Are Lasered Keys Always Better Than Pad Printed? Well.....It Depends

One of the things you tend to hear from keyboard manufacturers is Lasered Keys FTW! Don't get the cheapo pad printed ones! It's actually a bit more complex than that.

The Overclock.net (OCN) Mechanical Keyboard Guide lists these as pros and cons for lasers which I agree with.

The purpose of this wiki is to illustrate that all Lasered keys are NOT all the same. In it I'll also do abrasion and chemical testing on both Filco and Das keys to see which key is better.

There's GOOD Lasered printing. Most white keys are pretty good. The gray color is "burned" in with a laser and will last a long, long time.

Currently Shipping Cherry Corp Lasered Whites


Then there's mediocre versions of the lasering. The lines are thin and a bit difficult to read.

Dell AT101W


Compared to a Model F it is considerably thinner and has less contrast


Now here is where it gets interesting. Black keys. You can laser keys to just create a groove.

KBC Keycap.


However this is hard to read so what most manufacturers do is infill the groove with some kind of epoxy/paint material. This is where quality and durability really seems to vary depending on what is used and how it is applied.

First of all one of the ways you can spot a lasered key is to look for a dully gray/brown tint to the lettering. This is due to the infill being "tainted" by all that laser charcoal stuff. I have yet to see a Laser with contrast of a Double Shot or a well done pad print. Also there are generally little circular "laser pits" still visible.




Cherry Corp Key From currently shipping Cherry keyboards. Although scratchy looking I've seen other Geekhackers report that it wears down smoother over time.



Some manufacturers use a special plastic mix that when lasered turns a lighter color.

Here's a Storm Interface keyboard.


And a video of it being manufactured.


The Cherry Corp Key on a RicerCar SPOS possibly uses this technique. These have a perfectly flat infill.


At 60X under a microscope


What I do NOT know is why more keyboards don't use this method. Could be cost of the special plastic or the plastic doesn't wear as well. (Thanks to Iqmore for this info and ClickClack).

Lasering is also used in what I'll call the "Cell Phone Method" in order to get translucent keys for gaming keyboards. A coating is applied to a translucent key then burnt off with the laser. This results in a very crisp lettering (if you have a Old Skool phone just look at it carefully).


Here's a Macbook Pro keyboard being lasered. For more see this Geekhack thread.




photo courtesy of Rawc

I call it "the cell phone" method because this method is commonly used on a LOT of backlit keys. For example this is my backlit DiNovo Mini.


And under a Microscope at 200x you can see the top coating is burnt away. The precision and clarity of this technique is actually quite impressive especially given this keyboard is the size of my hand and the letters are razor sharp.



Now here durability is related to what they use to coat the key. The XArmor for example reportedly dyesubs the top of the key before coating with a rubberized coating so even if the top coating comes off you'll have durable lettering.


I'm still a bit worried about that rubber coating on the XArmor though. This is a Razer Lycossa with the rubber coating getting worn after 7 months of heavy use. The Saitek Eclipse also has this problem.


Much more common is to just laser a painted and/or rubberized key resulting in some pretty nasty "light blobs" in a few years. Razer, Logitech and Microsoft fall into this camp.

A pretty beat up Logitech G15


Bottom of Logitech G15

Ok, now that I've gone over the various Lasering techniques lets get to the question that everyone loves to argue about. Lasered Das Keys versus Filco Coated Pad Printed keys. Which is better. This section will go over abrasion and chemical testing of the lettering.

First I need to mention looks. I'm kinda picky about looks and most Lasered Keys bug me because they are a bit dirty looking and the weird texturing from the laser pits. Over time I assume the laser pits kinda go away but the lower contrast always remains.

Filco Pad Printed with coating on top and Das S Lasered with infill on bottom


The coating is invisible on the top but if you flip the key you can see the spots of the key spray.

Most common consumer keyboards like the Microsoft, Logitech, and HPs are coated with a plastic coating. This is one manufacturer's data sheet showing abrasion and chemical resistance specifications.

This HP R&D roadshow touted their key coating. Acer after taber test.


HP after taber test. She sure looks happy about this.

I don't have a Lego robot with tough calluses to press a key a million times but I DO have a sandblaster.

Here's the results after 5 seconds of sandblasting.


Damn - that didn't take long Filco!


But after 20 more seconds there goes the Das.


Barely hanging on. The lasered grooves certainly help.


So clearly the Das is more abrasion resistant.

Now the only accurate test that matches your body chemistry would be to clone your sweat glands and mush in the chemicals into the key over a few million keystrokes. I'm not going to do that. Instead I'll be doing a 5 minute dunk of Filco coated and pad printed, Kinesis Lasered, Vintage NeXT Doubleshots, and Das Lasered keys into a shallow pool of these solvents, arranged in rough order of strength from left to right.

1. Simple Green
2. CitraSolv (citrus cleaner for removing Goop)
3. Isopropyl 99% Alchohol - a common recommended keyboard cleaner
4. Denatured Alchohol - chemically this is Ethanol, denatured with Methanol (denatured means DO NOT DRINK IT you idiot)
5. Mineral Spirits - paint thinner
6. Spot Remover - Benzene
7. Lacquer Thinner - a potpourri of Petroleum distillates, Methanol, Toluene, Acetone and other good stuff
8. Acetone - the active ingredient in fingernail polish remover. This stuff is strong enough to dissolve ABS and polycarbonate plastic, but not PBT or POM (Delrin).
9. Old Crow Whiskey - I'm kidding about this last one
   

Simple Green and Citrasolv did nothing. 5 minutes and it looked the same.

Isopropyl 99% however was interesting.

Top left NeXT DoubleShots, top right Kinesis Laser printed, Bottom left Filco Pad printed, Bottom right Das Lasered. I am not positive but suspect all 4 of these keys are made from ABS plastic.



A Filco key after a 5 minute dip. Now you know why Majestouch doesn't recommend Isopropyl for cleaning Filcos although for a quick wipe isopropyl is probably fine.


Examining under a microscope the coating appears to still be there but discolored.


Tip: if this happens to one of your keys try Simple Green - it leaves a slightly "greasy" film that covers the defects. Or use lots of hand lotion and hope it goes away.


Ethanol/Methanol starts to cloud the rest of the keys.


Mineral Spirits and Benzene did NOTHING to the keys. Surprising since these are fairly strong solvents.

But then there's Lacquer Thinner! The lasered keys immediately lost their lettering.


You can see the laser "pits" where the spooge used to be.


And the Filco. My theory is the coating somehow is helping the lettering stick on.


I base this theory on how a cheapo $10 keyboard from Logitech has a coating that resists acetone.


For the final test I used Acetone, repeatedly etching the plastic away with a small paint brush.


NASTY! But that Filco lettering is still holding on.


Another view showing how the plastic goes but lettering remains.

I hope I've demonstrated that all Lasered keys are not alike. In fact, in some ways a good Pad Printed key can probably outlast a poorly done Lasered key so "Lasered Keys FTW" is a gross oversimplification. There are a lot of factors here so I'm not even going to hazard a guess what everyone's keyboards will look like in 10 years. Probably in a trash can after a beer spill is my guess.

- Yes I know that you don't daily sandblast your keyboard and then pour acetone over it. It's not scientific, but good enough for engineers and programmers. Everybody has a different body chemistry, cleanliness pattern, and probably some of you have girlyman smooth fingers so this whole discussion may be irrelevant.

- There have been reports of the Filco coating wearing prematurely.

Pic courtesy of IronCoder. Note that the coating is a bit thicker in currently shipping keyboards and many people do NOT have this issue. Body chemistry like Alien or fingernails like Adam Lambert? - it is sheer speculation on my part.



- If you have longer fingernails you will scratch the coating off. However fingernails can do the same to Laser lettering.


- Like the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy advises: DON'T PANIC!. You WILL see monthly "OMG My Lettering Has Disappeared" posts like this one here and here. This almost always is a false alarm. If you clean the key properly the lettering will come back - maybe a bit dirty looking - but still there.