[RCR]

I bought a new laptop awhile back. Mostly, I was happy with it, except for the keyboard. Using it in gloomy hotel rooms and coffee shops, the keyboard was almost impossible to decipher.

The keyboard used thin grey-white characters, small, and cluttered with blue symbols for stuff I never use. The key surfaces were shiny, making the characters even harder to see.

I browsed the internet for keyboard stickers. They do exist, mainly for vision impaired folk. I ordered a bunch of different types and tried them out. The result was larger letters, but they were glossy and they curled and peeled. So I got some flat transparent lacquer from a hobby shop and applied a couple of coats. Worked beautifully.

The photo shows the result. The top two rows of keys are unchanged. They actually show up pretty well in this brightly lit photo but not so well in real life. The other keys show the stickers applied. (I've also labelled where the USB slots are in the sides of the machine so I don't have to search for them).

Now I'm a happy camper. Anyone else do something like this?

Oh, and why don't manufacturers make their keyboards easy to read like this right from the start?