{"id":5965,"date":"2022-12-10T14:48:32","date_gmt":"2022-12-10T19:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/?p=5965"},"modified":"2022-12-10T14:48:48","modified_gmt":"2022-12-10T19:48:48","slug":"a-difference-in-key-caps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2022\/12\/10\/a-difference-in-key-caps\/","title":{"rendered":"A Difference in Key Caps"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

So I’ve been using my Keychron K8 tenkeyless keyboard<\/a> for quite a while now, and I’ve been pretty happy with it – but sometimes I do miss having a full number pad, so today I decided to swap back to my old Das Keyboard Pro<\/a> and see how I felt. (It also gave me a chance to try out the new key caps I’d put on that keyboard.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
My Das Keyboard 4 Professional with the new set of black & red key caps<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Well, the fact that I swapped back within the space of about an hour should tell you all you need to know. It seems I’ve become a bit of a tenkeyless convert. My mouse hand (I’m right handed) kept bumping into the keyboard, and the angle I had to use to hold my mouse and also be able to type without bending my wrists just wasn’t working. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, I did some tests of my typing speed while I was switching between keyboards and I found some interesting results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Monkeytype.com
My typing speed on the Das Keyboard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Monkeytype.com
My typing speed on the Keychron K8 <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Much to my surprise, I was actually slower <\/em>at typing on the Keychron keyboard vs the Das Keyboard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, I knew the Das Keyboard was a great keyboard – I’d used it for years, and there was no doubt that I loved (and still love) the feel of it. But clearly, it goes beyond just feeling good – it also allows me to type a little bit faster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thing is, however, both of these keyboards have the same type of switch – a tactile style switch – so you’d think they would be basically the same… but clearly they aren’t. (The switch brands are different – Cherry vs Gateron – but the function is nearly identical.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, one thing that isn’t <\/em>identical is the key caps – as I mentioned, I’d just put a nice new set on the Das Keyboard. So, to even things out (and because I happened to have another set lying around), I decided to swap out the key caps on the Keychron K8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Keychron K8 with the new set of gray and yellow key caps<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I had actually bought these key caps at the same time and from the same place as the black & red ones I had on my Das Keyboard, so they were a good comparison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what were the results?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Monkeytype.com
My typing speed on the Keychron K8 with new key caps<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Well, well, well… would you look at that! Exactly the same speed as on the Das Keyboard. (And my accuracy went up as well.) Who would’ve thought that key caps could make such a difference? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, I’m pretty pleased with how this came out – and with how it looks. Though, I do miss some of the extra info that was on the Keychron keys for when you used the function button – now I have to remember which function keys operate which media controls. But that’s a small price to pay – and one I think I can live with. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What difference can keyboard key caps make? Let’s find out!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[496,497,534],"class_list":["post-5965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","category-technology","tag-keyboards","tag-mechanical-keyboards","tag-typing","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pimUj-1yd","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6190,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2024\/12\/10\/another-year-another-set-of-key-caps\/","url_meta":{"origin":5965,"position":0},"title":"Another year, another set of key caps","author":"Keith Survell","date":"December 10, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"It's (almost) a new year, and during Black Friday I saw an ad for key caps and it's been a little while since I last changed out my key caps, and the price was good, so I decided to get myself a new set, just to change things up. (Also,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "personal"","block_context":{"text":"personal","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5686,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2021\/12\/12\/so-i-got-a-new-keyboard\/","url_meta":{"origin":5965,"position":1},"title":"So I got a new keyboard…","author":"Keith Survell","date":"December 12, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Wherein Keith has opinions on keyboards","rel":"","context":"In "My Opinion"","block_context":{"text":"My Opinion","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/my-opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2021\/12\/keychron-keyboard-from-above-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2021\/12\/keychron-keyboard-from-above-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2021\/12\/keychron-keyboard-from-above-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2021\/12\/keychron-keyboard-from-above-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2021\/12\/keychron-keyboard-from-above-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2021\/12\/keychron-keyboard-from-above-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4151,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2013\/02\/13\/new-laptop\/","url_meta":{"origin":5965,"position":2},"title":"New Laptop","author":"Keith Survell","date":"February 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"After an extended power outage forced me to work from my netbook, I realized it's time for me to get a proper laptop - and this is what I ended up with.","rel":"","context":"In "My Opinion"","block_context":{"text":"My Opinion","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/my-opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Acer Aspire Timeline X 4830T notebook","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2013\/02\/notebook-acer-aspire-timelinex-4830t-2313g32mnbb-front-300x220.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":744,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2006\/05\/10\/office-bunnies\/","url_meta":{"origin":5965,"position":3},"title":"Office… Bunnies?","author":"Keith Survell","date":"May 10, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The buns join me down in my office for the day to do some exploring (and other cute things).","rel":"","context":"In "pets"","block_context":{"text":"pets","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/pets\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3902,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2012\/05\/24\/usb-insanity\/","url_meta":{"origin":5965,"position":4},"title":"USB Insanity","author":"Keith Survell","date":"May 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"A look at the absolutely insane number of USB devices I have hanging off my computer, and the fact that there never seem to be enough ports!","rel":"","context":"In "Gadgets"","block_context":{"text":"Gadgets","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/technology\/gadgets\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2012\/04\/usbpendrive_unmount.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":178,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2004\/07\/26\/you-know-youre-a-geek-when\/","url_meta":{"origin":5965,"position":5},"title":"You Know You’re A Geek When…","author":"Keith Survell","date":"July 26, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"You know you're a geek when you're reading a book, and it's time to turn the page, and you look for a \"page down\" key.","rel":"","context":"In "personal"","block_context":{"text":"personal","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5965"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5971,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5965\/revisions\/5971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}