If you look at this list and then look down at your keyboard you’ll see that the home row of the QWERTY layout contains the letters A, S, D, F, J, K, L, and colon/semicolon. Sholes accomplished this by putting vowels and other common letters far away from each other and by not placing many of the most used letters on the home row. The goal of this layout was designed to be slow and inefficient so that the typewriters would not jam from typing too fast on them. The very first typing layout was invented by Christopher Latham Sholes in the 1870s. Which Layout Should I Choose? The QWERTY Keyboard Layout QWERTY Layout on Windows QWERTY Layout on Mac Because Dvorak and Colemak are still virtually unknown to the general public, it would take a large change in the knowledge of these layouts and the younger generation of typists would need to adapt them to progress their acceptance in the world of competitive speed typing. While this doesn’t mean that there aren’t extremely fast typists using other layouts, it is worth mentioning that all top 10 quarter-finalists in the competition were typing on a QWERTY layout.Īs time progresses and if more people become aware of Dvorak and Colemak layouts there may be more evidence to show that one, or both of these layouts are faster than QWERTY. During the competition, only one typist was using an alternate layout during the competition, John “NoThisIsJohn” Leeds, who types on a Dvorak layout and finished in the 12th position. Currently, the fastest typist in the world, Anthony “Chak” Ermolin, winner of the 2020 Ultimate Typing Championship, is typing on a keyboard using the QWERTY layout. Unfortunately, because QWERTY is so widely used and the sample size for Dvorak and Colemak typists is so small, there is not yet any definitive evidence that supports the notion that one layout is intrinsically faster than another. Which Layout is Faster, QWERTY, Dvorak, or Colemak? By looking at the history of these keyboard layouts, the differences between each, and how to configure your keyboard for Dvorak or Colemak to learn one of these newer typing methods, you may decide to make the switch. The QWERTY standard was set long ago and people are so used to using it that many people are not aware of the more optimized layouts, Dvorak & Colemak. It works very well with the typewriter, however, it’s a less efficient layout for modern-day keyboards compared to the Dvorak and Colemak layouts. QWERTY was the first typing layout invented in the 1870s to complement the typewriter. In this article we will be comparing three different keyboard layouts, QWERTY, Dvorak, and Colemak, to help you make an educated decision on which layout might be best for you.

Standard keypad layout