X16 keycap stickers

jjgignac · Post by **jjgignac** » Sat Jan 09, 2021 4:50 am

I created this image for converting a classic mechanical PC keyboard into an X16 keyboard. You can print it on inkjet-printable sticker paper, and cut out the stickers. It works with the "print then cut" mode on my wife's Cricut cutting plotter.

BTW, Although the graphics are obviously inspired by Commodore's work, I created this image from scratch by hand-editing a PostScript file in a text editor, so there shouldn't be any copyright concerns.

Edit: The image should be printed at 600dpi, with a size of 6.5" x 3.125"

: x16-keycap-stickers.png (135.52 KiB) Viewed 2435 times

mrdoornbos · Post by **mrdoornbos** » Sat Jan 09, 2021 11:45 am

Neat, what did you create this in?

jjgignac · Post by **jjgignac** » Sat Jan 09, 2021 2:58 pm

3 hours ago, mrdoornbos said:

Neat, what did you create this in?

I wrote the original source as a PostScript program. It probably would've been more natural to do it in Inkscape or something like that, but I happen to be fluent in PostScript anyway and it allowed me to make bulk adjustments easily. (Like adjusting the sizes of all the buttons with one quick edit.)

I used Gimp to make final edits. Specifically, I moved the buttons around so they'd fit in a space that worked conveniently for the "print then cut" feature. (The Postscript output is laid out more like the actual keyboard.)

mrdoornbos · Post by **mrdoornbos** » Sat Jan 09, 2021 3:05 pm

Interesting, I was just going to work on some C64 keycap stickers for a project. I'll probably use Affinity Designer methinks.

jjgignac · Post by **jjgignac** » Sat Jan 09, 2021 6:41 pm

Here's the finished product, printed on weatherproof inkjet-printable vinyl sticker paper:

SlithyMatt · Post by **SlithyMatt** » Sat Jan 09, 2021 8:26 pm

Very cool! I wonder if you could get beige sticker stock to make it match better?

cuvtixo · Post by **cuvtixo** » Sat Jan 09, 2021 9:44 pm

6 hours ago, jjgignac said:

I wrote the original source as a PostScript program.

I am so jealous. I've wanted to say this for a long time, got a blue PostScript book in the mid 90s and never did anything more than glance at it. ?

jjgignac · Post by **jjgignac** » Sat Jan 09, 2021 11:43 pm

3 hours ago, SlithyMatt said:

Very cool! I wonder if you could get beige sticker stock to make it match better?

No need for beige stock since it's printed on a colour printer. Making it match might be nice, but if I'm going to do that, I'd probably want to retr0brite all the keys first. Not sure if it's worth the trouble at this point.

SlithyMatt · Post by **SlithyMatt** » Sun Jan 10, 2021 12:05 am

21 minutes ago, jjgignac said:

No need for beige stock since it's printed on a colour printer. Making it match might be nice, but if I'm going to do that, I'd probably want to retr0brite all the keys first. Not sure if it's worth the trouble at this point.

As @Perifractic would say, "DEWIT!"

EMwhite · Post by **EMwhite** » Wed Jan 13, 2021 1:49 pm

On 1/9/2021 at 9:58 AM, jjgignac said:

I wrote the original source as a PostScript program.

Can you provide a snippet of code, just so we can marvel at how complex it is. It doesn't have to work by itself, just curious to see it (I too had a PostScript book in the 90s and recall 'throwing' code at our AppleLaser printer, but nothing like this!). Well done!