escape and enter keys (which most keycap sets seem to have and which I’ve just got used to).
My one ISO keyboard broadly follows this aesthetic as well, but has a few more keys and sits on my desk in the office just in case anyone else might need to use it. It’s the only keyboard I have where what is printed on the key represents exactly what each key is mapped to; it’s much easier for me to not have to change the way I type when I switch between layouts, and I have been using ISO configured computers with ANSI keyboards for years now anyway so I just type the same way on each keyboard without really looking at what is printed on the keys.
I think I’ll be writing about this subject again. In the meantime if I know any other secret mechanical keyboard enthusiasts then please get in touch.