I can work something out shortly with alpha colored bars.
Thanks for doing that, Zed!Zed wrote: ↑Some blue for the coffee fan and a few other possible variants. One thing to keep in mind is that I would imagine most of these sets would end up on beige cases. I am a fan of neutral tones which would go well on my black Unicomp but perhaps it is worth thinking about warmer tones that might go better on the old school cases as well.
I've got no qualms about painting cases.mana wrote: ↑All beautiful, Zed! I think on a beige case any shade of grey is going to look a bit off but we can always paint the case to match our keycaps! In that sense though I think the schemes up there without grey (ie the white on black F62 and the black on white and white on black) would be most usable for our run of the mill IBM cases.
A large part of why I started this project in the first place! I have no problem catering to the black case crowd (typing on one now) or those who would actually paint their cases to go with new caps but I would imagine we are in the minority. The old school beige contingent is like a huge horde looming in the distance and it should probably not be ignored in order to maximize the potential audience.just_add_coffee wrote: ↑ Also, an attractive and high-quality alternative to the horribad Unicomp keycaps would probably be pretty popular.
I hear you and it is absolutely possible to work up some unicode or other symbols that would be appropriate. I have tried to stick to the original design as closely as possible and they typically had an 'Alt', 'Reset', and 'Enter' on the bottom row but I agree that it is not the most cohesive from a design standpoint. That 'Func' I have on the F62 and F77 boards looks particularly out of place. Even if it is how IBM might have done it. If you think about the 'design rules' which were used on these boards, they probably would have done the entire bottom row with text mods if they needed 'Ctrl', 'Super' etc. but it does look strange.duncancmt wrote: ↑I'm not a fan of mixed symbol/text mods. I really like what SkullyDazed did with Modern Selectric Black's control, super/windows, alt/meta, and escape keys. Perhaps something in that vein would be possible?
Thank you for being the first to mention one of my silly easter eggs! Like the 'PF' instead of 'F' function keys, it is one of several tips of the proverbial hat to the originals. I can imagine folks silently or otherwise cursing me every time they have to type an ! or ^ but I haven't decided how deeply I will dig my heels in on this matter.duncancmt wrote: ↑The secondary legends on the 1 and 6 keys should probably be ! and ^ instead of what they are currently.
It's hard to come up with a consistent set of legends for the three bottom-row modifiers. Control and alt/meta want to be ⌃ and ⌥, but then what the heck do you use for windows/super? The legend you used for your Honeywell render is pretty cool, but it doesn't jive with those two.Zed wrote: ↑I hear you and it is absolutely possible to work up some unicode or other symbols that would be appropriate.
I was wondering where the 'PF' function keys came from! BTW, I'm a big fan of your delete legend. I hope it makes it into the final design.Zed wrote: ↑Thank you for being the first to mention one of my silly easter eggs! Like the 'PF' instead of 'F' function keys, it is one of several tips of the proverbial hat to the originals.
Well, if it becomes a voting matter, consider my vote cast for at least the inclusion of a normal 1/! and 6/^ key.Zed wrote: ↑I can imagine folks silently or otherwise cursing me every time they have to type an ! or ^ but I haven't decided how deeply I will dig my heels in on this matter.
While I like the nod to the past, those two keys always get replaced with modern keys when I convert an F122, but that's just always been my personal preference.Zed wrote: ↑Thank you for being the first to mention one of my silly easter eggs! Like the 'PF' instead of 'F' function keys, it is one of several tips of the proverbial hat to the originals. I can imagine folks silently or otherwise cursing me every time they have to type an ! or ^ but I haven't decided how deeply I will dig my heels in on this matter.duncancmt wrote: ↑The secondary legends on the 1 and 6 keys should probably be ! and ^ instead of what they are currently.
duncancmt wrote: ↑The legend you used for your Honeywell render is pretty cool, but it doesn't jive with those two.
That is kind of what I was going for in some of the renders but it is hard to tell what is going on. The graphic I used was an attempt to reproduce the 'Home' key on beamsprings but I only have crappy pics to work from for that one. It's located on the front of the 'Backtab' key on the originals and is supposed to be a monitor with an arrow pointing to the upper left corner. I tried a layout with this icon in the real 'Home' position and a flipped version to represent 'End' but it really didn't look too good so I went with the arrows there. It ended up on some of the Win keys for lack of anything else to put there currently. I do like the idea of an old monitor screen as a novelty/win key though. I will play around with some icons for the bottom row and see what looks good.Techno Trousers wrote: ↑I always thought the windows key could be a simple "PC" outline icon. Maybe something like this, but less modern
I'm not really too fussed over the funky number row legends but they aren't that different from what 'should' be there. I would certainly love for there to be options but rsbeb has already undertaken a monumental task and the fact that he is already talking about stuff like convex and concave bottom rows just has me shaking my head in disbelief. It's really up to him how much he wants to expand the scope of an already daunting project.ekeppel wrote: ↑Perhaps they could be optional? I know at some point there needs to be a limit on optional 'this' and optional 'that', or the project will never be completed, but maybe the regular 1 / 6 could be added to the list.
I will once again give a shoutout to http://kle-render.herokuapp.com/ for the backgrounds on my renders. It is a wonderful new tool that takes KLE data and generates some excellent 'in between' KLE and real render pics that are perfect for banging out mockups quickly. I have been using it to generate a pic with blank keys and then I overlay the legends manually in Inkscape.ekeppel wrote: ↑By the way... beautiful renders. Thanks for those!
This is awesome. I'll take 10 sets please.Zed wrote: ↑Greetings Deskthorians! Long time lurker that just registered to share some ideas I have been working on for this fantastic project. @lot_lizard was kind enough to post a scan of a beamspring cap set a while ago and I used it to recreate the font and icons. I know Mr. Lizard has been working on doing the same thing and I don't want to step on any toes so, if he is agreeable and @rsbseb is interested in my work, I offer this proposal for the SBS legends.
That's great news! I think I want to combine the "industrial" blue mods (all icon) with the beam spring gray alphas. Droooool. Zed, can you mock that up?rsbseb wrote: ↑I just got back from a week of camping and all I have to say is I want to do everyone one of ZED'S proposals!
Very nice work.
Were you thinking orangish like I used above or really orange? 'Esc', Nav arrows, and 'Return'?rsbseb wrote: ↑However a white-grey-orange in a black case would really be the ticket for me.
Cooler gray or the warmer I used in the F77? You want all blue mods, correct?Techno Trousers wrote: ↑ I think I want to combine the "industrial" blue mods (all icon) with the beam spring gray alphas. Droooool. Zed, can you mock that up?
I like the muted orange you have used above. It kind of has a 1970's industrial vibe I really like. The warm grey would be my personal choiceZed wrote: ↑I was kind of fearing a 'Cat in the Hat' situation here so it's great to see rsbeb has returned and is not too upset with the mess that happened during his vacation.
Renders will be coming shortly after I finish up laying out a template for lot_lizard. What should have been a straightforward job has now turned into a dozen characters getting revised!
Were you thinking orangish like I used above or really orange? 'Esc', Nav arrows, and 'Return'?rsbseb wrote: ↑However a white-grey-orange in a black case would really be the ticket for me.
I was thinking about the gray from the beamspring navy render. And yes, all indy blue mods. Except maybe a red attn key? Wow, so many possibilities.Zed wrote:Cooler gray or the warmer I used in the F77? You want all blue mods, correct?Techno Trousers wrote: ↑ I think I want to combine the "industrial" blue mods (all icon) with the beam spring gray alphas. Droooool. Zed, can you mock that up?
