An Argument For Putty-Colored Computer Keyboards

image The standard color for any computer-related item made of plastic these days (keyboards, mice, monitor bezels, etc.) is black or silver. Black is usually a true black, as in the plastic was molded originally in that color. Silver comes from paint, and to the best of my knowledge the base color before the silver is white or gray. Usually white.

Once upon a time (circa mid-2000s and earlier), the majority of hardware was putty-colored. I call it putty because it’s not exactly beige (although NewEgg lists them as such), not exactly tan, not exactly yellow… it’s the color of putty.

Yes, I know, putty-colored plastic looks boring – however I champion it over black because I can see it better and read it easier.

One would assume that black keys with stark white letters would be easier to read compared to black-on-putty. Not true. After a while the characters for a white-on-black color scheme will start to blur even if they’re backlit and even if you’re not tired. Why? Because they aren’t the colors you normally see when reading text. Books are black-on-parchment (or white). Newspaper text is black-on-light-gray. On web pages, the vast majority of content is presented as black-on-white.

White-on-black may look more stylish, but most people’s eyes simply don’t "agree" with it.

Many a computer geek can operate a keyboard without even looking at it, but there are also many who can’t do that and still rely on actually looking at the keyboard to type out stuff.

If you get frequent cases of "the blurs" when looking at your current keyboard, try a putty-colored one; you may discover that it will instantly cure that ill.

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7 comments

  1. David M /

    Apple has white keyboards, although expensive because they are Apple products.  No looking at an ugly beige color.

  2. People look at their keyboard???

  3. or get one with a green, red or blue backlight as they are easy to see against black

  4. I have a couple vintage PC’s that used to be Putty colored until you gave me the “solution recipe” to clean them. I just picked up fully working Apple II GS system (wife hates me more by the day) from 1986 ($40.00) and it is going to get the anti putty treatment. It came with a giant box of games and applications and this thing is going to be fun until I sell it… or if I sell it. I have ran across a couple of keyboards I tried to clean but they remained putty and that is what you are talking about. 

  5. I don’t know,once you go black…  ;)

  6. The black color for keyboards, mice, monitor bezels is ugly. Do you think so?

    The putty colore for these computer-related item made of plastic in 1990s or mid-2000s is more acceptable, much better than the black ones.

  7. The color for the computer and screen bezel in 1980s and 1990s is ivory, there are many people like the ivory-colored keyboards, mice, monitor bezels.

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