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篆Seal - A Fullsize Keyboard

by 性之

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by性之

Description

篆Seal
Designed by XINGZHI x QIN / Co-produced by VERTEX

Hello world, I’m Xingzhi, a fresh rookie in keyboard design from China. This full size newbee is brought to you by me and my friend Qin. It’s produced by the Vertex team of ‘Angle’ you might be familiar with.

Qin and I are both fanatic collectors of vintage keyboards, such as IBM, Cherry. In the classic world, full size type is always the main stream. Cherry G80-3108 with a key on top right, was such an iconic design, followed by Apple and WYSE with products sharing the same idea. That’s where my debut show came from.

Furthermore, what often haunts my heart is that how to attach any Chinese aesthics into a keyboard design, something tranditional and reserved. If Calligraphy would be an introduction to ancient art, then instantly the Seal Script from the very first QIN dynasty occurred to my mind. This is why our first design featuring a signature badge is called ‘Seal’. The seal badge inspires you to customize your name or favourite chinese character, just like an artist’s engraving in his masterpiece.

Let’s have a look of its details as below.

Overlook:

437.35 x 135.72 x 36.49mm；
Full size/100%；

Yes it’s a long baby as what a keyboard looks like when each one of us initially touches in work space. Controversially, in customized keyboard hobby, not so many authors prefer full size option.

Structure:

Why top mount?

Stable and reliable is all that it counts. Actually, it constantly domains the hobby from the very beginning of the customized keyboard history. It’s so sensitive to all variables including plate, PCB, switch and keycap. It acts, responses or even magnifies all these subtle changes more directly. In another word, you shall get more genuine feel of typing.

Of cause, it can also tell the real quality of the keyboard itself. Personally, instead of saying it’s a conservative structure, I would call it purity.

Attributes to one of Vertex’s ongoing project’s solution, we insert a PC cushion in-between the screw and case to absorb quiver when typing. You may wonder its necessity. Interestingly, Lolo(another funny pal) accidentally discover some tiny differences when switching PCB and plate of MAJA from PC case into aluminium case in which way he felt slightly better in PC surrounding. So in order to restore that little improvement, we installed this little PC experiment to optimize bounds and sounds.

As a result, it worked perfectly well.

Next, like others do, we split the PCB & plate into main and num which is quite normal to see nowadays. And you may want to try with two kinds of switches since they can be allocated from separated area.

Weight:≈3.5-3.7kg (Fully built)

For a full size keyboard, its weight might not be heavy enough especially comparing with Glare. (Guessing Simon might not want to kiss it) But regarding to gym needs, it works indeed.

Front height: 9°

After three rounds of sampling, I didn’t lower its front height maximally. Because this final profile came with a better consolidation of look and feel.

Case Material:

Aluminium anodized

Silver

Black

Red

Very Peri

Brown

Blue

E-coated

Cold Gray

Pink

Weight Material:

Brass AF

Copper AF

Brass Patina

PVD SS milled

Plate:

Aluminum

FR4

Support:

ANSI / ISO, Soldering / Hotswap, PCB based on QMK, supporting VIA3.0&VIAL

Set including:

Aluminium case up & bottom x 1
Brass badge x 2
Aluminum badge(inner) x 1
Carry pack x 1
Plate x 1
PCB & cable x 1
PC cushion x 10
Daughter board and JST x 1
Rubber feet x 1

One more thing:

Seal and its PCB supports ALPS, but we couldn’t be able to provide compatible plate during GB. We’ll open-source the ALPS plate file later.

True love of keyboard drives us this far. Hope you’ll like this product.

Thanks for reading this much.

How to follow news of the Seal:

For now, Clickclack is the confirmed vendor in NA, and we will continue to update other vendors in other regions.