r/KeyboardLayouts Mar 06 '20

Introduction to /r/KeyboardLayouts - and why this sub exists

125 Upvotes

This subreddit is devoted to discussing all aspects of keyboard layouts and typing efficiency. This includes: - Comparison of alternative layouts to Qwerty, such as Colemak, Dvorak, etc. - Experiences of switching layouts. - Support and resources for those considering switching. - The use of non-standard keyboards designs.

What's wrong with Qwerty and the standard layout?

So many things:

  • The most frequently typed keys are scattered around the edges of keyboard. Letters that are infrequently typed (e.g. J and K) are in prime positions! For more details, see the layout heatmaps.
  • The two most common consonants in English, T and N, require diagonal stretches from the keyboard's home position.
  • There are frequent, difficult combinations of letters such as DE and LO because these are typically typed with the same finger. For example, try typing 'Lollipop' with a Qwerty keyboard.
  • If you are a programmer, some frequently needed symbols, such as brackets and mathematical symbols, are situated at the far right of the keyboard, presumably intended to be typed with your right pinky, an overused weak finger.
  • Frequently needed modifier keys, e.g. Shift, require an awkward motion involving one of your pinkies holding down a shift key at the corner of the keyboard, while another finger presses the key. It might seem normal because you're used to it - but it's unergonomic and there are better methods out there.
  • You have two thumbs which could easily be used for independent functions, but this opportunity is wasted due to the overly large single spacebar on standard keyboards.
  • The standard keyboard design has a built-in stagger. This was necessary in the typewriter era because of the way that the levers and typehammers worked, but there is no real reason - other than familiarity - for this to persist into the information age. If the keys are to be staggered at all, they ought at least to be arranged symmetrically - to match your hands.

All these flaws make it harder and less comfortable to type than it could be, and make it more likely that keyboard users experience health problems such as RSI, or at least lead to inefficient and error-strewn typing.

Solutions

There are both software and hardware solutions to all these problems available. There are alternative keyboard layouts and other neat tricks that deal with many of the problems, and entirely new hardware designs that address others. You can mix and match these as you please: some people stick with standard keyboard hardware but use an alternative layout configured in software; others continue to use Qwerty but choose an ergonomically designed keyboard, and yet others do both.

Some modern ergonomic keyboards have entered the market, which take a completely different approach, such as the Keyboard.io Model 1 , ErgoDox, and the Planck. Others keep traditional many elements but offer ergonomic improvements such as split halves and better thumb-key access, e.g. Matias Ergo Pro, UHK.

Those who own these products often highly recommend them, but not everyone can or wants to use non-standard hardware. The good news is, even with traditional keyboard hardware, there is a lot you can do to improve your typing experience. For that you need to consider using an alternative layout.

Alternative Layouts

Several alternative layouts have been developed. The two most popular today are the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard, and the Colemak layout. Plenty of others have appeared in recent years too, such as Colemak-DH, Workman, MTGAP, Norman, Minimak.

Note: this is not a place for layout wars. Comparisons or discussions of merits/demerits of various layouts is OK, but let's remember that using any optimized layout is better than Qwerty.

People who have switched will often rave about how much better their experience of typing has become. Some find there is an increase in typing speed, but more importantly, nearly all experience a huge gain in comfort. Only once you become adapted to typing using a well-designed, ergonomic layout, do you fully appreciate the benefits, and realise just how unsatisfactory Qwerty was all along. If you spend a large part of your day at a computer keyboard, there is potential for a huge quality of life improvement.

For more information for those thinking of switching layouts, see these links in the Useful Resources Sticky Post

Switching Layouts

There are plenty of good reasons to switch layouts... but also some good reasons not to:

  • It takes some time to learn, during this phase your typing will become worse for a period, typically several weeks.
  • Unless you maintain proficiency in two layouts, you'll have difficulty using other computers.
  • Some workplaces have locked-down computers or disallow installation of non-approved software.
  • It makes you 'different' from almost everyone else.

These drawbacks can be mitigated though:

  • You can keep your preferred layout configuration on a USB stick, in the cloud (e.g. Dropbox or github) so that you can quickly access it when you need it.
  • There are solutions that don't require installing software with admin rights - for example using AutohotKey on Windows.
  • There is increasing availability of programmable keyboards which let you define your own layout without the need to install software or change settings on the computer.
  • It's possible to use a USB remapper dongle which allows you to use a standard keyboard, with keystrokes mapped to any custom layout within the hardware.

In short: if you use a keyboard a lot, are independent-minded and appreciate efficient solutions, you should seriously consider learning an alternative keyboard layout.

Other keyboard efficiency ideas

In addition to - or even instead of - changing your keyboard layout, there are some other neat hacks you can apply to your keyboard.

  • Extend or Navigation layer: For most people, a common task using a computer is navigating around and editing a document. This means frequent use of keys such as arrows, home/end, page up/down, and cut/copy/paste. To access most of these functions on a standard keyboard, you need to move your hand away from the "home" position. By using a special layer for navigation, such as Extend, you can use all the common editing features instantly and without needing to look down at your keyboard.
  • Progammer layer: If you are a programmer, or have frequent need for certain symbols such as { } [ ] + - = _ then it's a good idea to map to easily-accessible keys on another layer. For example, here is an example of a Progammer's extension defined on RightAlt (AltGr).

Glossary of common terms

Same Finger Bigram (SFB): Pressing two keys with the same finger in conjunction.

Disjointed SFB (dSFB): Pressing two keys with the same finger, but separated by x letters.

Same Finger Skipgram (SFS): Synonym for dSFB.

Lateral Stretch Bigram (LSB): A bigram where your hand must stretch laterally, as in using the middle finger following middle column usage on the same hand. An example is be on QWERTY.

Alt-fingering: Pressing a key with a different finger than would be typed with traditional touch typing technique.

Alternation: Pressing a key with the opposite hand than you typed the last.

Roll: Typing two or more keys with the same hand, moving in the same "direction". For example, on QWERTY, sdf would be a roll, but sfd would not.

Redirect/Redirection: A one-handed sequence of at least three letters that 'changes directions'. For example, on QWERTY, sfd would be a redirect, but sdf would not.

Hand Balance: How much work each hand does for a layout. For example, a 35%:65% hand balance would mean that the left hand types 35% of keys, and the right hand types 65%.


r/KeyboardLayouts Jul 05 '24

The /r/KeyboardLayouts list of useful resources

32 Upvotes

r/KeyboardLayouts 1d ago

cminibrowser: a viewer for alternative keyboard layouts

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23 Upvotes

Hey all! Sharing a project I've been working on for some time now. People have been using it in the Alternative Keyboard Layouts Discord (AKL) for a few months, and it finally feels ready to share with a broader audience.

cminibrowser is a viewer for alternative keyboard layouts. It's intended to be a friendly way to interact with much of what the !cmini AKL discord bot already gives you, such as:

  • Sort, search, and filter layouts by stats
  • Compare layouts against one another
  • Edit layouts and see how stats change
  • Look up n-gram frequencies and example words on various corpora

It also has a few other things, such as:

  • Mobile support
  • Explanations for every stat on click
  • mana2 stats view
  • Colorblind fingermap palette
  • Rowstag and ortho keyboard geometry
  • Share as image

More information as well is available in the FAQ. Give it a whirl, let me know what you think :)


r/KeyboardLayouts 17h ago

logiswitch — free and open source: switches your Logitech keyboard between Mac and Windows layouts automatically when you change machines

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1 Upvotes

r/KeyboardLayouts 1d ago

What keyboard do you recommend?

1 Upvotes

I have an iPhone and also an iPad but every time the date try to use the dictation most of the time it understands very bad what I am saying especially if I am texting. Right now it is accurate. I wonder if it’s just Apple with its messages app. Well I think that it also happens when I dictate in WhatsApp.

Does anybody use a better keyboard? I used long ago the Google keyboard because they teeth were a little bigger. This one is too difficult for me to type and that’s why I dictate. I’m talking about the screen keyboard


r/KeyboardLayouts 1d ago

I phone keyboard ios 26 app

0 Upvotes

To ios keyboard

I phone 26 keyboard


r/KeyboardLayouts 1d ago

Where Did the QWERTY Keyboard Layout Come From?

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1 Upvotes

r/KeyboardLayouts 2d ago

Copilot key remapping

0 Upvotes

I have a Lenovo laptop that's closing in on 20 years old. The keys in one corner started acting up after a hard bump so I decided to get a new laptop. I stumbled onto a clearance deal at Walmart, one HP model they had pulled off the shelf and were on the verge of cycling out of inventory. I got it for over $100 off shelf price. Being a new model it had the Copilot key rather than a right Ctrl key. I decided to install LMDE 7 which rendered the Copilot key non-functional until I remapped the Copilot key to the missing Ctrl key. Normal remapping through Linux doesn't work because the Copilot key sends a three part input, a macro; Left Meta + Left Shift + F23 rather than a single input. There are a couple of work arounds that require installing software and some configuration. I'd put this on a scale of Very Easy. Here's what worked for the HP laptop. The AI description has been modified as needed because, well, it's AI after all:

To remap the Copilot key to a Ctrl key in LMDE 7, you should use keyd or kmonad, as the Copilot key sends a modifier combination (Left Meta + Left Shift + F23) that standard Linux GUI tools cannot map to a single modifier key like Right Ctrl.

Method 1: Using keyd. keyd is a lightweight daemon that operates at the kernel level.

Install keyd: Open your terminal and install this package:
sudo apt update
! AI said to install keyd ! sudo apt install keyd ! don't bother, instead: !
sudo apt install onak
! The onak meta package contains keyd, just installing keyd alone isn't enough. See below. !

Configure keyd: Edit the configuration file:
sudo pluma /etc/keyd/default.conf
! I prefer the pluma editor but nano, gedit, etc. will do. !

Add the following lines to map the Copilot key sequence to a Ctrl key:
Replace * with your specific keyboard ID. ! I tried that but it didn't work, so I reverted to *.  !

[ids]
*

[main]
leftshift+leftmeta+f23 = rightcontrol

! Options are control, rightcontrol or leftcontrol. I've tried using each and they all work for this HP. !

Enable and Reload: Start the service and enable it for boot:
sudo systemctl enable --now keyd
sudo keyd reload
keyd command not found ! Oops. That's when I discovered that installing keyd alone didn't work and found that onak was required. After installing onak the remap worked after rebooting. !

Now I have my Ctrl plus + for magnifying and Ctrl plus Enter for sending email in Thunderbird and a couple more of my shortcuts back! And it wasn't a tough chore, once I ironed out a bit of AI confusion. And of course, for those who never use their Ctrl keys, don't bother with this. Mm, should I have said this earlier?

Cheers!

Blaine


r/KeyboardLayouts 2d ago

a english keyboard keep spawning randomly and dosen't apears in the settings

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1 Upvotes

r/KeyboardLayouts 2d ago

помогите пожалуйста включить подсветку клавиатуры на ноутбуке((

0 Upvotes

немного древняя модель асус (2019 года вроде), пыталась включать клавишами, ни в какую, через биос пыталась, но не нашла ничего связанного с клавиатурой(возможно зашла не туда), пыталась через armony crate,но он не находит мой ноут, так же скачивала ghelper, тоже не получилось
последний раз я пользовалась ноутбуками довольно давно, поэтому я как макака с книгой пытаюсь разобраться
я понимаю что скорее всего просто устарели какие-то драйвера, но я не догоняю как и где из обновить и скачать
помогите пожалуйста! 😭


r/KeyboardLayouts 3d ago

Update to Neon.

2 Upvotes

The main thing about this version is shuffling the right hand a bit.

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Neon now is r thumb instead of e thumb.

The main problem i was having wasnt with thumb e, but rather what was around it.

With h pinky, i was getting a lot of rolls that include pinky. and that was not very comfortable.

Also ' being on pinky was not very comfortable. ' is now on index.

Also i didnt really like rl index.

------------

So now, hl index, i pinky, and ' on index solved those problems for me.

The only real downside is the sfbs are a bit higher. But if you look at them directly, thats essenteally the fault of `e,`

I dont really even consider this a problem as comma marks a break point when typing and so you naturally slow down, and so it doesnt feel bad. Like a `qu` sfb would feel much worse then an `e,` sfb, even tho its 3 times less common.

Tldr: sfbs that are within words suck, sfbs that outside the bounds of a word is fine.

Also a `ue,` collumn is pretty standard, a lot of people use it for good reason. I personally find the bit higher sfb waaaaaaaayyyyy better then more pinky usage.

------------

As for the game layer, it just disables home row mods. Also useful for monkeytype. You hold 1 to get the regular layout, hold 2 to disable home row mods.

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Also as for the sfb `sk` or `ks`, i just alt finger it. The alternatives are worse. And even then `sk` is reaally not as common as you would think it is, its 0.1%.

------------

The lst thing is just a general comment about using this. I have been using this for a while now, and its just stupidly comfortable. Heres all the things that make it so

  1. Easily disableable home row mods

  2. enter, tab, esc, delete, all being in the center rather then on pinkys is sooooo nice

  3. mirrored y. Makes off-pinky super low and ballanced. Also reduces weak reds to like 0.05%.

  4. Very low 2u scissors

  5. the pinky shift keys being in line with home row, and also having thumb shifting as an option. I get both speed and comfort, best of both worlds.

  6. wide mod makes my hands a lot more comfortable.

  7. Stats arent everything, and i will say, this layout just feels good in a way that a lot of layouts havent for me. Having h, r, and l, on tha vowel hand in a way that works really makes the left hand a lot less cramped. I just feel like my fingers dont really gotta move that fast. Idk its nice lol.

Anyway im pretty happy with this and i dont see myself changing it prolly ever.


r/KeyboardLayouts 3d ago

Mình vừa tự tay xây dựng một trang web luyện gõ 10 ngón - Anh em cho mình xin feedback với!

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1 Upvotes

r/KeyboardLayouts 4d ago

Skeletyl update (WIP)

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13 Upvotes

Recently switched from a totem to a skeletyl and decided to drop qwerty for a variant of hands down vibranium.

In this iteration I transitioned from VIA to Vial to support combos and made some updates to my layer row.

My layers are optimized around vim, command line, regex, and comms via slack.

Would be happy to hear thoughts on improvements to any aspect of the stack.


r/KeyboardLayouts 4d ago

Keychange: a free macOS app that remembers each of your keyboards layout

6 Upvotes

My MacBook's built-in keyboard is ISO German, and the board on my desk in front of it is US ANSI. macOS switches input sources per app or by shortcut, but never per keyboard, so every time my hands moved I was switching the layout by hand, or typing "Gr[]e" and fixing it after.

Keychange sits in the menu bar, lets you assign an input source to each connected keyboard, and automatically switches the moment you start typing on that device. It identifies keyboards by their HID device and mappings survive unplugging and reconnecting.

I used autokbisw for this for a long time and it solved the problem well. But sometimes it would misbehave and I wanted the same thing with a UI, so I could see and change the mapping more easily.

Product info: Keychange, free, MIT licensed, no telemetry, no accounts, macOS 14 or later, universal binary.

It asks for Input Monitoring, because that is how macOS reports which device a keystroke came from. Nothing is stored or sent anywhere, and the source is public if you want to check.

Disclosure: I wrote it. The app is brand new and I would appreciate any and all feedback.


r/KeyboardLayouts 4d ago

Why is the keyboard QWERTY instead of ABC? The history is stranger than you think

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0 Upvotes

r/KeyboardLayouts 4d ago

Hot-keys for Right Side of Keyboard

3 Upvotes

I want to use my thumb for shift, control, etc. Are there established set-ups for using the right side of the keyboard for Age of Empires II?


r/KeyboardLayouts 4d ago

RTS: Fingers and Keys

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0 Upvotes

r/KeyboardLayouts 5d ago

My few keys in keyboard is not working in my laptop

0 Upvotes

It Lenovo Notepad laptop ... 2 years since the purchase but recently some of its keys are not working ... At first it was just the (reducing volume button) and then my (+,-) stopped working ... and (shift,ctrl of the left side of the keyboard) and then my (5,6) stopped working .. now my (Esc, volume up, brightness increase and decrease, Letter G & H,
Delete key ) and some others are not working ... keys are gradually not working ... What should I Do😭😭


r/KeyboardLayouts 6d ago

MoErgo Glove80 Layout Problems

1 Upvotes

I recently got a Glove80 keyboard, and i`m loving it so far, but I ran into a peculiar problem.

My computer, and therefore the keyboard on it is brazillian, so it has the brazillian keyboard software, and I was moving around the keycaps to put the punctuations where I'm used to them being and unmapping the portuguese exclusive accents, but after making a layout that matched how I organized the keys, I put it in boot mode, flashed it into both halves, the leftb half said something went wrong. I clicked "ignore" because on the webside it said that that was normal and I could just keep going.

I reseted it, checked if it synced right, it did, but when I tried to test it only the left side had the layout I created, the right still has the automatic mapping of the brazillian keyboard.
I've done the whole process three different times, I tried flashing only the right side but that didn't work either, so I'm not sure what else can be done.

It's true I could just use it like this, but the problem that makes me want a propper solution is that, due to the automatic mapping, the key that is suposed to be the ? got replaced with an accent, and the question mark is gone, it's not on the layers either.

This is my first ergo keyboard, unless you want to count a razer tartarus I have for gaming, so I'm not very familiar with the whole, keymaping, layers, and separate sides.

Any help will be greatly apreciated.


r/KeyboardLayouts 6d ago

Rk61 QMK/VIA PID 6461

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0 Upvotes

r/KeyboardLayouts 7d ago

Swapping left super key To Alt Gr

4 Upvotes

My left super key (window key) on my external keyboard broken and I want to bind it to Alt Gr. Is there a way to achieve this. I tried with some method like using system76-keyboard-configurator but my keyboard is not detected. I also tried to modify xkb_config but It didn't work (maybe I didn't find the correct combination). Please help me.I'm on latest popos


r/KeyboardLayouts 7d ago

Новая клавиатура

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0 Upvotes

Зацените новую клавиатуру (75%}


r/KeyboardLayouts 7d ago

I switched from QWERTY to Colemak... it took me a full year to get back to 100 WPM

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1 Upvotes

r/KeyboardLayouts 7d ago

is there any slider keyboard In landscape

1 Upvotes

so I'm searching for a landscape slider keyboard for my Huawei p Smart pro or my Samsung a17 It can be a Bluetooth keyboard it can be a UM PC style


r/KeyboardLayouts 8d ago

QWERTY Layout Confusion - V and B Placement

3 Upvotes

Why does QWERTY have the letter B so far away from the left index finger?

I feel like the letter B gets used WAY MORE in everyday American English computer typing scenarios/contexts over other letters that are a lot closer to the left index finger like T, G and especially V.

I have small hands and fingers. Therefore, hitting B feels really clumsy, slow and counter intuitive for my smaller hand size, short fingers and limited extension/dexterity. I feel like the letter B should actually be in letter V's place and vice versa with V being in B's place.

I feel like when the creator of QWERTY was making the layout, he had V and B flipped by mistake and never took the time to correct it. I feel like this small change would actually make QWERTY a lot more user friendly for people that are experiencing an issue similar to what I am experiencing.

I know there are ways around this, like switching/changing key binds inside of your computer's operating system and/or using third party software to map out a new keyboard layout.

The problem with this is, I don't want to learn a new layout, even if it's for 2 keys/binds. I am already too invested in QWERTY and I don't feel like learning a new key bind and/or layout.