8
votes

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 :)

5
  • The kbcovers.com site looks like a good option -- is 29$ really too expensive?
    – Nik Reiman
    May 18, 2009 at 13:24
  • @sqook: they are not that easy to get in europe :(
    – lImbus
    May 18, 2009 at 14:00
  • What is your price range and location?
    – Joseph
    May 18, 2009 at 16:38
  • @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, 2009 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, 2009 at 20:15

3 Answers 3

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3
votes

This is the cheapest thing I could find:

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

1
  • I bought them, those are not bad. But not the kicker yet.
    – lImbus
    Nov 11, 2009 at 20:16
3
votes

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.)

5
  • this is an excellent finding, also for unrelated stuff !
    – lImbus
    May 19, 2009 at 13:44
  • "Sorry, the GeoCities web site you were trying to reach is no longer available." - very unfortunate !
    – lImbus
    Nov 11, 2009 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, 2009 at 14:04
  • Website does not exist anymore...
    – lImbus
    May 4, 2012 at 14:15
  • There may be helpful links in the wayback archive for the page: web.archive.org/web/20091022112945/http://www.isometricland.com/…
    – Kara Marfia
    Jun 6, 2012 at 15:04
2
votes

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!

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