3D Printing Keycap Replacements: Upgrade Your Keyboard with Custom Designs

The PC building world has always had people dedicated to customization. Whether it's simply picking the exact parts you want, or making custom PC cases, or adding tons of RGB, everyone wants a PC that's unique to them. The rise of mechanical keyboards with easily replaceable caps has created another subculture, and it's crossing over with 3D printing.

The Keycap Hobby Is Taking Off

Even as someone who is no stranger to geeky hobbies that become way too deep and out of control, I was a little shocked by just how diverse and passionate the hobby of custom keycaps has become. There are entire communities based around some form of making or finding custom keycaps. People who just want to be creative and have a keyboard that reflects their personality are just as common as those who are looking to optimize their typing, or gaming. It feels like a world with endless depth, and people are coming up with more and more bonkers ideas.

What about a glowing xenomorph? Or something up my alley: an Evangelion keycap! Some of these "artisan" keycaps are wildly expensive, almost reaching $100 in some cases. These are beautiful hand-made and hand-painted items, however,and any hobby has some expensive extremes.

Store-Bought Keycaps Are Boring

Some of the major appeal of those artisinal keycaps is that the makers won't make very many of them. Rarity is appealing, and although there are plenty of cool mass-production key sets which you can mix and match to your heart's content. Ultimately, these are a little boring from the perspective of having some fun and having a unique keyboard you can call your own. I think people who get deep enough into custom keycaps will eventually feel like there's nothing fresh on offer from other makers.

That's where 3D printing comes into the picture. If you head over to a site like Cults, you'll find an enormous variety of custom keycaps made by 3D sculptors from all over the world. I can't even believe how creative and cool some of these ideas are, and it's literally a file that you can download and print on your own machine, or send off to a local 3D print shop and have produced professionally. Best of all, it's much cheaper than ordering entire keycap sets in many cases, especially if they're weird or fancy in some way.

If you really want something that's totally your own, nothing stops you from firing up your favorite 3D modeling or CAD program and making your own thing. There are lots of blank keycap model files that give you the correct key base to start from. All you have to do is sculpt the keycap topper and fuse it with the blank, before printing it to test it on a real keyboard.

If you don't have the modelling skills, or don't want to learn, you also have the option of commissioning someone to make the model for you, and then have it printed yourself.

There Are Some Snags…

The thing is, it's not quite as straightforward as it sounds. First of all, the best of these printable keycap designs require painting, or a special multicolor 3D printer, which are still quite expensive. Not that this matters if you're paying a pro to print them for you, of course.

I also wouldn't recommend using a 3D printer to make regular utilitarian keys, because they might not feel great or stand up to heavy use. Having a novelty Escape key is one thing, but you wouldn't want your space bar or Enter key to be 3D printed in most cases.

However, if you already have a 3D printer and a mechanical keyboard with swappable keys, you could literally have new keycaps in less than an hour after reading this article, and that's just awesome no matter which way you slice it.