Not All Linears Are The Same!
Figure 1: Not even all of these (mostly) KTT-made linears are the same! After all of my years of collecting, reviewing, and obsessing over switches, I can say with certainty that linear switches are the most misunderstood of all of the switch types. No, I’m not talking about mechanically either, as all of the claims of them “just going straight up and down” are somewhat kind of true. (Not too much though, don’t get that excited.) The part that is often misunderstood, though, is usually in what is being implied when people say that these switches just go straight up and down – “All linears might as well be the same.” If the title of this article didn’t make that obvious enough to you, I find that sort of idea to be completely and utterly wrong. The people who make these implications wouldn’t say that a Cherry MX Black is the same as a Novelkeys Cream switch? They also certainly wouldn’t ever claim that every Gateron-made linear is the same as every fancy TTC one out there...
May 29, 2024
It's clear that the design for Extended 2048 (and Extended 2048 Dark, by extension) is heavily influenced by vintage Apple keyboards like the Apple Extended Keyboard and its derivatives. What is your personal history with these keyboards? Did you use old Apple computers growing up? I've always been drawn to vintage computers, especially microcomputers. They have a strong influence on my work, with an unrivaled charm that is hard to find today. For me, the AEKII is the most refined yet timeless keyboard from that era. It still exudes something contemporary today. Are there any in-progress design documents that you would be comfortable sharing, to give the reader an idea of what the process of designing a keycap set actually looks like? Extended 2048 being the first set I designed, I no longer have any sketches or the first icon files. What did your process for designing Extended 2048 look like? Both philosophically (I'm sure you didn't directly copy any iconography from Apple) as well as logistically. For example, how did you determine optimal line weights and icon sizes to fit well on the spherical MT3 keycaps while still retaining the nod to the original Extended Keyboard (off-center legends)? The idea was to keep the essence of the AEKII set, while making it more modern and compatible. Regarding the typography, I defined a grid based on the keys with the largest characters, i.e. {[ }], so that everything would fit in afterwards. The legends are, obviously, centered vertically to avoid any distortion on the MT3 profile, which is spherical, but also for aesthetic purposes (As well as echoing vintage keycap sets, it makes the captions more legible). Can you explain a little bit about the design choice to use icon modifiers instead of text mods like the original Apple boards? Icons/illustrations will always be more universal than words. They also give character to the set, making it unique. Not all modifier keys need to have an unequivocal legend, linked to their function, nor is the idea to restrict the user to one and only one way of arranging keycaps on their keyboard. The accent modifiers in both 2048 sets incorporate the classic "six colors" from the famous Apple logo. What ultimately led to you using these particular shades in the set? The colors used in the keycaps are a bit more pastel compared to the more saturated colors that Apple used. The colors are indeed inspired by the Apple rainbow logo, but I wanted this addition to make sense, give off a vintage air, and fit with the cream color of the other keycaps. I was worried that garish colors would stand out too much and break the homogeneity of the keycap set. In the years since first designing the Extended 2048 set, have any new novelty icons come to mind that you would like to add to the kit? Probably more functional icons such as: gear, eye, workspace, monitor, any tool from popular software, etc. Fittingly, some of the novelty designs included in your 2048 keycap sets draw heavy inspiration from the original Macintosh icons and logos. Has Susan Kare and the rest of the design team from that era at Apple influenced any of your other designs that we might not have picked up on immediately? Probably; I'm inspired by a lot of things. Actually, I'm careful to make each set different from the next, so you shouldn't find a direct reference to his work in any of my other sets. ____________ Thank you again to biip for taking the time to answer our questions and giving us a little peek inside the design process! Let us know if you’d like to see more designer interviews for future keycap sets.