# switch-scores: A Score Sheet Library for Mechanical Keyboard Switches > ThereminGoat's switch-scores repository collects the one-sheet score cards for mechanical keyboard switches as PDFs, alongside composite score sheets in CSV and XLSX for comparing totals and rankings. It is a document archive rather than software, updated roughly weekly and reworked in place as the format and the scores change. **ThereminGoat/switch-scores** — PDF Repository of switch score sheets. - Repository: https://github.com/ThereminGoat/switch-scores - Stars: 1,216 · Forks: 63 - Language: Unknown - License: not declared - Published: 2026-10-19 · Updated: 2026-10-19 · Language: en - Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/theremingoat-switch-scores ## A Flat Folder of One-Page Reviews The repository is officially the home of all of the one-sheet scoring cards for switches, first introduced on July 25th of 2020. In addition to the score cards being included as a regular part of the long form reviews since that date, the repository holds a significant number of switches that the author otherwise would not or will not review in long form on the website. That last clause explains what the archive actually is. The long form reviews are the essays, and the score sheets are the compact versions of them, one page each, and the repository exists so that the score card for a switch that never got an essay still exists as a document. The structure of the top level reflects that. There is an example sheet, the composite sheets, and then a long alphabetical run of PDFs named after the switch and the colourway, with names like Akko Creamy Cyan.pdf, Aiguox Dark Sakura Glass.pdf, BSUN Golden Apple.pdf and Cherry MX 'New Nixie' (Black Clear-Top).pdf. The names carry the brand, the model and the colour, which is what makes a folder listing usable as an index. There is no software in this repository, no build and no test suite. The value is entirely in the documents and in the consistency of the format across them. ## The Composite Sheets Are the Machine Readable Part At the top of the folder sit the composite score sheets, and they are the exception to the PDF rule. There are four of them: ```text 1-Composite Hard Total Score Sheet.csv 1-Composite Overall Total Score Sheet.csv 1-Composite Score Sheet.xlsx 1-Composite Soft Total Score Sheet.csv 1-Example Score Sheet.pdf ``` The README says there are also Composite Score Sheets in both XLSX and CSV formats hosted at the top of the folder for convenient comparison of various switch scores and rankings. The file names say what the columns are, and the split into hard, soft and overall is the interesting part. Hard and soft describe the feel categories the score is drawn from, so a single overall number hides the fact that a switch can be excellent to type on and awful to press down hard, and the two totals let a buyer look at the axis they care about. The XLSX file is the one for reading, and the three CSVs are the ones for processing, which is the right way round for a spreadsheet someone else maintains. These are the only files in the repository that a script can read, and that is the single most important fact about the archive for anyone planning to use the numbers. ## How the Scores Are Derived and Why the Example Sheet Matters A scoring system is only useful if you know what the numbers mean, and the README addresses that directly. If you are new to the score cards, check out the Example Score Sheet, which will outline each of the categories and explain where the scores for each are derived from, in addition to introducing the typical layout format. So the Example Score Sheet is doing two jobs. It is a worked example of the format, which is what a new reader needs, and it is the definition of the categories, which is what makes the numbers comparable across hundreds of switches. That matters because the ratings are the author's judgements, and a judgement without a published rubric is just an opinion. With a rubric, the sheet becomes a measurement, and a disagreement with a rating becomes a disagreement about the rubric rather than about the switch. The layout is also a document worth reading once. The per-switch sheets are one page, so the categories have to fit on a page, and a layout that compresses eight or nine axes of a switch's feel onto one sheet is a design problem in its own right. ## A Weekly Cadence and Supplemental Cards on Quiet Weeks The update rhythm is described in a way that tells you how to consume the archive. Traditionally, this folder gets updated roughly weekly with either a score card in tandem with a long form review, or supplemental score cards on off weeks. So the archive grows on a weekly cadence, with a card arriving alongside an essay when there is one, and a card on its own when the author is not writing an essay that week. For a reader, that means a switch you are about to buy may have a card, may not, and the absence says nothing about the switch. Alongside the weekly rhythm there is a second, less visible effort. A concerted effort has been made to go back through score cards which are gathering dust in order to update them to a slightly newer format as well as to reword and rescore them to prevent the content from staling. So the archive is not append-only. A file for a switch from 2020 may have been rewritten in 2024, which is the right thing to do for accuracy and the wrong thing for anyone who wants to see the original judgement. The older versions are the escape hatch. The README says you can read more about these updates and access the older versions of the score cards at the scorecard-update page on the author's website, so the history lives off the repository, in the web archive rather than in git. ## A Flat PDF Archive Has Real Limits The format of this repository is the main constraint on using it, and it is worth being direct about. Everything except the composite spreadsheets is a PDF, and a PDF of a score card is an image of a score card as far as a program is concerned. There is no per-switch structured data, no key under which you can look up the sound score of a specific switch, and no way to plot a switch against another without transcribing the numbers by hand. The composite totals mitigate this, but only in aggregate. The versioning story is the second limit. Because the archive is a flat folder of files that get reworked in place, there is no per-sheet history in the repository, and the older versions live on a website page instead. A reader who wants to know how a rating changed over time has to look in two places. The third is metadata. There is no index file, no per-switch metadata and no structured catalogue, so the only index is the directory listing, and the only way to find a specific switch is to know its name roughly right already. None of that makes the archive bad. It makes it a document collection rather than a dataset, and a reader who wants to compute with switch ratings should start from the composite spreadsheets and treat the individual cards as the evidence behind them. ## Licensing, Community and Where the Author's Work Lives The repository records no licence, and the metadata reflects that. For an archive of the author's own written reviews and ratings, the copyright is his, and anyone wanting to reuse the text or the images has to work that out rather than reading a LICENSE file. The surrounding ecosystem is the author's, and the README lists the links. There is the website at theremingoat.com, a Twitter account, an Instagram account, a Reddit profile and a Patreon page. The score cards are therefore one visible output of a broader review business, with the Patreon page as the funding model and the website as the long form home. The commits are recent, with the last push on 2026-10-11, and the repository publishes no GitHub releases, so the version history is the commit log rather than a set of tagged releases. The homepage for the score card updates is the scorecard-update page on the website, which is also where the older versions live. The one thing worth saying in favour of the arrangement is that the archive is not a commercial product with a paywall. It is a public collection of the author's work, updated on a schedule, with the composite tables provided in open formats precisely so that other people can do something with the numbers. ## Conclusion switch-scores fits a keyboard enthusiast who wants the author's ratings in one place, or a reader who wants to see how a scoring rubric is applied across hundreds of switches, and the composite spreadsheets are the part worth reusing. It is a poor fit for a project that needs the ratings in a machine readable form, because the individual scores exist only inside PDFs and the only structured data is the composite totals. Before using the numbers, check the licence situation, since the repository states no licence, and read the Example Score Sheet, because it is the only document in the archive that explains where each score comes from. The repository publishes no releases, the archive is a flat folder of PDFs, and the last push was on 2026-10-11. ## FAQ ### What is in the switch-scores repository? It is the home of the one-sheet scoring cards for mechanical keyboard switches, first introduced on July 25th of 2020, including switches that never got a long form review on the website. The top level holds an example score sheet, composite score sheets in CSV and XLSX, and a long alphabetical run of PDFs named after the switch brand, model and colour. ### How often are the switch score sheets updated? Traditionally roughly weekly, with either a score card in tandem with a long form review or supplemental score cards on off weeks. The author has also reworked older score cards into a newer format with rewording and rescoring, and the older versions are on the scorecard-update page of the website rather than in the repository history. ### What are the composite score sheets for? They are hosted at the top of the folder for convenient comparison of various switch scores and rankings. There are hard total, soft total and overall total sheets, with the CSV files for processing and the XLSX file for reading, and they are the only files in the repository a program can read directly. ### How do I know what the switch scores mean? The Example Score Sheet in the repository outlines each of the categories and explains where the scores for each are derived from, as well as introducing the typical layout format of a one-page score card. ### What licence covers the score sheets? The repository records no licence, and the metadata reflects that. The score cards are the author's own written reviews and ratings, and the README points to the author's website, social accounts and Patreon page for the surrounding work and for the older versions of the score cards. ## Sources - [Issues](https://github.com/ThereminGoat/switch-scores/issues) - [README](https://github.com/ThereminGoat/switch-scores/blob/master/README.md) - [ThereminGoat/switch-scores on GitHub](https://github.com/ThereminGoat/switch-scores) --- Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/theremingoat-switch-scores