Kinesis Keycaps in Europe

[MarkWilliamson]

Hi all,

I've got a Kinesis Advantage with UK-layout keycaps. I'd like to be typing Dvorak on it and I'll get irritated by the printed layout not matching - I'm looking to fix this by sourcing a set of Dvorak keycaps from Kinesis.

I'm living in the UK, so ordering direct from Kinesis is likely to be expensive and complicated. The official Kinesis dealer for the UK (http://www.ergonomics.co.uk/) is able to get them for me but once I've added on their standard parcel-shipping costs, the price is surprisingly steep. I also spoke to a European dealer and had the same problem - sending keycaps via parcel shipping services adds a substantial fraction of the original (already relatively high) price.

Has anybody else gone through this process? I'm about ready to just buy from the UK supplier and accept that niche ergonomic keyboards are an expensive hobby. Still, I thought I'd check whether anyone else had better ideas.

Cheers,
Mark

[Findecanor]

Several Kinesis users have ordered keycaps from WASD Keyboards.
You can't get nice printed keys in white on black, but you can make any layout you want in the "Custom Keyboard Designer". There is a preset for Dvorak that you can select and then edit to fit the Kinesis.
However, the Custom Keyboard Designer is a bit slow under Linux. Better under Windows. (it uses Flash)
WASD's price is relatively low, and they can ship using USPS which is inexpensive. The custom service is good.

One thing that you should be aware of, is that while the key profiles are largely the same, there are some small but important differences between the ordinary "full size" keyboard layout and Kinesis' layout. Check the wiki for details.

BTW, there was a thread on Geekhack a while ago for how to get key caps for the Kinesis... If you find it, there might be more useful in there.

[sordna]

The dvorak keycaps by Kinesis still have the QWERTY labels. They are dual-label keycaps. You may want to go with a blank keycap set if QWERTY labels bother you.
Or, be like me and just don't look at the keycaps My first Kinesis had dual-label keycaps, but since I learned to touch type Dvorak, all my subsequent Kinesis (I have several) do not, and it doesn't bother me at all because it's such an intuitive keyboard that I don't need to look.

[natas206]

Sordna is correct, the Dvorak sets are dual legend (Qwerty top left, Dvorak bottom right). HERE is a layout.

Send an email to tech@kinesis.com with your full shipping address and we can provide you a shipping quote. We can ship standard mail which I'm guessing is around $10-$15.