Someone who heard that I was involved with MKs must have misheard a conversation, and is now asking me how to get stickers that go onto a keyboard.
I think he was imagining some of the novelties that come with keycap sets, where there are theme graphics on the novelties.
I can’t create novelty keycaps, but ordering custom stickers for keyboards should be possible. Does anyone know of services that will print small stickers with user-submitted graphics?
I’d say something like Sticker Mule will be the way to go for most situations, especially for smaller stickers.
Printing, stickers, and the like is kind of my background, so~
Depending on the artistic intent there are additional options; a sign shop could cut a metallic foil badge, or laminate a full-color sticker if it’s likely to see a lot of skin contact. There’s vinyl with more powerful adhesive for stuff like lightly textured plastic surfaces, or stuff with adhesive that can be easily removed later. It sounds like you probably have it covered but if you need any help with file prep I’d be glad to lend a hand.
Thanks. This is all very helpful.
Also, is there a way to get custom images on single keycaps? Like an Esc key or something? I think I saw such a thing advertised somewhere.
For some reason this gives me the ideal of making a “poison” keyboard where every keycap is covered with lead tape…
Yes - you can get images on single keycaps. Just look for custom dye-sub services that mention keycaps and you’ll have at least a few to choose from. It’s usually individual crafts people but I think some businesses do it, too. There’s also tutorials on youtube about how to do it yourself, though I have no idea what that’s like.
Perhaps this post would be helpful. I’m thinking of doing it for the MechWild Mercutio (40%) maybe on the fronts or unused part of the tops of some (reasonably priced) keycaps - once I build it ofc haha. I know, I know, I’ll never learn my layers that way…seems useful tho.
I used water slide decal paper to put labels on the front of my function keys, before the mapping was part of my finger-memory.
They looked good.
They’re very fiddly to get on straight without scrunching the decal, so buy more sheets than you think you’ll need. And they’re easy to scrape off (I showed them to someone and the first thing they did was give them a scratch, lifting a corner off), so I wouldn’t use them on the top of keys.
That’s cool. Thanks for the pic.
I haven’t watched it yet, but, to your point, I think the person in the Reddit post had a laquer step to fix them in place. It seems beyond what someone might do to learn or assist with layers, especially since they may change, but could be relevant if OP wanted to make a more permanent project like some novelties.
Honestly i would search on alibaba although you may have to order a large volume depending on the seller, however you could also tell them youre willing to pay a higher price per piece to manufacture a lower volume.
For example intead of paying 0.1usd for 1000 pieces pay 0.5 for 100
