This is intended to be a reference to all things related to mechanical keyboards. I’ve always been a lover of mechanical keyboards, but I’ve gone way down the rabbit hole recently and would like to aggregate all the information I’ve gathered into one spot.

Keyboards

Layout Sizes

100% - 104 keys - Full Size

This is your standard full size keyboard with separate arrow keys, movement cluster, and numpad.

Examples: Keychron K10 Pro, MonsGeek M5, Unicomp New Model M

80% - 87 keys - Tenkeyless (TKL)

This layout simply removes the numpad and retains the arrows keys and movement cluster. If you don’t need a numpad, this provides a familiar layout that takes up less space.

Examples: Drop Entr, Keychron K8, Keychron C3 Pro

75% - 84 keys

Keychron V1
Keychron V1
Ducky ProjectD Tinker75
Ducky ProjectD Tinker75

This layout smushes the arrow keys into the right side of the keyboard and reduces the movement cluster to a single vertical strip of keys. Possibly the smallest you can go without a larger adjustment in how you use the keyboard.

Examples: Meletrix Zoom75, Wobkey Rainy75, Shortcut Studio Bridge75, Keychron V1, Ducky ProjectD Tinker75

65% - 68 keys

Glorious GMMK 2 Compact 65%
Glorious GMMK 2 Compact 65%

Same as a 75% layout, but with the function keys removed. The function keys are normally accessed from the second layer where the number keys are.

Examples: Qwertykeys Neo65, Weikav Lucky65, Glorious GMMK 2 Compact 65%, Lemokey X6

60% - 61 keys

Compared to the 65%, this layout removes the arrow keys and movement cluster which necessitates using layers.

Examples: KBDfans Tofu60, Skyloong GK61, Redragon Dragonborn K630

40% - 47 keys

A minimalist, but popular, keyboard layout that removes the number row (compared to a 60%) and relies on layers to access most of the standard functionality of a larger keyboard. Frequently represented with an ortholinear layout, meaning the keys are all the same size and laid out in a uniform grid.

Examples: Drop OLKB Planck EZ, Inland 47

Exploded vs Non-Exploded

A keyboard layout is considered exploded if some of the key clusters are slightly offset from the rest of the keys. Usually this means the arrow key cluster is moved to the right a few millimeters and sometimes down as well. The movement cluster might also be slightly offset. An example of this is the Keychron V2.

In a non-exploded layout there are no gaps between the keys. An example of this is the Keychron K2.

Some people might prefer an exploded layout because it makes the arrow keys easier to find from touch alone. In the end, it just comes down to personal preference.

Hot-Swappable

A hot-swappable keyboard allows you to replace the switches yourself without any soldering. Soldering switches is very time consuming and makes it very difficult or impractical to change switches.

North-facing PCB vs South-facing PCB

The PCB can be north-facing or south-facing, which indicates the location of the RGB lighting and the switch orientation.

North-facing

RGB lighting is on the upper side of the PCB for each switch. This is better for shine-through keycaps, but the positioning of the switches can interfere with Cherry profile keycaps. Switches with long pole stems can potentially mitigate the issue with Cherry profile keycaps. Some examples of keycap profiles that should work without interference are DSA, XDA, MT3, OEM, or SA.

South-facing

RGB lighting is on the lower side of the PCB for each switch. This is better for keycap compatibility and all keycap profiles should work without any kind of interference. Shine-through keycaps will not emit as much light, unless the legends are on the south wall of the keycap.

Kit Options

Keyboards frequently come fully assembled, or prebuilt, but they can also be purchased barebones. Barebones means the keyboard does not include switches or keycaps, but is otherwise fully assembled. Usually a barebones kit is hot-swappable so it doesn’t take much effort to finish assembly with the switches and keycaps of your choice. Another option is purchasing PCBs and cases separately so you can fully assemble a keyboard from scratch.

Switches

Switch Types

There are a wide variety of switches, but they commonly fall into the catergories listed below. Most modern switches are Cherry MX compatible, meaning they have a “+” shaped stem that interlocks with most keycaps and the standard 3 or 5 pins that most keyboards support. A lot of switches come pre-lubed, which can avoid scratchiness and save a ton of time lubing by hand.

Linear

No tactile bump or clicky noise. Completely smooth. Generally preferred by the keyboard enthusiast and gaming communities.

Examples: Cherry MX Red, Gateron Milky Yellow Pro, Gateron Oil Kings, Akko Creamy Black Pro

Tactile

Has a tactile bump, but no clicky noise. Also well-liked by the keyboard enthusiast community and great for typing/office work.

Examples: Cherry MX Brown, Boba U4T, Gateron Baby Kangaroo, MMD Princess Tactile, Akko Creamy Blue Pro

Clicky

Has both a tactile bump and makes a clicky noise. These types of switches are either loved or hated and generally come down to user preference. They can be loud and are usually reserved for home use. As fun as clickies are, don’t bring them to the office.

Examples: Cherry MX Blue, Kailh Box Jade

Silent

Has rubber padding to dampen the sound of the stem bottoming out. These switches are frequently linear, but not always.

Examples: Outemu Silent Peach, Kailh Prestige Silent

Optical

These are linear switches that use light instead of a mechanical feature to determine when the switch actuates. Due to the nature of the switch, they are supposed to last longer, but since mechanical switches already last forever this isn’t much of a selling point. There are a limited number of boards that support this type of switch, usually gaming keyboards.

Hall Effect (Magnetic)

These are linear switches that use magnetic fields instead of a mechanical feature to determine when the switch actuates. Actuation of the switch can happen as soon as the direction of the keypress is reversed, making these ideal for gaming. These are growing in popularity, but only certain keyboards support these kinds of switches.

Buckling Spring

An older type of mechanical switch involving a spring that will buckle and strike an internal contact to complete the switch circuit. They are tactile and loud and glorious, but might not be practical for daily use outside of the home.

Rubber Dome Over Membrane

This is what you find on a generic keyboard bundled with a pre-built computer. Rubber domes provide some form of tactility, but they feel mushy and are undesirable. The rubber domes compress membrane sheets to generate a keypress. They are an abomination in the world of mechanical keyboards and should be avoided at all costs.

Scissor

A scissor mechanism is used in combination with a rubber dome. Typically used in laptop keyboards for their low profile. In my experience, scissor switches feel a bit better than regular rubber dome keyboards, but they still aren’t great.

Keycaps

Materials

Keycaps are made out of a variety of materials which can affect the feel of the keys and the sound profile when typing.

ABS

Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene, commonly referred to as ABS, is a plastic frequently used for keycaps. It tends to “shine” quicker than other options, but is easy to manufacture. Tends to produce a slightly higher pitched sound.

PBT

Polybutylene Terephthalate, commonly referred to as PBT, is another plastic frequently used for keycaps. It is more durable than ABS, but will still “shine” over time with extensive use. Tends to produce a slightly deeper sound.

POM

Polyoxymethylene, commonly referred to as POM, is a less common plastic used for keycaps. It’s very resilient and usually feels very smooth.

Ceramic

Harder to find and generally much more expensive are ceramic keycaps. They are heavy, smooth, and produce a much deeper sound.

Metal

Keycaps are sometimes made from various metals, although these are a more niche product. Typically made of aluminum or zinc.

Legends

Here are the common processes used to add text and images to keycaps.

Double Shot

This is a two-stage process where the legends are first created by an injection of one color of plastic and then followed by another injection of a different colored plastic for the keycap shape. This leads to very durable keycaps where the legends will never fade through use. Typically, double shot keycaps are created using either ABS or PBT plastics. Since any combination of colors can be used, this process can be utilized to create shine-through keycaps.

Dye Sub

This process, short for dye sublimation, involves using heat to embed dye into a keycap. It’s cheap and easy to produce, but the resulting text/image might not be as sharp. The legends are still durable when using this process since the dye has been embedded into the plastic and is not surface level. Dye Sub keycaps are only created using PBT plastic and shine through keycaps are not possible. The dye has to be darker than the plastic coloring, but often the base color will be white to offset this limitation. It’s easier to get a wide range of varying colors and images using the dye sub technique.

Profiles

Here are some of the common keycap profiles.

OEM

Standard keycap profile that you find on most pre-assembled, non-enthusiast keyboards. Square shape, medium height, cylindrical top, and sculpted rows.

Cherry

Very popular keycap profile that you find on most keycap sets. Square shape, lower profile, cylindrical top, and sculpted rows. It’s basically the OEM profile, but shorter.

SA

Tall keycap profile that is heavily sculpted with a spherical top. Some people might find them too tall to use without a wrist rest.

XDA

Short profile that is uniform across all rows (not sculpted). It has a slight rounded look to the sides that make for a more unique apppearance.

Keycap Widths

Keycap widths are measured by a standard where 1u is equivalent to a single letter keycap width. 2u would be the same as two keycaps side by side. Generally, most keycaps will be 1u, the spacebar will be something like 7u or 6.25u, shift might be 1.75u or 2.25u, and so on for the other modifier keycaps. When purchasing a set of keycaps, you will want to make sure it comes with the correct sizes for your keyboard. Most sets will come with various different sizes to support most of the common keyboard layouts.

Sculpted vs Uniform

Keycap sets can be sculpted or uniform. Sculpted means the keycaps are different heights and angles on each row to make for an ergonomic typing experience. Uniform means all keycap rows are the same height and keycaps can be moved anywhere on the board.

When referring to scuplted sets, keycaps will be organized into rows R1-R4. Typically, the rows look like this on a keyboard:

  • R4: Top row with the F1-F12 function keys.
  • R4: Second row from the top with the number keys and backspace. This row has the same shape keycaps as the top row.
  • R3: Tab and QWERTY row.
  • R2: CapsLock and ASDF row.
  • R1: Shift and ZXCV row.
  • R1: Ctrl, Win, Alt, and spacebar row. Similar to the top two rows, this row typically uses the same shape keycaps as the next row up.

There are some instances where you might see the bottom row designated as R0. This usually means the bottom row keycaps are sculpted differently from the row above.

Mods

Here are some common keyboard mods. Some work better than others.

Clipping stabilizers

Simple mod that involves clipping the long feet of the stabilizers to provide slightly more travel and reduce mushiness. Easy to do, but not always needed in my opinion. Also, some stabilizers don’t have feet that need to be clipped.

Video from Taeha Types showing how to apply the mod:

Lubing stabilizers

Not sure this qualifies as a “mod”, but this involves applying lube to the stabilizers to remove unwanted pinging. Krytox 205g0 is usually recommended for the stabilizer housing. Dielectric grease is often used to douse the wire ends before inserting into the stabilizers, although Krytox 205g0 can also be used. I’ve found that often you don’t even need to remove and disassemble the stabilizers; you can just use a syringe to pump the lube directly into the stabilizer housing. This is really easy to do and should be done on all keyboards.

Video from Taeha Types showing how to apply the mod:

Bandaid

This mod involves cutting up a fabric bandaid and putting strips underneath the stabilizers to cushion the impact from below. It’s easy to do, but sometimes the tape will come loose.

Video from Taeha Types showing how to apply the mod:

Plumber’s tape

If your stabilizers are sounding really bad, you can apply the plumber’s tape mod. In my opinion, this should be preferred to the bandaid or Holee mods. It involves wrapping the stabilizer wire ends with plumber’s tape before lubing and inserting into the stabilizers. You want to make sure to wrap the tape tightly and don’t add too many layers or it will feel mushy. It takes some time to break in, but then it sounds nice and should last a long time.

Video from MechTech Keyboards showing how to apply the mod:

Force break

This involves adding small pieces of tape around the inside edges of the case near the screw holes while the keyboard is disassembled. The idea is to create a small cushioned gap to reduce ping.

Video from Tactile Talk showing how to apply the mod:

Tempest tape

The tape mod was first introduced by oTEMPE5To and is commonly advertised as an easy way to make a keyboard sound thocky. It involves putting a layer (or two or three) of non-conductive tape on the back of the PCB.

Video from nearLucid showing how to apply the mod:

Holee

This was a popular mod for eliminating bad stabilizer ticks and pinging. It involves putting a piece of fabric bandaid (or something like electrical tape) inside the stabilizer housing to cushion the impact. This is generally not recommended anymore, since the tape tends to fall off too easily. Using too much lube can cause the tape to get saturated and fall off earlier as well. I think the plumber’s tape mod is a good alternative.

Video from BurmaBytes showing how to apply the mod:

Software

QMK/Via

QMK (stands for Quantum Mechanical Keyboard) is a popular open source firmware for keyboards. It allows you to customize your keyboard to do pretty much anything, including custom keymappings, configuring layers, tap dance, macros, RGB lighting, etc.

More information about QMK and how to use it can be found here:
https://qmk.fm/

The QMK firmware repo can be found here:
https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware

Via is a web application that allows you to easily remap keys if your QMK keyboard is configured to allow Via support. Usually QMK and Via go hand in hand. If your keyboard supports Via, you can access it here:
https://usevia.app/

Keyboard Layout Editor (KLE)

Keyboard Layout Editor, commonly referred to as KLE, is a web application that allows you to create keyboard layouts. After creating a layout, you can download a JSON representation to save for future use.

KLE can be found here:
https://keyboard-layout-editor.com/

Practice Typing

Here are some good websites for practicing your typing skills:

Communities

Here are some good keyboard communities:

Builds

Keychron V1 - Akko V3 Creamy Blue Pro - GMK Evil Dolch clones

Keyboard: Keychron V1 Frosted Black (75%, hot-swappable, tray mount, steel plate, south-facing RGB, QMK/VIA)
Switches: Akko V3 Creamy Blue Pro (tactile)
Keycaps: GMK Evil Dolch clones (Cherry profile - Double Shot ABS)
Mods: Lubed stabilizers with Krytox 205g0
Thoughts: It has a plastic case, but it looks nice and has a good weight to it. RGB colors are vibrant, QMK/Via works great, and the typing angle is very comfortable with cherry profile keycaps. The Creamy Blue Pro switches are long pole with a “D” shaped tactile bump and are a joy to type on. The stabilizers were clinking right out of the box, but after adding some lube they now sound great. With the switches and keycaps I used, it has a delightful clacky and poppy sound. Nice budget keyboard, especially if you can get it on sale.

Ducky ProjectD Tinker75 - Akko V3 Creamy Black Pro - GMK Hammerhead Light clones

Keyboard: Ducky ProjectD Tinker75 (75%, hot-swappable, gasket mount, FR4 plate, south-facing RGB, QMK/VIA)
Switches: Akko V3 Creamy Black Pro (linear)
Keycaps: GMK Hammerhead Light clones (Cherry profile - Double Shot PBT)
Mods: Lubed stabilizers with Krytox 205g0
Thoughts: This keyboard sounds fairly nice without any mods and the sound profile is a little creamy/marbly. The Creamy Black Pro switches are long pole and feel great to type on. The spacebar stabilizer didn’t need anything, but the backspace, shift, and enter stabs needed some lube. It supports QMK/Via, has hot-swappable switches, and the south-facing RGB has a nice soft color against the white plate. Possibly the biggest cons are the keyboard is plastic and the weight is on the lighter side. I also had a weird glitch happen twice where it would decide to send a single keypress contantly until I unplugged the keyboard. I’ve used it a lot though and I think that glitch is a rare occurrence. Overall a very decent budget keyboard, especially since I got it on sale.

Glorious GMMK 2 Compact 65% - Gateron Milky Yellow Pro V2 - MelGeek Monster clones

Keyboard: Glorious GMMK 2 Compact 65% (65%, hot-swappable, tray mount, aluminum top frame, north-facing RGB, supports QMK/VIA)
Switches: Gateron Milky Yellow Pro V2 (linear)
Keycaps: MelGeek Monster clones (SA profile - Double Shot ABS)
Mods: Electrical tape to fix loose stabilizer housings, plumber’s tape mod on spacebar, lubed stabilizers with Krytox 205g0
Thoughts: This keyboard seems to get a lot of unwarranted hate. My first impression when pulling it out of the box was how much weight it has to it. It feels solid, due to the aluminum top frame. The biggest downside is the north-facing PCB which limits keycap options. However, the SA profile keycaps I’m using work really well with this board. My original intention for this keyboard was a cheap option to move my SA profile keycaps to after I discovered they were too tall for me on a different keyboard, but they actually fit really well on the GMMK 2 and I’m really enjoying using them with the Milky Yellow Pro switches. The switches are mounted on an integrated top plate which is not my favorite look, but it doesn’t affect functionality. Out of the box it requires the Glorious Core software for configuration, but it supports flashing QMK firmware and instructions can be found on their website. I’ve been using it with QMK without any issues. My only real gripe is the stock spacebar stabs sound like a metal trashcan lid being slammed. The stabilizers are clip-in and the housings are all loose. I used a tiny bit of electrical tape on the edge of the plate where the stabs clip in to stop the wobble. I did a plumber’s tape mod on the spacebar and just lubed the rest of the stabs in place. Now the keyboard sounds excellent, kinda thocky and creamy. I got it on sale so it was a steal, but I think it’s a decent budget board for the price.