Keycap profiles and materials: Cherry, OEM, SA and PBT or ABS

A sculpted profile gives each row a different height and angle, so the keys form a gentle curve under your fingers. It makes the home row easier to find without looking, which is the main reason most sets are sculpted^[1].

Cherry profile is the low one, and the default on most enthusiast sets. OEM is a bit taller, and it's what you'll find on most shop-bought keyboards. If you've only used one keyboard, it was probably OEM or something close to it. Cherry feels a little flatter and quicker to bottom out; OEM a little more upright. The difference is small, so either is a safe first choice.

Cherry profile covers both ends of the price range. GMK CYL WoB is a GMK set in thick ABS with 1.5 mm walls, sold by base kit with no single list price^[3], while PBTfans WoB is the same white-on-black idea in PBT for £75. On the OEM side, Glorious GPBT Classic Black Basics Keycaps is a plain PBT set that comes in a UK kit.

• PBTfans WoB: Cherry profile, doubleshot PBT; ISO needs the separate International kit
• Keychron Cherry Profile Double-Shot PBT Full Set - Royal: Cherry profile, doubleshot PBT, 219 keys including UK ISO keys
• Glorious GPBT Classic Black Basics Keycaps: OEM profile, doubleshot PBT, sold as a 131-key UK kit

SA is tall and has a deep, round dish on each key that cups the fingertip. It's the profile behind a lot of the retro-looking sets, and it takes some getting used to: the extra height can bother your wrists if your board is already high off the desk, and most people need a few days to stop missing keys^[1]. Signature Plastics SA Grand Budapest is a typical example: thick ABS, doubleshot, and as much about the colours as the feel.

MT3 is taller again, with steep sculpting modelled on old IBM terminal keyboards; people tend to love it or give up on it. Drop + Nuka-Cola MT3 Keycap Set is one of the sets still sold in it. KAT sits between Cherry and SA: rounded like SA but shorter. Availability is patchy for all three, as most sets are made in limited runs.

A wrist rest helps with any tall profile. If you've never typed on one, try a cheap set before paying for a premium one.

Uniform profiles make every key the same height and shape. That means any key can go in any row, which suits ortholinear and split boards with unusual layouts, and lets you rearrange keys without ending up with a wonky row. The trade-off is that your fingers get less help finding the home row^[1].

DSA is low with a shallow round dish; XDA is a little taller with wide, flat tops. Both tend to sound higher and sharper than sculpted sets. FKcaps DSA Way – Blue is a DSA set aimed at ergonomic and ortholinear boards.

Almost every set is PBT or ABS. ABS is smoother and takes sharp, bright colours, but the surface wears where your fingers land, so the most-used keys go glossy within a few years of heavy use. PBT has a slightly dry, textured feel and resists that shine for much longer^[2]. On sound, ABS is generally described as brighter and PBT as fuller, though the wall thickness matters as much as the plastic.

That makes PBT the sensible default if you want caps that still look new in five years. The reason ABS survives at the top end is colour and legend sharpness: GMK and most SA sets are ABS because doubleshot ABS can be made in almost any colour with crisp edges. If your board came with thin ABS caps, a PBT set is one of the cheapest upgrades you can make, and it changes the sound more than most people expect.

Doubleshot keycaps are moulded from two pieces of plastic, one for the key and one for the legend, so the letters go all the way through and can't wear off. This is the method used on most white-on-black sets, including both the GMK and PBTfans examples above.

Dye-sublimation soaks dye into the surface of the plastic. It also lasts a very long time, and it suits PBT and fine, detailed artwork^[2]. Because the dye has to be darker than the cap it goes into, you'll mostly see dye-sub legends as dark print on light keys, as on EnjoyPBT ePBT Spectrum.

Pad-printed and laser-etched legends sit on or just under the surface and are cheaper to make. They're common on stock office keyboards and can fade with heavy use. They're not a reason to avoid a board, but they're worth knowing about when you compare stock keycaps.

Profile and material are the fun part. Fit is where the money gets wasted. Three checks cover most problems.

Stem. Nearly all sets have MX-style cross stems, which fit MX switches and most clones. Low-profile boards are different: Keychron's LSA set is made for its own low-profile K-series boards^[8], Kailh Choc V1 switches need Choc caps, and Topre boards such as the HHKB use their own stem.

UK ISO keys. A UK board needs a tall Enter, a short left Shift, and the extra keys for £, # and the backslash. Many enthusiast sets are ANSI first, and ISO comes as a separate add-on kit when it exists at all. MechMods sells the International kit for PBTfans WoB separately, for example^[4]. Some sets avoid the problem: Keychron's 219-key Cherry sets include the UK keys in the box^[6], and Glorious sells its GPBT Basics as a 131-key UK kit^[7]. NovelKeys publishes the SA Grand Budapest kitting only as images^[5], so with sets like that, check the pictures key by key.

Bottom row. Most sets assume a standard bottom row with a 6.25u space bar. Boards with a short space bar or odd-sized modifiers, such as the Leopold FC660M PD, need extra keys that many base kits don't include.

If you're choosing parts for a new board, the builder checks stem type and layout coverage for you. For how keycaps fit into the overall sound of a board, see what makes a keyboard sound thocky or clacky, and for the UK layout itself, ANSI or ISO: a layout guide for UK buyers.