Tools of the Trade #1 - Your Keyboard

[Duleigh]

While fighting my way through a musical overload (Musical = the art of the muse, I think it applies) I noticed that I ran out of USB ports on my MSI gaming PC and swapped out the hard wired MSI keyboard with the flashy color changing lights and the hard wired MSI flashy illuminated mouse with Old Reliable, my wireless Logitech K350 contour keyboard & 8 button mouse. I gave them up for the allure of the flashy, flowing, ever changing lights on the MSI keyboard.

I put some miles on that old Logitech, we've been together for years, at one point I was taking it to work with me back when I worked for the Evil Empire as they were trying to drive me out, I'd haul it back and forth from home because the keyboard that the Evil Empire provided was cheap, cheesy, and highly uncomfortable to use. There I was at work, remotely monitoring, maintaining, and updating up to 500 servers worth millions of dollars using a small desktop PC and a laptop in a docking station unified with the cheapest keyboard I've ever used in my life. I wore out two of them in a year. In the end, my flashy illuminated MSI keyboard was just as cheap and flimsy as the keyboard resembling things that the Evil Empire provided their salary slaves.

Once I returned this month to keyboard of substance, I realized how truly vital to this art/profession/hobby. The K350 used to be the top-of-the-line keyboard and I paid a lot of money for it when it was introduced, now you can get the keyboard for under $30, and at that price I'm tempted to get a backup. I consider it my #3 tool behind word processor, and computer. How much importance do you put on your keyboard? Are you picky about what keyboard you use or are you comfortable banging away on any old piece of plastic? And is there anyone out there with one of the old really loud clicking keyboards?

 

[ElectricBlue]

Kindle touch screen, finger tap. I slow down if I try to type properly.

 

[NotWise]

I'm not picky about my keyboard. Right now I'm using an ancient IBM model. I'm not even sure when I bought it. It was more than twenty years ago. It's slated for replacement because the little marks that are supposed to help locate the F and J keys have worn off and the little-used keys are crusty.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Android phone, Google keyboard. The software updated recently and it keeps trying to autocorrect my hyphens to h, even when that doesn't create a word, which is really annoying. I'd love to be able to customise my keyboard to have different characters readily available, but can't find such an offer.

 

[TxRad]

I'm using a Lenovo keyboard. I haven't worn the letter off it in over a year now. Most keyboards are bare of lettering after less than a month. It has a solid feel and descent spacing for an off the shelf straight keyboard.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I’m with NW; make and such don’t matter. It must be ergonomic however; I had carpal tunnel years ago and won’t have it again.

Not to mock or disparage in any way, but I had a wry smile when I read the other posts, wondering if the literary giants of the past argued over what breed of goose (substitute species as you will) provided the best pens?

 

[RowanWrites]

I like the keyboard on the macbook pro, current era, and it has the advantage of not requiring Yet Another Thing. I try to go light on the Things.

What I like about it: it has a satisfying visceral click; your fingers know they have pressed a key. But there's not a lot of motion, and not a lot of noise. Standalone keyboards often have that 1980's/IBM action, which I never cared for.

Ironically, my *other* keyboard is a manual typewriter. Also a satisfying visceral experience, but lots of motion. One of the things I like about the manual typewriter is that, while noisy (of course), there is a rhythm to it. When you are in a groove, you almost HAVE to keep typing, just to keep the rhythm going! And yet, it also slows you down a bit. If you go too fast, the keys tangle and then you stall. So you get that steady long-distance runner pace going. It's good for flow.

That said, I do most of my writing on the laptop, at a coffee shop, or at night when I don't want to wake people up.

 

[Duleigh]

I’m with NW; make and such don’t matter. It must be ergonomic however; I had carpal tunnel years ago and won’t have it again.

Not to mock or disparage in any way, but I had a wry smile when I read the other posts, wondering if the literary giants of the past argued over what breed of goose (substitute species as you will) provided the best pens?

I believe actually they did disagree on not only the bird but also the way the nib was cut. Live birds were preferred over dead, and Swan was considered the best, but swans were very disagreeable and gave up their quills dearly. Next best was goose, I suppose because if the goose fought back they ended up coming home for dinner... the hard way. Crow quills were preferred for fine writing, the Declaration of Independence was written with crow quill pens. I once read that writers had assistants whose job it was to cut and sharpen their quill pens. Having done calligraphy with modern steel nib ink pens and at one point amassing a big collection of nibs, I could only gaze in awe at calligraphy with hand cut, bird plucked quill pens


(I can't believe I went down this rabbit hole)

 

[Duleigh]

I like the keyboard on the macbook pro, current era, and it has the advantage of not requiring Yet Another Thing. I try to go light on the Things.

What I like about it: it has a satisfying visceral click; your fingers know they have pressed a key. But there's not a lot of motion, and not a lot of noise. Standalone keyboards often have that 1980's/IBM action, which I never cared for.

Ironically, my *other* keyboard is a manual typewriter. Also a satisfying visceral experience, but lots of motion. One of the things I like about the manual typewriter is that, while noisy (of course), there is a rhythm to it. When you are in a groove, you almost HAVE to keep typing, just to keep the rhythm going! And yet, it also slows you down a bit. If you go too fast, the keys tangle and then you stall. So you get that steady long-distance runner pace going. It's good for flow.

That said, I do most of my writing on the laptop, at a coffee shop, or at night when I don't want to wake people up.

I learned to type on an old manual Remington, but my favorite was the IBM Selectric. When I retired from the military that old warhorse was still the weapon of choice for the backoffice troops of the Chairborne. I was up to 85 WPM on that machine when I hit the civilian world. That little ball spinning like crazy was the perfect visceral experience. We had one with a dash of memory built in so I programmed in the Commanders signature block and it was just awesome watching that thing spit out the boss's name, rank, and title. It almost made me want to keep that office job, but the lure of working on a B-52 was too strong. Thanks for taking me back!

 

[SamScribble]

My keyboard is carved from an old piece of good English oak. It was a silvery-grey (as most things English oak are after a few years), but I painted it black back in 1973. Some the black paint has now worn off.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Fun rabbit hole, Duleigh!

I think the only thing you failed to mention is that the best quills came from the left wing as the ‘feathery’ part bent away from the paper and didn’t make it inconvenient to see what you were writing.

 

[Carnevil9]

I have gotten completely comfortable on a laptop keyboard, so that anything else seems like a waste of motion. The keys barely need to be touched, let alone depressed, to register the stroke. If I spent any time at all on a virtual keyboard big enough to touch-type on, I might love that, too. I also need to have a numeric keypad, as I do a lot of math in my day job.

 

[Duleigh]

Fun rabbit hole, Duleigh!

I think the only thing you failed to mention is that the best quills came from the left wing as the ‘feathery’ part bent away from the paper and didn’t make it inconvenient to see what you were writing.

I didn't see that part, but I found it after you mentioned it, thank you. I did find a reference saying that the birds’ new growth period in the spring, their feathers were especially ideal for writing and that the five outer flight feathers were suitable but the second and third outer feathers were most sought after. I figured that was just showing off so I'm not going to mention it

 

[Blind_Justice]

I use a decade-old Logitech keyboard. No model number off the top of my head. It's so old, the print has rubbed off the keycaps and the raised nubs on the F and J keys are gone, which sucks when touch typing. I know I should replace it sonner than later - especially since my writing itch is coming back, but I'm very particular in regards to clickyness and resistance and finding a decent board with stiff, clicky keys able to take my writing speed for years to come isn't easy. From window shopping at amazon, most descendants of my Logitech keyboard are cheap, unreliable garbage and I'm hesitant to blow 150 to 200€ on a high-end "gamer" board only to discover I bought a fancy lightshow with the life expectancy of a lightbulb in a demolition derby. Besides, all the flashy lights are useless to me anyway.

Any ideas? Maybe I should go for an old IBM PS/2 board and grab a PS2/USB converter. Might come cheaper than a modern mechanical keyboard in the end...

 

[Rustyoznail]

My work setup uses a HP KU 0316 wired keyboard. It's fairly old, but I like wired keyboards because the batteries don't go flat at inopportune times.

Blind_Justice - They're quite cheap, and probably has the clickiness you're looking for.

 

[SimonDoom]

I'm not too picky, but I prefer it to be large enough. I marvel at people who compose on the phone. I would hate doing that. It's one of the reasons I prefer messaging via email at a keyboard than by text on a phone. I wouldn't want to compose on a kindle, either. I don't care much whether it's a standard keyboard or a curved ergonomic one.

I don't know if, by today's standards, this is considered "old-school," but I compose exclusively at a desktop computer with a decently large screen. I've always done so. I've composed almost everything this way for three decades and now it makes sense because I (still) can write this way without reading glasses.

 

[jsmiam]

To the “don’t carers”, it’s understandable. You simply don’t know what you’re missing. If you knew, if you used a real computer and not a phone:tablet, and if you found the right keyboard, you’d care. A lot.

Gamers ironically, lead the charge for mechanical keyboards more than writers and coders nowadays. The term MX blue, MX black, MX red, MXBrown all have significant meaning with respect to noise level, spring resistance, and linear vs tactile force of the key switches. Each has published specs for actuation force and travel and when in the stroke the switch is actually activated. But rest assured,the passion for keyboards is no different with gamers vs. in-the-know writers. They just like a higher activation key switch.

And “buckling spring” is the patented technology behind “the IBM keyboard. And in a mostly happy twist of fate, the employees at the Lexington Kentucky factory *bought* the factory when Lenovo eventually decided to shut it down. Unicomp produces modern versions of not a replica of, but THE actual keyboard. Available today. And so are keycaps for it.

Personally, I got an MX brown equipped keyboard. When I hit a key, you better believe I know, that I hit that key. Google unicomp. Read a few long articles. And don’t you settle for imitation MX key switches! (Joke. The second tier switch makers have a following too)

 

[jsmiam]

The original and legendary buckling spring patent, including its diagram: (yes you can buy coffee mugs with the art emblazoned on it): https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/7a/81/6c/8f527236257d46/US4118611.pdf

And a well done guide to cherry Mx switches and picking the right color: https://switchandclick.com/cherry-mx-guide/

And at @NotWise, depending on whether your original ibm keyboard is pre or post 1996, I believe it was, you may discover you care very much about keyboards when you replace yours. You may have a collectible and not even know it.

And unicomp sells keycaps that’ll fit it.

 

[jsmiam]

I use a decade-old Logitech keyboard. No model number off the top of my head. It's so old, the print has rubbed off the keycaps and the raised nubs on the F and J keys are gone, which sucks when touch typing. I know I should replace it sonner than later - especially since my writing itch is coming back, but I'm very particular in regards to clickyness and resistance and finding a decent board with stiff, clicky keys able to take my writing speed for years to come isn't easy. From window shopping at amazon, most descendants of my Logitech keyboard are cheap, unreliable garbage and I'm hesitant to blow 150 to 200€ on a high-end "gamer" board only to discover I bought a fancy lightshow with the life expectancy of a lightbulb in a demolition derby. Besides, all the flashy lights are useless to me anyway.

Any ideas? Maybe I should go for an old IBM PS/2 board and grab a PS2/USB converter. Might come cheaper than a modern mechanical keyboard in the end...

Originals are collectibles now.

Logitech mechanicals have a following too. Just remember they aren’t all mechanical. The one you want has their version of a brown switch. But for a period, they had an official Mx brown version too.

And craigslist/offerup can be excellent sources for keyboards. Gamers often go through dozens of them before finding one they like. They sell the old ones. And typically, the ones best for typing aren’t what gamers end up liking best. I lucked into two keyboards for $30. (Mx switches mostly last forever too). A vacuum and alcohol wipes, there’s no shame in a used keyboard. It’s a cost effective way to try different ones.

And @ phone/tablet users: neither of these are truly mechanical, but look at the Logitech k380 and k480 Bluetooth multi-device keyboards.

 

[jsmiam]

Nah. My husband has had black, brown and red switch mechanical keyboards and I got nothing out of using them either for gaming or writing (and I've used them for both). It just doesn't make a difference one way or the other to me.

I liked your post out of respect for other opinions. (Even wrong ones. ;-). (Kidding).

As my posts may have shown, some people will care, a LOT.

I’ll concede that as a fastish typer at 85 wpm, my max speed didn’t improve with a mechanical keyboard (although I was on a very good non mechanical Microsoft keyboard before.) But at “cruising” speeds (not full max) I do type more acccurately.

 

[shakna]

Software latency kills any of the speed benefits I can get from a decent keyboard. I miss the hell out of my Model M that gave up the ghost about a decade ago, but most keyboards today I can cope with. I find that as soon as you start hitting even 70WPM most word processors or browsers start dropping letters or even whole words, only to dump them in whilst you're in the process of correcting something else.

On my bad days, health-wise, I can't take the weight of hitting even a basic keyboard's switches, even the tiny rubber nibs of the non-mechanical variety. So I'm stuck with either tapping away on a touchscreen, which really can't keep up with me, or voice control, which is even slower than that and more error prone because I don't have an American accent. (Take a guess which I'm using right now...)

And to add my own humble brag, like everyone else - I'm about 78WPM, with 99% accuracy, on my good days. But, with my hands, there's about a 50/50 chance of not even being able to type at all. My voice is about 30WPM with an accuracy of 40% with most assistive software.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I just want someone to make a keyboard that doesn't spell wrong.

 

[lovecraft68]

While fighting my way through a musical overload (Musical = the art of the muse, I think it applies) I noticed that I ran out of USB ports on my MSI gaming PC and swapped out the hard wired MSI keyboard with the flashy color changing lights and the hard wired MSI flashy illuminated mouse with Old Reliable, my wireless Logitech K350 contour keyboard & 8 button mouse. I gave them up for the allure of the flashy, flowing, ever changing lights on the MSI keyboard.

I put some miles on that old Logitech, we've been together for years, at one point I was taking it to work with me back when I worked for the Evil Empire as they were trying to drive me out, I'd haul it back and forth from home because the keyboard that the Evil Empire provided was cheap, cheesy, and highly uncomfortable to use. There I was at work, remotely monitoring, maintaining, and updating up to 500 servers worth millions of dollars using a small desktop PC and a laptop in a docking station unified with the cheapest keyboard I've ever used in my life. I wore out two of them in a year. In the end, my flashy illuminated MSI keyboard was just as cheap and flimsy as the keyboard resembling things that the Evil Empire provided their salary slaves.

Once I returned this month to keyboard of substance, I realized how truly vital to this art/profession/hobby. The K350 used to be the top-of-the-line keyboard and I paid a lot of money for it when it was introduced, now you can get the keyboard for under $30, and at that price I'm tempted to get a backup. I consider it my #3 tool behind word processor, and computer. How much importance do you put on your keyboard? Are you picky about what keyboard you use or are you comfortable banging away on any old piece of plastic? And is there anyone out there with one of the old really loud clicking keyboards?

I have an AZIO keyboard that features large keys and a lit background. Large keys because I'm not the greatest typist as far as dexterity goes and I tend to really pound the keys. But the reason I've used this one the last few months is the backlit feature, which can be blue red or purple.

The last few months I've had some issues with my eyes. My vision is fine, but I'm developing a sensitivity to light to where at work when I have to be out on the floor, I need to wear tinted safety glasses. I also work in a company that does tiny electronics so the light in the work areas is insanely bright.

I've installed one of those screen to cut down on the glare of my monitor, but have also taken to writing at night with the office light off and just the light from the screen and lit keyboard so I can see to type. Its actually a really nice board, and once we figure out my vision issue I'll probably keep it, very comfortable on it.

 

[jsmiam]

…. I find that as soon as you start hitting even 70WPM most word processors or browsers start dropping letters or even whole words, only to dump them in whilst you're in the process of correcting something else.

…

Us keyboard geeks call that “N key rollover.” Mechanicals allow for many more keys to be pressed without jumbling, a factor with fast typing.

To Ezoretta’s point though. For some of us, good keyboards just feel better. Even when my own measurements didn’t show a real speed change, I still tell my keyboard she looks pretty. And feels great. And how I like the way she clicks when I touch her. She even came with a braided cable cover!

I can’t find it now, but I did see an article once where a person more or less used sound research methods and compared typing speeds with different keyboards. Mechanicals came out faster overall, but not by a dramatic night and day difference.

 

[Duleigh]

I don't know if, by today's standards, this is considered "old-school," but I compose exclusively at a desktop computer with a decently large screen. I've always done so. I've composed almost everything this way for three decades and now it makes sense because I (still) can write this way without reading glasses.

I do the same thing, but I use 2 monitors, one will have my word processor open where I do the composing, the other will have my outline and notes