What is SpaceFN and why you should give it a try
The SpaceFN concept - setting up your space key as a layer switch when held - is probably one of the most useful tweaks in the keyboard hobby. Let me explain how it works. My SpaceFN article on kbd.news made some rounds recently - quite surprisingly given the age of this concept. This piece you're reading is a condensed version of the full post. If you're left with unanswered questions, you'll most likely find the info you're looking for in the original write-up. On my imaginary top list of the most useful keyboard features, tweaks and hacks, SpaceFN would deserve a podium finish for sure. But what makes it so special? In short: SpaceFN is easy to implement, easy to learn, costs nothing, can be used with any keyboard, and can improve your productivity instantly. I will list its benefits below, but can state right at this point that the SpaceFN concept, setting up your space key as a layer switch when held, is clearly one of the most useful tweaks in the keyboard hobby....
Apr 30, 2024
What is Dye-sub? We covered this in our article about keycap materials, but a quick reminder before diving into what makes reverse dye-sub unique—dye-sub (dye sublimation) legends are legends which have been physically dyed into a PBT keycap, leaving a sub-surface legend that is incredibly resilient to wear and tear. Because you can’t dye a lighter color onto a darker color effectively, dye-sub keycaps have always required a lighter keycap base color than legend color. This is why most dye-sub sets are <color>-on-beige, sometimes spicing things up with a white, yellow, or other light color as the base keycap color.
What is Reverse Dye-sub? To work around the above limitations, it’s long been discussed that in theory, one could simply dye the *rest* of the keycap (dye the base, not the legend) using the dye-sub technique. This would leave the legend of the keycap an untouched lighter color, and create the desired effect of a light color on dark color keycap. Simple in theory, not-so-simple in execution. In order to dye the keycaps at scale, films covered with dye are stretched slightly to cover all applicable surfaces of the cap and ensure complete coverage across the contours of the non-flat keycap. For regular dye-sub processing, this is much more simple, since we’re only dyeing the top surface. Any stretching that is taking place is mostly minimal. In order to dye the entire outer surface of a keycap during reverse dye-sublimation, the film covered with dye needs to stretch to cover the entire surface of the keycap. This presents difficulties and hurdles to overcome to tool up for manufacturing, as well as challenges specific to each color and quality control. As you can imagine, stretching something lengthwise causes it to thin out—this thinning results in lighter colors applied to the product where the film is stretched more than where it’s not. We can combat this with heavier coatings overall (to minimize the difference) and scaling the coating thickness proportionally in the areas that will thin more.
What to expect from Reverse Dye-sub For some more details and specific examples of what to expect from the reverse dye-sub manufacturing process, please see the talk post ‘What to Expect from Reverse Dye-sub Keycaps’. Our next reverse dye-sub keycap sets? What are your favorite light-on-dark keycap sets that you’d like to see us produce with reverse dye-sub next?