Tracking Your Keycap Builds Without Losing Your Mind
Most people who get into custom keyboards don't realize how quickly the details slip away. You order a set of PBT keycaps from a small batch manufacturer in Taiwan, wait six weeks, and then months later you can't remember which dye-sub profile it was, what the stem compatibility was, or whether the kit included numbers row keycaps or only a tenkeyless layout. I've seen this happen repeatedly. The journal system for custom keycap collections isn't some special software you need to install — it's a structured log that keeps every transaction, spec, and observation in one place so you actually remember what you own. The method is straightforward once you stop overcomplicating it. Open a spreadsheet or a dedicated notes app and create columns for the following fields: date purchased, vendor, keycap profile (Cherry, OEM, MT3, SA, XDA, etc.), material (ABS, PBT, POM, PC), switch type compatibility, stem type, colorway, quantity, price paid, and a notes field. That's it. Some people add a column for thumb grip style or DSA vs. XDA modifiers, but that's detail you can add later if you actually use it. I started this around 2019 when I had maybe four sets of keycaps. Three years later I had twenty-two, and half of them I couldn't identify without physically picking them up and reading the legends. The turning point was when I tried to match a set of e-mergency caps to a keyboard I was building and realized I had no record of whether they were compatible with Kailh low-profile stems or only Cherry-compatible. I ended up buying the wrong spacer because I hadn't written that down.
Once I started logging every purchase immediately, the value became obvious. Here's what actually matters in practice that most beginner guides miss.
What to Log and Why It Matters
Profile is the single most important field. Cherry profile keycaps from different manufacturers can vary by a fraction of a millimeter in height, and that compounds across a full set. If you're mixing sets — and most people do at some point — knowing exactly what profile each set is prevents the frustration of uneven key heights on your board. OEM is the other major one people mess up. Some vendors label their keycaps OEM when they're actually closer to Cherry or even something in between. Material matters more than you'd think. ABS keycaps develop shine within a few months of regular use. PBT tends to last years. But POM and polycarbonate are becoming more common, and neither behaves the same way as PBT. I once logged a set as PBT when it was actually a PBT-PC blend, and when I tried to rehome that set later, the buyer complained about texture mismatch compared to their other PBT sets. The note saved me from having to eat the return shipping cost. Stem type is another field people skip until it bites them. Standard cross stems work for most Cherry-compatible switches, but some sets use rounded stems or specialized formats like Kailh box or low-profile. If you're building a journal specifically to manage a collection that spans multiple board types — full-size, TKL, 60%, 40% — this field becomes critical. I keep a separate column for stem type now because I've lost count of how many times I pulled a keycap set out of my shelf, mounted it on a board, and found the stems didn't seat properly.
Get the Full Details
The Problem With Manual Entry
The main weakness of any journal system is consistency. If you only log purchases and never update the notes field when you modify a build or sell a set, the data goes stale within a few months. I learned this the hard way when I sold three keycap sets on a forum and didn't remove them from my spreadsheet. Six months later I was offering a set I no longer owned to someone who asked questions about it. It was embarrassing and wasted both our time. Another limitation is that a spreadsheet doesn't help you visualize your collection. You'll have excellent text data but zero sense of how your profiles distribute or whether you have redundant colors. I solved this by adding a simple pivot summary at the bottom of my sheet that counts sets by profile and by material. Takes about thirty seconds to refresh and gives me a quick overview without opening the full log. Photos are worth the extra effort. I took a picture of every keycap set right after unboxing it and linked the image in the notes field. Not every platform makes this easy — Google Sheets handles it with image URLs, and Notion lets you embed photos directly. The photo is useful for two reasons. First, it captures the exact colorway before lighting and screen calibration differences make you second-guess whether the purple set you bought was actually lavender or orchid. Second, it documents the condition at the time of purchase, which matters if you ever need to prove something was flawed on arrival.
Advanced Tracking That Actually Helps
Once you've been doing this for a year or so, a few additional fields become worth the effort. First is the batch or revision number. Keycap manufacturers, especially smaller Chinese vendors, sometimes change the mold or material between production runs without updating the product page. I've received two orders of the same keycap set from the same vendor with noticeably different PBT textures and slightly different legend opacity. Logging the order number and batch variant catches this. Second is compatibility notes. Some keycap sets work fine on stock Cherry stems but bind on kailh low-profile or specific aftermarket stem designs. I keep a running note in each entry about which switches and stems I've tested the set with. This is the kind of information that takes months to accumulate organically and is impossible to reverse-engineer later. Third is a field for resale or trade value. If you're actively buying and selling keycaps, tracking your original cost and current estimated value helps you make smarter decisions about what to hold onto and what to move. The custom keycap market is fragmented and prices vary wildly depending on scarcity and condition. A set that cost eighty dollars new might be worth one hundred and twenty on the secondary market six months later, or it might drop to forty-five if a newer set from the same manufacturer undercuts it.
Where This System Breaks Down
The journal approach works well for collections under fifty keycap sets. Beyond that, you'll find yourself spending more time maintaining the log than actually using the data. At that scale, you'd be better off using a dedicated inventory tool or at least automating entries through a script that pulls purchase history from your email or order confirmations. I've seen people try to manage seventy-plus sets in a single spreadsheet and eventually abandon it because the maintenance overhead became unbearable. Another blind spot is non-standard or custom-order keycaps. If you commission a artisan keycap set from a maker who doesn't use standard retail packaging, the documentation you'd normally get — SKU, batch number, material specification — might not exist. In those cases, you're relying on your own notes and photos, which means the accuracy of your journal depends entirely on how thorough you were at the point of purchase. I usually take photos of the maker's description, the packaging, and any paperwork they include, then link all of it in the entry. If you're starting from zero and want something faster than a spreadsheet, a structured notes app like Notion or Obsidian works well. They handle images and linking better than Sheets, and you can build simple relations between entries if you start cross-referencing which switches pair well with which profiles. The trade-off is that spreadsheets are easier to export and share if you ever decide to sell part of your collection or trade with someone who wants to see what you have.
Start simple. Get the basic fields logged for the keycap sets you already own, then add complexity only where it creates friction. The goal isn't a perfect database — it's avoiding the situation where you're holding a keycap set and have no idea what you're looking at.
