deskthority

Does anyone have experience with custom keycaps from WASD? I am not talking about their online editor, but the option where you send in your own design, detailed here: http://support.wasdkeyboards.com/custom ... to-designs

I am in particular interested in
1) Your experience with one of the programs WASD suggests using (Inkscape, Coreldraw, Illustrator).
2) Your preference how to print the keycaps (laser etched, or engraved, or both).
3) The result you got, what works well, what does not (e.g. how detailed/small the graphics can be).
4) any other tips/tricks.

Any input greatly appreciated!

I have only used the older online editor this spring/summer. They had several problems in my order with keys not being done properly, so I can understand why they ditched the editor. I got both etched caps and engraved caps.
The laser-etching was not too bad, but I was a bit disappointed with the engraving: there were drifts of plastic as a raised outline around each legend and I think other sources (Ducky, Qtan, etc) are better if you want a standard key set.
I was not disappointed enough not to make a second order, though.. Being able to get custom legends trumped everything.

That's the thing, the customization is great and exactly what I need. Virtually every key would be customized in my case, in order to reflect its usage for typing in the Arabic alphabet.

Maybe you can share a picture of your keycaps?

I'm working on designing some caps on corel. I find it much more usable than inkscape, but I guess that's up to your own preference. From the research I've done, people tend to like the etching more that the engraving, because somethings the engravings can be a little bit rough. Not sure on anything else, but I would also enjoy some pics from Findecanor.

Engravings can definitely be a little rough, but if you like the look, then you can do it over engraving. Just be careful of line thickness either way (don't want anything too thin)

Yes, I once had an engraving made by them with Arial size 8, and that's pretty much unreadable. 9 is ok though.