deskthority

I was wondering, what kind of equipment would be necessary to laser engrave sublegends on ABS keycaps? A laser, obviously, but what kind?

You need blank keycaps from special plastic if you want the laser engraved parts to have a different colour.

Other option would be to have a laser in pulsed mode with extremely short pulse duration and extremely hight peak power. This creates a very black surface where hit by laser. No clue how well it is resistant against abrasion but it does not matter. You will not get access to such a laser.

Without that the result will not look great: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=97829.0

The other option is is to use simple laser engraver with toner. It is a messy job but it looks good: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=96010.0

vvp wrote: You need blank keycaps from special plastic if you want the laser engraved parts to have a different colour.

Other option would be to have a laser in pulsed mode with extremely short pulse duration and extremely hight peak power. This creates a very black surface where hit by laser. No clue how well it is resistant against abrasion but it does not matter. You will not get access to such a laser.

Without that the result will not look great: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=97829.0

The other option is is to use simple laser engraver with toner. It is a messy job but it looks good: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=96010.0

Thanks, the toner option seems the most promising.