Cheap or DIY Keyboard Overlays?

Question

I am in charge to furnish a class with keyboards that have colored keys for special functions. It's for kids in their free time to learn video cutting and editing (mainly on Final Cut Pro).

Now, these Logic Keyboards or Overlays already exist, but are fairly expensive, and as you can imagine, there is not much money in such free time projects.

Does anyone know of cheaper/simpler solutions ?

We are quite a handful of helpers with different handcraft skills, so we are going to try this on our own if we do not find a buyable solution. The results will of course be on display here, if not considered off-topic.

No, the Optimus Maximus is not a solution :)

The kbcovers.com site looks like a good option -- is 29$ really too expensive? — Nik Reiman, May 18 '09 at 13:24
@squook - I'd agree with you for one keyboard, but with multiple kids, I think $300 for 10 keyboards is money better spent on other educational materials. — Kara Marfia, May 18 '09 at 16:40
I sooo agree with that "fairly expensive" note - how come a regular cheap keyboard with some colored keys marked for Adobe Premiere or Avid (FC is what? ;p) costs about 5-6 times as much? Anyhow, just spray-paint them - forces everyone to learn the alfa-numeric keys without looking anyway... ^^ — Oskar Duveborn, May 18 '09 at 20:15

Joseph · Answer 1 · 2009-05-18T16:49:44.300

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This is the cheapest thing I could find:

http://www.4keyboard.com/apple-final-cut-keyboard-stickers-p-176.html

edited May 18 '09 at 16:49

answered May 18 '09 at 16:36

Joseph

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I bought them, those are not bad. But not the kicker yet. – lImbus Nov 11 '09 at 20:16

Kara Marfia · Answer 2 · 2009-11-12T14:04:20.650

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It looks like this guy may have put together something that'll do in a pinch. It looks like people have added schemes for non-game-related overlays, so I'd imagine you'd be able to use it for your purpose.

(I haven't used them, but it looks promising.)

edited Nov 12 '09 at 14:04

answered May 18 '09 at 16:45

Kara Marfia

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this is an excellent finding, also for unrelated stuff ! – lImbus May 19 '09 at 13:44
"Sorry, the GeoCities web site you were trying to reach is no longer available." - very unfortunate ! – lImbus Nov 11 '09 at 20:15
Yahoo pulled the plug on GeoCities, but it looks like the page still lives! Updated the link in the post. – Kara Marfia Nov 12 '09 at 14:04
Website does not exist anymore... – lImbus May 04 '12 at 14:15
There may be helpful links in the wayback archive for the page: http://web.archive.org/web/20091022112945/http://www.isometricland.com/keyboard/keyboard.php – Kara Marfia Jun 06 '12 at 15:04

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited Feb 22 '12 at 08:41

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In the good old days, PC gaming magazines would print a double A4 card printed sheet designed to fold out & fit over standard keyboards for popular games. Not so much an overlay as a keyboard attached cheat sheet. Kind of like the old TI-99 overlays.

Not an ideal solution but both cheap and simple!

edited Feb 22 '12 at 08:41

Bart De Vos

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answered May 18 '09 at 13:15

ewengcameron

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Cheap or DIY Keyboard Overlays?

3 Answers3