Mechanical Keyboard Sound Isn't That Simple
Figure 1: I couldn't think of a more literal way to represent this article if I tried... Looking back just a few years ago, there’s no doubt that the huge influx of people that joined the hobby at the peak of the COVID pandemic were drawn to keyboards by way of YouTube, TikTok, and other audio-visual content platforms. Even as the output from these content creators has waned in recent months, their collective impact and legacy on the keyboard hobby is rather firmly etched in the history books. As a result of all of their sound tests, build logs, and opinion videos, the message is clear to any new person joining the hobby: mechanical keyboards are all about the sound. Thock this, clack that. Whether it’s keyboards, keycaps, or even singular switches, seemingly everyone new to the hobby meticulously pores over each component of their keyboard not in an attempt to figure out how it will feel in hand, but how it will sound as they’re furiously grinding their way out from...
Mar 27, 2024
Topre keyswitches are mechanical keyswitches that nevertheless incorporate a rubber dome, so they are softer in feeling. They are hard to find on keyboards. Topre is a Japanese company, Tokyo Press, whose main gig is sheet metal pressing for automobiles They have other businesses (including bath tub covers, one of which I own) none of which relates to keyboards. I have no clue how the key switch business started inside such a company.
Hacking Hacking Keyboards was established to make a keyboard designed by a legenday computer science professor at Tokyo University. It has the control key to the left of the A, which makes it easy for geeks to use commands in terminal mode, for instance emacs and vi. The original version had no arrow keys, since geeks use control key combinations to move the cursor, but my version had small arrow keys crammed in. HHK's maker is now owned by Fujitsu.
60 percent keyboards are the size of the Apple wireless keyboard, Standard keyboards have 19 mm key pitch, i.e. the keys center to center (or left edge to left edge) are 19 mm apart. You don't want to make that smaller, so to make a smaller keyboard you just remove keys. A 60 percent keyboard is missing a dedicated function key row at the top, as well as the navigation pad and num pad.
A 40 percent keyboard also is missing a dedicated number row, and has fewer keys left to right also. It's 4 rows tall by 13 keys wide. To enter numbers you need to put the keyboard into another mode or use a function key (function-tab will produce a 1, function-A a 2). Additionally, some of the punctuation requires use of a function key. 40 percent keyboards are four keys high times 13 keys wide. They remain mostly hobby projects that people build from parts, but mine is a commercial keyboard from a company in Taiwan, the Vortex Core. It has no tray extending outside the keys. So it's even smaller than most 40 percenters. It looks normal to me, but other people just laugh.
https://www.massdrop.com/buy/vortex-core-47