Keyboard Builders' Digest / Tips & Tricks
WDA profile
WDA is a sculpted, spherical, middle-height keycap profile. The first set is available on zFrontier.
Published July 17, 2022
Designed by PointWorks, WDA Cyousyoku is available at zFrontier.
It is the first set of the WDA profile, and as usual, this post is not about the specific set but the profile itself.
Photos of the product have been posted since late 2021 in the Chinese community, but I wasn't aware of the profile until Deadeye's post on Keebtalk.
I reached out for more info. Until then:
In 2020, after we released the IC of this "Cyousyoku" keycap, it has not been shipped due to various reasons. After several twists and turns, we finally made this set of samples that satisfied us – PointWorks (2021.11.08).
The profile
According to the product page, WDA is a fully sculpted profile featuring 6 different rows from R5 (F row) to R0 (spacebar row).
In this photo, WDA is compared to SA and Cherry:
The comfort ergonomics and vintage R0/R5 profiles from Cherry and the rounded and curvy spherical aesthetic and smooth row transition from SA, it is slightly taller than Cherry profile but significantly shorter than the SA profile[…]
With all these attributes, at least shape-wise, it resembles MDA imo.
But it has homing dots instead of dashes.
In addition, this is a pretty thick keycap, wall thickness is reported to be around 3mm.
Material & Legends
The keycaps are injected with PBT and the legends are done via "heat treated pad printing". According to the zFrontier page, "legends are printed onto the keycaps and reinforced by heat treatment to ensure they have similar durability as dye-subbed legends". Now you know.
According to a user quoting the material coming with the set, this new sublimation process is – beware, google translate in action – "similar to car paint, and it is easier to control when it comes to toning".
The most important thing is that the strength is very high, the big keys will not be deformed at all, and the spaces are straight! (source)
Published on Sun 17th Jul 2022. Featured in KBD #87 (source).
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