Turning a muted hacker-style keyboard into an ’80s dreamscape with some excellent keycaps from Tai-Hao.

I’ve spent some time this morning to upgrade the Leopold FC750 mechanical keyboard (I have the tenkeyless ANSI version) that I bought earlier in the year with some fancy new keycaps. Behold the glory of the Tai-Hao Sunshine Keycap Set, which I had my eye on since I bought the keyboard and which I snapped up at Candykeys when it was finally back in stock. Which was just as well, because it’s now sold out again.

I had originally bought the “Dolch Yellow” version of the keyboard and I like the subdued hacker look, but I must say I love this new Miami Vice version even more. It was already an amazing keyboard, now it’s perfect. It makes me happy just looking at it. Which is exactly what you want from your primary work tool.

Here’s a before-and-after view of the upgrade:

You can probably already tell from looking at that picture that they replacement keys are slightly bigger. They are a bit wider and don’t leave as much space between the keys. The prints on them (double-shot injected like the originals) are also a bit bigger and easier to read at a glance, where the original keys – pardon the pun – are more low-key. But the Sunshine keys are also noticeably higher, which, in my opinion, slightly improves the typing experience.

Here’s another photo I took mid-upgrade. It was really very easy to do. Nothing to be afraid of at all. I also love the way Tai-Hao sends out the new keys on a mock keyboard base plate with labels in the sockets of the keys. That way, you can never lose your place and mess up. And you have a place to store your old keys, if you want to do that. They even supplied two different grips to remove the keys from the keyboard.

I’m really happy with these new keys. They make an already great keyboard even better. And of course I took the opportunity to thoroughly clean my keyboard with a vacuum cleaner and some alcohol-based cleaning fluid.

And now please excuse me while I put on some synthwave and write a story or two on my new outrun-style keyboard…