The Benefits of Custom Keycaps for Your Setup

Custom keycaps are one of the most visible and personally expressive upgrades available in the mechanical keyboard hobby. They transform the look and feel of a board more dramatically than almost any other single modification, and unlike switch changes or case swaps, they require no tools and no technical knowledge. But custom keycaps are more than an aesthetic choice. They can genuinely improve typing feel, reduce fatigue, and make your keyboard a more personal and motivating tool to use every day. This guide explains everything you need to know about choosing and using custom keycaps.

What Are Custom Keycaps?

Custom keycaps are replacement key tops designed to fit mechanical keyboard switches. Make sure your keyboard uses MX-compatible stems first — our Cherry MX vs Gateron guide covers everything you need to know — specifically the cross-shaped MX stem used by Cherry and compatible switches. They are available in a vast range of colours, profiles (the shape and height of the key), materials, and legend styles (the way the characters are printed or engraved on the key surface). The custom keycap market ranges from affordable sets available on Amazon for under thirty dollars to artisan group buys that can cost hundreds of dollars per set and take months to ship.

Keycap Profiles: How Shape Affects Feel

The profile of a keycap — its height, angle, and curve — has a significant effect on how typing feels. The most common profiles include:

• OEM: The standard profile shipped with most pre-built keyboards. Medium height, slightly angled. Familiar and comfortable for most typists.
• Cherry: Slightly lower than OEM, with a more sculpted shape where each row is a different height. Many typists find Cherry profile to be the most comfortable for extended sessions.
• SA: Tall, spherical, and highly sculpted. The high height and pronounced finger indentations give SA keycaps a distinctive vintage typewriter feel. Polarising but passionately loved by its fans.
• DSA: Uniform profile — every key is the same height and shape regardless of row. Popular with users who remap their layouts frequently, since any key can go in any position.
• XDA: Similar to DSA but slightly wider and flatter, with a more modern aesthetic. Increasingly popular in designer group buys.
• Low-profile: Short-travel keycaps for low-profile switches, mimicking the feel of a laptop keyboard on a mechanical board.

Keycap Materials: PBT vs ABS

Most custom keycaps are made from either ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) or PBT (Polybutylene Terephthalate) plastic. ABS is the standard material in most stock keyboards — it is cheaper to produce, available in a wider range of colours, and has a slightly smoother feel. Its disadvantage is that it develops a greasy shine (called shine-through or keycap shine) over months of use as skin oils degrade the surface texture.

PBT is denser, more durable, and resistant to shine. It has a slightly textured, matte feel that many typists prefer and that holds up far better over years of use. High-quality custom keycap sets use PBT almost exclusively. The trade-off is that PBT is more difficult to manufacture in complex colours and legends, which is why the most visually elaborate custom sets sometimes use ABS or double-shot ABS for legends.

Legend Techniques

The way a keycap’s legend (the character or symbol on its surface) is produced affects its durability and appearance. Pad printing is cheap and fades quickly. Laser etching is more durable. Double-shot moulding — where the legend is a separate layer of plastic injected into the keycap during manufacturing — is the most durable method and produces legends that will never fade regardless of use. PBT dye-sublimation (dye-sub) is also excellent for durability, infusing the legend into the plastic rather than sitting on top of it. Once your new keycaps are on, run a CPS Test to benchmark your click speed on the fresh setup.

Where to Find Custom Keycaps

For ready-made sets, vendors like Drop, KBDfans, Divinikey, and Cannonkeys carry a rotating selection of popular sets in stock. For group buys — where a set is designed, funded, and manufactured to order over several months — follow communities like Reddit’s r/MechanicalKeyboards and Geekhack, where group buy interest checks and live rounds are regularly posted. For artisan keycaps (individually handcrafted, highly collectible single keys), follow artisan makers on Instagram and join their Discord servers for sales announcements.

Final Thoughts

Improvement in any skill follows a predictable pattern: rapid early gains, a plateau, a breakthrough, another plateau. Typing is no different. The typists who reach their goals are not always the most naturally talented — they are the ones who practice consistently, adjust their approach when they plateau, and do not give up during the frustrating middle stages. Use Monkey Typing Test to track your progress, identify your weak points, and celebrate every milestone along the way. The journey from where you are to where you want to be is made one session at a time, and every session counts.

Test Your Setup After Upgrading

Once your new keycaps are installed, benchmark your performance with a free typing speed test and a CPS Test to measure whether the new profile and material affect your speed and click feel. Many typists are surprised by how much a keycap profile change impacts their WPM in the first few days. Also read our keyboard maintenance guide to keep those new keycaps looking pristine for years.