ABS keycaps
ABS keycap sets: doubleshot legends, crisp colors, brighter sound. GMK Olivia, MiTo Laser, /dev/tty, Drop signature and more.
5 keycaps · from $24.99
ABS is the softer, lower-melting plastic that keycaps were made of before PBT became the default. It takes sharp doubleshot legends and vivid colour more easily than PBT, and it polishes to a shine under the fingers you use most — the "greasy WASD" that makes a two-year-old set look its age.
Five sets on this page, one each from GMK, Signature Plastics, Drop, Glorious and Wooting, against sixty-two in PBT. That is not a category so much as a set of survivors, and they survive for two quite different reasons.
Two kinds of ABS, and they are not competing
Three of the five are hobby heritage. GMK Olivia in Cherry profile, DSA Pastel from Signature Plastics, and Drop MT3 Susuwatari are here because doubleshot ABS from GMK and SP is still the benchmark for legend crispness and colour saturation, and because certain colourways have no PBT equivalent at any price. None of the three is shine-through; none is meant to be.
The other two are backlight hardware. Glorious ABS Doubleshot V2 and Wooting Etched Backlit are both OEM profile, both shine-through, and both exist because thinner ABS transmits light more cleanly than PBT does. Buying either for the plastic would be a mistake; they are bought for what the RGB looks like through them.
What the shine actually is
It is not dirt and it does not wash off. ABS is soft enough that repeated contact burnishes the surface texture flat, so the matte finish becomes a mirror on the keys you hit hardest. On a set you type on daily it is visible within a year, obvious within two. Whether that matters is genuinely a preference — a well-worn ABS set reads as used rather than broken, and plenty of people like it.
What it is not is a durability failure. The legends on a doubleshot set are moulded plastic all the way through and cannot wear off, whatever happens to the surface around them. An ABS doubleshot set will outlive a printed PBT set by a wide margin.
Sound
The received wisdom is that ABS is higher-pitched and PBT is deeper. It is directionally true and much smaller than the forums suggest — the case material, the plate, the mounting style and the foam inside your board all move the sound more than the keycap plastic does. If you are chasing a sound, change those first.
Frequently asked
Should I avoid ABS?
Why are there so few ABS sets here?
Keep exploring
Related guides
More keycaps categories