OK, I'm thinking of dying my MS Natural keyboard black and painting the letters back in in silver. Thing is, it needs to be resistant to the kinds of wear associated with keyboards - sweat, repeated hammering, and a good deal of rubbing. My Dad (who is a calligrapher - I'm gonna ask him to do the lettering) says that there used to be a range of pens (probably only in the US) that were designed for writing on PCBs (not drawing the actual circuits I don't think) and suchlike, that once they went on were totally permanent to most everything could be thrown at them, but that he thinks that the range was phased out at some point. So what can I use to paint the letters on? Is there anything that's gonna be very very permanent, and silver? Paint or pen, I don't really mind. Thanks.
you could still use a silver pen I guess if you do something such as use a clear coat spray (the actual name eludes me at the mo) and that will give it quite a hard durable finish though try it on a test piece first and see how hardwearing it is
What about getting a clear sheet of overhead transparency with a sticky film back, then printing the letters in silver and put em on the keyboard? that would look a lot better IMO
I used a silver Sharpie marker on mine. It worked fine until about an hour later, then my A,S,W,D,C,E and Q keys were promptly worn off. Clearcoating them fixes that problem though.
LOL, something very similar happened to my first gaming keyboard, sturdy as it was Thanks for the tips guys, what sort of clearcoating are we talking about? I presume some type of hard varnish but I don't know exactly what you mean.
if you are brave-- try what i am planning to do with the all-plexi keyboard!! step 1 -- find an old printer (must be INKJET) step 2 -- remove and drain the black ink tank step 3 -- fill the black ink tank with silver paint step 4 -- do your key letters in BLACK in photoshop/word step 5 -- print onto decal paper (theres a link here somewhere) step 6 -- let the decals dry step 7 -- put the decals onto your keyboard provides a cool finish plus it is hard-wearing
