okay so today i want to share with you people my passion that i've gotten the last two months or so
see i didnt have any interest in mech keys until i played osu and realized that my laptop keys weren't sufficient enough, my $30 bluetooth keyboard was okay but i gave that to my brother before coming to canada. so after arriving here and achieving financially liberal status i decided to buy a mech. it's on its way.
first of all switches
switches are the mechanisms that allow your button press. it is located under your keycaps and are soldered to your pcb board. these are made of springs but if you want to modify them you'll have to desolder them which is kind of a pain in the ass i guess. but it's worth it.
before the modern ages, the company called "cherry" had the patent for these switches. which means, other companies were not able to produce a clone or a copy of the switch because cherry had all the rights to dictate the market and produce these types of switches. their patent expired in 2010 which finally allowed other companies to join the mechanical keyboard market. now companies such as zealios outemu and gateron produce similar switches to cherry and they each have their pros and cons. cherry is still looked upon as the "original" through.
there are three types of switches i know of. click, linear, and tactile.
the click switches are click itself. it's all explained in the click name. these are the blues, most commonly used for gaming for people who like pronounced feedback. when pressing a key, these switches make a distinct "click" sound- it's pretty loud, but i have to admit it does feel great. they have a special bump on the route of the actuation idk how to explain which allows them to make this clicky noise. they are also easier to actuate once it's past the clicky point because of that bump pushing down on the switch. these kinds of switch include blues and greens. these are really loud lol. the greens are a heavier version of blues but iirc greens are much harder to find on the market. maybe it was a specific brand that's hard to find. i dont remember... anyways these are really widely used by gamers.
linear means there's no "click". the switch bottoms out without tactical feedback. these include reds and blacks. red switches have the lightest actuation force out of the most commonly used switches and so you can literally just rest your finger on the key and it will register your keystroke. the good thing about linear switches is that it has no resistance or tactile feedback so it's easy to actuate. these are good for rhythm games, but sometimes people just prefer having feedback in order to see whether they've actuated or not. blacks are the stiffer version, or heavier version of reds, meaning that you have to press a little harder in order to actuate your keys. iirc blacks need 60g of force when reds need 45g. (though the actuation points vary little depending on switch producing companies). some of my friends who have tried these black switches have told me that 60g is too much for their fingers and sometimes would tire them out.
tactile means there's a tactile feedback but no click. it's a little quieter than the clicks but it still makes some noise and gives you feedback whether you actuated or not. the most commonly used switch here are the browns. some people complain that the browns are mushy which i dont agree with at all. i believe that browns give you the tactile feedback while being fairly easy to actuate, along with the fact that it's not that loud. yeah it's loud, but with proper lube and sound dampening modifications it can be quieter. the heavier version of browns are clears. blues reds and browns are the most common switches but i think gamers buy blues a lot for their first time mech keyboards and others buy browns a lot. browns i think are just the middle ground which allows everyone to experience mech. that being said i ordered a brown too.
ok, now onto keyboard layouts.
there is a full sized keyboard. called 100%s. these are the usual gigantic keyboards you know of, the ones with all function keys, home, pg up, pg dn, those crap, and the number pad. these provide full functionality on your board and usually only uses one layer of keys because all keys correspond to a function. you can see these everywhere, it's the most commonly used type of keyboard in households and schools.. etc. they are nice, but the cons are that they take up a lot of space and people might not necessarily use numpads. i used to love numpads until i moved to laptop and i dont even use numpads anymore. but maybe sometimes i need them. anyways.
there are smaller keyboards. the tkl. usually known as the 80%s. these are called "tenkeyless" aka tkl. they are missing the numpad. many gamers use this because without the numpad, they will have more space to use their mouse and to move their mouse. it's also preferred to people that dont use numpads a lot because they won't need them anyway. this keyboard still has function keys which can be used to navigate and stuff. also it's more aesthetically pleasing imo so many people enjoy tkl as well. actually, a lot of people who get an interest in keyboards choose tkls as their first choice.
and then comes the 60%s. these are even smaller boards. the board i ordered is a 68 for example which means there are 68 keys. (iirc the full keyboard has 101 keys. but well i dont know) these dont have the function keys and the numpad, thus making the board really compact. some don't even have arrow keys. then how do you make up for all these lost keys, you ask? you have multiple layers. each layer has different keys, so you'll have to get used to them; basically what you do is to map your function key to swap layers, and if you need numbers or functions for example you would swap to the function layer with your function key and then start using the key. this means that there will be an entering difficulty curve, yes, to memorize the layers, but once you get used to it it's fine and it's really compact on your desk opening up lots of space.
it's not over yet. there are 40%s as well. these i really dont know how people use them but they look really cool. these are even smaller than 60s, and probably has multiple, multiple layers. they're cute. i dont have anything else to say.
there are also the ortholinear keyboards. the planck is a big example which was a great hit. the keys arent zigzag, they're all in a row. there was a reason to why they made ortholinear keyboards, but i dont remember their story. you can probably find them on the planck website. these are really cool too.
ergodox comes last. have you seen those weirdly shaped, split keyboards? they're the ergodox. also known as the keyboards fit for human hands. it is a keyboard, split into two, for each hand. i've heard they're comfortable. i dont know for sure because heck i havent even seen them irl.
see i also want to talk about keycaps but this post is shit long. thanks for reading kbye
see i didnt have any interest in mech keys until i played osu and realized that my laptop keys weren't sufficient enough, my $30 bluetooth keyboard was okay but i gave that to my brother before coming to canada. so after arriving here and achieving financially liberal status i decided to buy a mech. it's on its way.
first of all switches
switches are the mechanisms that allow your button press. it is located under your keycaps and are soldered to your pcb board. these are made of springs but if you want to modify them you'll have to desolder them which is kind of a pain in the ass i guess. but it's worth it.
before the modern ages, the company called "cherry" had the patent for these switches. which means, other companies were not able to produce a clone or a copy of the switch because cherry had all the rights to dictate the market and produce these types of switches. their patent expired in 2010 which finally allowed other companies to join the mechanical keyboard market. now companies such as zealios outemu and gateron produce similar switches to cherry and they each have their pros and cons. cherry is still looked upon as the "original" through.
there are three types of switches i know of. click, linear, and tactile.
the click switches are click itself. it's all explained in the click name. these are the blues, most commonly used for gaming for people who like pronounced feedback. when pressing a key, these switches make a distinct "click" sound- it's pretty loud, but i have to admit it does feel great. they have a special bump on the route of the actuation idk how to explain which allows them to make this clicky noise. they are also easier to actuate once it's past the clicky point because of that bump pushing down on the switch. these kinds of switch include blues and greens. these are really loud lol. the greens are a heavier version of blues but iirc greens are much harder to find on the market. maybe it was a specific brand that's hard to find. i dont remember... anyways these are really widely used by gamers.
linear means there's no "click". the switch bottoms out without tactical feedback. these include reds and blacks. red switches have the lightest actuation force out of the most commonly used switches and so you can literally just rest your finger on the key and it will register your keystroke. the good thing about linear switches is that it has no resistance or tactile feedback so it's easy to actuate. these are good for rhythm games, but sometimes people just prefer having feedback in order to see whether they've actuated or not. blacks are the stiffer version, or heavier version of reds, meaning that you have to press a little harder in order to actuate your keys. iirc blacks need 60g of force when reds need 45g. (though the actuation points vary little depending on switch producing companies). some of my friends who have tried these black switches have told me that 60g is too much for their fingers and sometimes would tire them out.
tactile means there's a tactile feedback but no click. it's a little quieter than the clicks but it still makes some noise and gives you feedback whether you actuated or not. the most commonly used switch here are the browns. some people complain that the browns are mushy which i dont agree with at all. i believe that browns give you the tactile feedback while being fairly easy to actuate, along with the fact that it's not that loud. yeah it's loud, but with proper lube and sound dampening modifications it can be quieter. the heavier version of browns are clears. blues reds and browns are the most common switches but i think gamers buy blues a lot for their first time mech keyboards and others buy browns a lot. browns i think are just the middle ground which allows everyone to experience mech. that being said i ordered a brown too.
ok, now onto keyboard layouts.
there is a full sized keyboard. called 100%s. these are the usual gigantic keyboards you know of, the ones with all function keys, home, pg up, pg dn, those crap, and the number pad. these provide full functionality on your board and usually only uses one layer of keys because all keys correspond to a function. you can see these everywhere, it's the most commonly used type of keyboard in households and schools.. etc. they are nice, but the cons are that they take up a lot of space and people might not necessarily use numpads. i used to love numpads until i moved to laptop and i dont even use numpads anymore. but maybe sometimes i need them. anyways.
there are smaller keyboards. the tkl. usually known as the 80%s. these are called "tenkeyless" aka tkl. they are missing the numpad. many gamers use this because without the numpad, they will have more space to use their mouse and to move their mouse. it's also preferred to people that dont use numpads a lot because they won't need them anyway. this keyboard still has function keys which can be used to navigate and stuff. also it's more aesthetically pleasing imo so many people enjoy tkl as well. actually, a lot of people who get an interest in keyboards choose tkls as their first choice.
and then comes the 60%s. these are even smaller boards. the board i ordered is a 68 for example which means there are 68 keys. (iirc the full keyboard has 101 keys. but well i dont know) these dont have the function keys and the numpad, thus making the board really compact. some don't even have arrow keys. then how do you make up for all these lost keys, you ask? you have multiple layers. each layer has different keys, so you'll have to get used to them; basically what you do is to map your function key to swap layers, and if you need numbers or functions for example you would swap to the function layer with your function key and then start using the key. this means that there will be an entering difficulty curve, yes, to memorize the layers, but once you get used to it it's fine and it's really compact on your desk opening up lots of space.
it's not over yet. there are 40%s as well. these i really dont know how people use them but they look really cool. these are even smaller than 60s, and probably has multiple, multiple layers. they're cute. i dont have anything else to say.
there are also the ortholinear keyboards. the planck is a big example which was a great hit. the keys arent zigzag, they're all in a row. there was a reason to why they made ortholinear keyboards, but i dont remember their story. you can probably find them on the planck website. these are really cool too.
ergodox comes last. have you seen those weirdly shaped, split keyboards? they're the ergodox. also known as the keyboards fit for human hands. it is a keyboard, split into two, for each hand. i've heard they're comfortable. i dont know for sure because heck i havent even seen them irl.
see i also want to talk about keycaps but this post is shit long. thanks for reading kbye
