Drop’s new mechanical keyboard keycaps are a different take on a familiar design

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At first glance, there is nothing special about Drop's new collection of keycaps. There is one white set with black lettering, one black set with white letting, and one more colorful set with a combination of yellow, blue, red, and white keycaps. They look almost identical to what you'd find on an off-the-shelf keyboard, rather than the wacky designs that aftermarket keycaps are known for.

You will see the evidence of months of toil and over 1.5 million dollars in development work when you look beyond their color. The company is trying to compete with a manufacturer that produces the gold standard in aftermarket keycaps by using the new DCX profile. The shape of the keycaps can range from small cubes to giant chunks of plastic.

Drop's head of studio Kevin said that the quality of the product is unique compared to what others offer. The DCX profile is more than just a new shape, it is also tied to the quality of the lettering on each key. The development process has involved going through all the keycap legends to get their sizes and spacing.

Drop's catalog of keycaps has the same three letters in it: GMK. The name GMK is synonymous with some of the highest-quality keycaps around.

Image: Drop

There is nothing fancy about the style of keycaps GMK produces. They are not retro blocks that look like they belong on a computer terminal. They are well-produced and sturdy in a way that mechanical keyboard enthusiasts like. They use a double-shot process to create their key caps, which are made of thick plastic. GMK uses two different types of plastic, one for the keycap and one for its lettering, instead of printing or dyeing them. The result is lettering that can never wear away with use, but also legends that are remarkably crisp and bright. The style of lettering is linked to the profile because they are both made by the same set of tooling.

DCX isn't meant to replace the GMK keycaps in Drop's catalog, and the company tells me it plans to continue selling them. Drop's business has slowed because of the number of other companies GMK is working with.

That is the problem with GMK. As an independent manufacturer, it makes keycaps for Drop and any other designers and retailers that want to produce a set of keycaps. GMK's popularity means that wait times of 18 months or more for its keycaps are now the norm for most people. Drop says that DCX keycaps should be able to go from idea to final shipping in 4 to 6 months.

Most of what people love about GMK's keycaps are retained by DCX. They are double-shot, made of high-quality plastic, and the squared-off design should look good on most off-the-shelf mechanical keyboards.

It's a design that means DCX should look familiar to anyone who has ever used a mechanical keyboard. The keys are not very tall or low profile. They are medium in height and have a slight dip between the left and right sides of the key.

Drop was able to address some of the long-standing annoyances with GMK's keycaps by designing a new keycap profile. Mak is careful to not claim that DCX is better than GMK, but he highlights some of the issues that people have with GMK's designs.

Image: Drop

There are small marks left on a key cap where molten plastic flowed into its mold. There are small marks on the top side of each keycap, a small blemish on a set of keycaps that cost well north of $100. Drop occasionally sees its customers cite the high price of the sets as a reason to return their keycaps. Drop's solution with DCX is simple: it designed its tooling so that the marks on the underside of each key are completely invisible.

Another issue? DCX now includes Mac-specific Command and option keys. Mak tells me that Apple users won't have to put up with legends that are obviously meant for Windows machines because they're words rather than symbols.

Drop hopes people will appreciate the amount of attention it pays to every aspect of how its lettering is laid out, even if they don't notice it specifically. Its legends are aligned and equally spacing, and the symbols on the 6 key are more in proportion to the lettering on the key.

Drop offers a small price discount over GMK after the pricing was announced for DCX. A set of GMK white-on-black keycaps will set you back $110, while the base kit of an equivalent DCX set has a regular price of $100.

Drop has manufactured two keycap profiles in-house. Matteo Spinelli, a well-known designer, created a key cap design that was inspired by the old computer terminals. Drop decided to develop its new keycaps in secret as opposed to its double-shot MT3 keycaps, where the company started taking preorders as part of a process called the keyboard community. It was a decision that angered many in the community when the keycaps were delayed.

Mak says that the biggest lesson they learned was to calibrate on their expectations.

Image: Drop

Image: Drop

The new keycap profile is still generating controversy even though DCX was developed behind closed doors. Drop said it planned to build a family of products around the name of the profile. Matt3o felt disrespected by the name of the designer who had no involvement in the design of MT2.

The designer wrote in a post that Drop used the success of the third iteration of the product to create a completely unrelated product and that the name of the product is not related to him. Drop claimed in a comment that the name of the game was used to recognize the contributions of MiTo, a popular keycap designer.

Drop's chief operating officer Jeffrey Holove tells me that they were surprised by the criticism and that they were trying to make it clear that this is part of a family of Drop products. DCX is a lower profile than the other two, so it made sense that the designer we were collaborating on would have an M and a T in his name.

Drop changed the name of the new keycap profile to DCX out of respect for Matt3 after the outcry, which was echoed by many others in the keyboard community.

Drop's DCX profile keycaps are not likely to be an entryway into the world of mechanical keyboards. For those who are comfortable with spending a lot of money on premium GMK keycaps, they have the potential to be more accessible and affordable. Is there a chance of bettering GMK's legendary quality?

Kevin Mak says they are aiming for that Drop before adding quickly.