Glow in the dark keys

[Grench]

That Luxeed keyboard was actually a better example of what we're talking about than you might have thought.

Ignore the disco freak rainbow and just see which one the letters are more visible on.

1.

Spoiler

2.

Spoiler

Despite the angle being better on the black-key glowing letter version, it's hard to tell it has letters at all. The dark letters on white/light/illuminated are easy to read. Nobody is going to want the backlight cranked up all the way like they advertise - and we're not talking about having RGB on every key either.

 

[moxie]

It still doesn't solve the problem that it looks horrible, y'know?

 

[Null]

afternoon TV housewife commercials 

I do so love those, especially the Billy Mays Jupiter Jack one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftPQgt_07VE

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

don't go crazy with the backlight keyboard there people.  I bought this keyboard for my iPhone 5S.  It can go 100 hrs on one charge.  It looks pretty simple and enough light just to see the keys when the room is dark.  All I (we) need is to see the letters to type.  I think they only use couple of LEDs (or may be just one) under the keyboard.

Spoiler

 

[Grench]

don't go crazy with the backlight keyboard there people.  I bought this keyboard for my iPhone 5S.  It can go 100 hrs on one charge.  It looks pretty simple and enough light just to see the keys when the room is dark.  All I (we) need is to see the letters to type.  I think they only use couple of LEDs (or may be just one) under the keyboard.

Spoiler

That's a great example of what light-on-dark looks like with the backlight on using a rubber keymat. See how the light is already starting to leak around the edges of the key domes? That only gets worse with time.

Invert it so that it is dark letters on a light/white background then turn the backlight down to 1/10th the power so the whole keys just barely glow. That would be much better.

 

[moxie]

That's a great example of what light-on-dark looks like with the backlight on using a rubber keymat. See how the light is already starting to leak around the edges of the key domes? That only gets worse with time. Invert it so that it is dark letters on a light/white background then turn the backlight down to 1/10th the power so the whole keys just barely glow. That would be much better.

That would mean the difference between

1) starting out with something that looks OK in both modes, but over time will deteriorate slightly for the darkness usage, or

2) starting out with something that already looks horrible in daylight and darkness, but at least it wont get worse. Or rather, it will, because finger dirt and white keys...well, at least not much worse. For natural reasons, since it was already horrible.

Um. Yes. Right

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

Forgot to mention that I can turn the backlight on that keyboard off too.  So for me I use the backlight for at most 2 hours in total darkness when I'm ready to fall asleep.  So who (I  don't) care about that much light leaking around the edge as I can turn it off.

 

[Neelix]

@Grench:  If the translucent lettering in black keys isn't well visible in good light with the backlight off, it just means it's been done badly.  This is not an inherent fault with that style of backlighting.   I've seen enough good examples of this to know that it is possible to achieve good visibility in both conditions with that method.

I also don't consider it a bad thing  for the backlighting to highlight the edges of the keys.

- Neelix

 

[Klumpen]

That's a great example of what light-on-dark looks like with the backlight on using a rubber keymat. See how the light is already starting to leak around the edges of the key domes? That only gets worse with time.


Invert it so that it is dark letters on a light/white background then turn the backlight down to 1/10th the power so the whole keys just barely glow. That would be much better.

Highlighting the edges is a good thing, should be planned from the start and used properly, like here:

 

[Null]

^

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

^ Only if you want to see only green or red or white and black only

 

[Null]

^

Or yellow. /pedantry

 

[_wb_]

My laptop keyboard looks something like this:

I never use the keyboard backlight, but at least it's non-intrusive and the lettering is very legible with the backlight off (like in the picture).

To be honest, I don't really understand why so many people want keyboard backlighting that badly. If you constantly need to look at your keys, you can just as well use a non-physical on-screen keyboard. The whole point of a physical keyboard is that you can use it using (mostly) tactile feedback only. If you don't constantly need to look at your keys, then it's a waste of power and a visual distraction to make your keys emit light. So you will disable the backlighting, like I always end up doing. And then when you need to find a key, you're rarely going to go through the effort of finding the key that enables backlighting again, look for the key you need, and disable backlighting again - it's much quicker to just press one or two wrong keys before you accidentally hit the right one.

So while price is not a big issue to me, and I wouldn't mind if the P2 has keyboard backlighting, it's not something I want.

Instead of having a backlight, just make sure that the (non-backlit) lettering is very legible (e.g. a bright, even slightly fluorescent white on a dark background) so that even in a rather dark room it is sufficiently legible. Especially the special keys (shift keys and Fn keys)! Those are the ones you sometimes have to look for, yet their lettering is always in a smaller font and in a darker color.

 

[bzar]

^ I don't need keyboard backlighting for ~90% of the keys, but for that 10% of special characters I use 0.1% of the time I type it could be quite nice

86.2% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

 

[Binky]

I too have seen examples of backlit keyboards where the letters are a crisp, bright which on a black surround, even when the backlight is off.

I think _wb_ is missing one major advantage of physical keyboards - that they avoid wasting large amounts of screen space, which is at a premium anyway.

Even for users who cannot touch-type on a pandora (or Pyra), it is far more comfortable to have a physical keyboard than a virtual one.

 

[Neelix]

To be honest, I don't really understand why so many people want keyboard backlighting that badly. If you constantly need to look at your keys, you can just as well use a non-physical on-screen keyboard. The whole point of a physical keyboard is that you can use it using (mostly) tactile feedback only. If you don't constantly need to look at your keys, then it's a waste of power and a visual distraction to make your keys emit light. So you will disable the backlighting, like I always end up doing. And then when you need to find a key, you're rarely going to go through the effort of finding the key that enables backlighting again, look for the key you need, and disable backlighting again - it's much quicker to just press one or two wrong keys before you accidentally hit the right one.

Just because I have to look at the keyboard to find the key I want doesn't mean I don't value tactile feedback.  Mum recently got herself an android phone, (which I had to set some things up on)  and I have to say that I absolutely loathe the on screen keyboard.  That doesn't change the fact that I also need to be able to see my keyboard, especially when entering symbols or punctuation.    I usually end up folding the screen (EDIT: on the pandora) to the point where it lights the keyboard so I can see the key that I need.

86.2% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

It's usually more than 90% when I make up that one.

- Neelix

 

[Grench]

That's a great example of what light-on-dark looks like with the backlight on using a rubber keymat. See how the light is already starting to leak around the edges of the key domes? That only gets worse with time.

Invert it so that it is dark letters on a light/white background then turn the backlight down to 1/10th the power so the whole keys just barely glow. That would be much better.

 Highlighting the edges is a good thing, should be planned from the start and used properly, like here:

If you look, they have the backlight cranked up -a lot- to get enough light out of the key shapes to be usable. Inverse the scheme and the amount of back lighting needed, and power use for it, would drop by 80-90%.

If you're all bent on using light letters on black keys, then we may as well just put silvered reflective paint on the keys and angle them just-so so that the light from the screen bounces off of them back to user's eyes.

 

[Klumpen]

If you're all bent on using light letters on black keys, then we may as well just put silvered reflective paint on the keys and angle them just-so so that the light from the screen bounces off of them back to user's eyes.

I always use my Pandora in 180 degree mode and believe, that most people here do so too.

 

[matzesu]

Working all Days,

gaming all nights,

so no need for glow in the dark keys..

And a Keyboard Light, would need to many Batterietime..

But maybe a little LED in the Hinge, who shines on the Keyboard, would be help..

 

[Klumpen]

And a Keyboard Light, would need to many Batterietime..

Then turn it off, for f***s sake.