How Dye-Sublimation Keycaps are Produced

A Beginner’s Guide to Dye-Sublimation Keycaps

Dye-sublimation printing isn’t a new technique, but it has recently seen a major surge in popularity among keycap manufacturers—and for good reason. Unlike injection molding, which limits keycaps to just two colors and requires new tooling for every font change, dye-sublimation offers far greater design freedom without the upfront cost or limitations.

With dye-sublimation, designers can now apply detailed imagery, gradients, and vibrant color combinations—not just on the top of the keycap, but also on the sides. While there are still some constraints, this method opens up a world of possibilities that were previously out of reach for most keycap producers.

In this post, I’ll walk you through the entire dye-sublimation process—from initial design to production—while outlining some of the key limitations to keep in mind if you're looking to dive into this printing method.

Step 1: Design

The first step is designing the keycap set. Every company does this a little differently, but in our case, we’ve developed a custom template that we send to our factory partners. In this design file, each key must be treated as a separate object. This allows the factory to import and map each key individually into their system to ensure precise alignment during the printing process.

There are some unique challenges in the design process and one of those involves taking advantage of all 5 sides of the keycap to achieve a more dramatic effect.  In this case we need to provide a higher resolution image that expands well beyond the reach of the keycap surface so that it were to be draped over the edges like a table cloth that reaches down to the floor.  Here is an example below from a project that we are working one now.

We tend to reserve designs on keycaps like this to larger accent keys as the designs are prone to distortion and cause major headaches with production.  We also find that having multiple keys wrap around the 5 sides is very busy and distracting so we avoid using this method on alpha's all together.

Step 2: Setting Up for Print

Once the designs are finalized, they’re printed onto a large transfer sheet—think of it as a long, vacuum-sealed bag with a valve attachment for inflating with air. Before printing begins, the sheet is carefully inspected and aligned. Precision is key here: even a misalignment of half a millimetre can cause legends to appear crooked or off-centre.

After printing the designs with fresh ink, the sheet is manually checked again for any defects before moving to the next step. This is often where the majority of errors occur, so the quality control process is critical.

Step 3: Dye-Sub Printing

The printed transfer sheet is mounted into a rigid frame that aligns it directly over a blank, white set of keycaps. The frame and keycaps are locked together and inserted into a high-temperature oven for about one minute.

During this time, the bag is inflated with gas, wrapping tightly around all five sides of each keycap. The heat and pressure cause the ink to sublimate—turning from solid to gas—and permanently bond with the PBT plastic surface of the keycaps.

Once out of the oven, the bag is deflated and removed. The keycaps are then manually inspected to ensure the ink transferred cleanly and that none of the caps stuck to the sheet.