Keyboard colour - why mostly black?

I would think that white is not chosen because it shows up dirt easily. Ever notice how quickly a white desktop keyboard can show up dirt? The other thing is, if you learned to type, you are not looking at the keyboard but at the screen as you type. (I never learned to type - my desktop with the white (dirty!) keyboard is OK, but I hate the laptop keyboard!)

Mike

Higher contrast in low light, easily illuminated by screen, and less distraction. I wish laptops came with a keyboard light though....

Small flexible LED lamps are available for the USB ports on the side of your laptop. They are enough to see what you are typing and won't interfere with viewing.

Response to guest and Tee Square; Buy an Apple Computer keyboards are white and the lap top keys are light silver and they are lighted as soon as it gets dark in room. They also sell a thin plastic sheet to cover key board and keep it clean and dry if you wanted to .

True. Both my white keyboards get dirty fast. And yes, good typers don't look at the keyboard, but I do. That is why on my powerbook, the backlit keys help me out when I am outside in the dark as i am now with only a distant street light around. Go apple

all my keyboards are cream, or cream and fawn!!!

Georgee

My Sony Vaio has a cream color keyboard and it works well. I very seldom ever look at the keys. In fact the only light in the room comes from the screen and I very seldom have to rely on the raised bars on the F and J keys to relocate the positions of my hands. I really think that the black keys came into play in the mid 80's as the early keyboards were all grey,(from IBM). Once you learn to type by the touch method you will only be looking at the keys when trying to type something that is cryptic in nature. So what looks best on your desk? That will be the deciding factor for many.

I think a lot of people don't even look at the keyboard once their hands are in the right place.

The biggest reason would be the bottom line, that is right money. The plastic industry uses this basic rule too. It is much more cost efficient to produce black injected molds. I am sure that if you desire that you can find a plastics company that will give you a tour. I would suggest that you do some research on injection molding on the internet if you are truly interested.

George C. Hays

You are absolutely right. At one time all the keys were dual moulded, meaning the letters were moulded in black separately & then insert moulded with the paler shade of plastic. This precluded the letters from being worn out with use and wear as you so often see on cheaper variety of calculator & other keyboards.

In todays ultra high competitiveness to be economic they are mostly moulded in black & then screen printed. One can add Black master batch to any number of different "recycled" or remnants of plastic like runners or other defectives & it will look black. Full use of otherwise wasted material.

The trend originally started with the "Black" keyboards looking "Cool".

I am not sure whether this can be THE answer. My belief says:

Black coloured objects absorb light and White objects reflect light.

A black keyboard absorbs all the other lights and only the white letters reflect the ambient light to our eyes. This makes the keyboard more pleasant as we feel it hard to 'focus' (controlling aperture!) on bright objects. Try to view black letters on white background, and you will know the difference (unless your eyes 'want' more light!!). It will be hard to focus on 'black' letters on white background. The same is applicable in case of 'Chalk board' in the earlier years (quite a long ago, for some!). Earlier chalk boards came with Black Background and used White chalks so that students can fully open their eyes (philosophically too!!) while they saw what is written on the board. Now, we find many boards with White Background and teachers write with black colour which appears to be hard to focus on (to many students).

Any more insights into this?

Thanks & BR,

Govinda Padaki

"Ebony and Ivory, live together in perfect harmony, side by side on my piano keyboard, oh Lord, why can't weeeeeee?"

with apologies to Stevie Wonder and Sir Paul McCartney.

Its purely a cosmetic issue.

The white plastics tend to yellow fast and look ugly in time. The black maintains better colour retention and does not show dirt as badly.

Its also design trend.

Most people who have been typing for years can type with their eyes closed to the argument to use white keys and black letters for contrast really is not justifiable.

My newer intel notbooks all have the ash grey keys ... yup cheap recycled platic with screen printed characters.

My older and more robust Mac Poratble has the classic platinum keyboard and roller ball. It hardly every showes the grime the cheap ivory boards do and its easy to clean.

Another wonderful thing about the Macs in the Current Line-up, especially the MacBooks and the MacBook Pros is that the keyboards are backlit. I still can't figure out why HP and other PC notebook manufacturers haven't gone for backlit keyboards. It would using them on flights and in darkened airport terminals much easier.