Stats table comparing alt keyboard layouts
Pascal Getreuer, 2023-11-27 (updated 2025-02-01)
This table expands on the one in my my alt keyboards post, comparing English typing stats for various alternative keyboard layouts.
Lower is better for SFBs, DSFBs, LSBs, scissors, redirects, and off-home pinky use; higher is better for rolls. Images of these layouts and explanation of the metrics can be found in the Keyboard layouts doc. Metrics were computed for English with Cyanophage’s layout playground.
| Layout | SFBs | DSFBs | LSBs | Scissor | Rolls | Redir | Pinky off |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| QWERTY (1873) | 4.39% | 1.43% | 4.55% | 1.46% | 40.76% | 11.92% | 3.16% |
| Dvorak (1936) | 1.87% | 0.45% | 0.80% | 0.08% | 39.20% | 2.57% | 6.28% |
| Arensito (2001) | 1.04% | 0.74% | 1.28% | 0.45% | 54.29% | 7.62% | 1.88% |
| Capewell (2005) | 1.19% | 0.29% | 0.62% | 0.19% | 51.43% | 10.75% | 2.48% |
| Colemak (2006) | 0.91% | 0.46% | 2.26% | 0.26% | 49.20% | 9.22% | 1.45% |
| Workman (2010) | 1.97% | 0.60% | 1.11% | 0.47% | 47.40% | 9.13% | 3.42% |
| MTGAP (2010) | 0.92% | 0.26% | 0.46% | 0.15% | 46.33% | 2.54% | 6.61% |
| Colemak-DH (2014) | 0.91% | 0.41% | 1.27% | 0.15% | 49.20% | 9.22% | 1.45% |
| Hieamtsrn (2014) | 0.79% | 0.24% | 0.56% | 0.11% | 44.63% | 1.86% | 3.76% |
| Halmak (2016) | 1.97% | 0.61% | 0.40% | 0.56% | 40.10% | 3.41% | 8.38% |
| BEAKL19bis (2020) | 0.95% | 0.70% | 1.52% | 0.39% | 43.74% | 2.03% | 1.40% |
| Handsdown Neu (2021) | 0.76% | 0.49% | 1.26% | 0.42% | 44.04% | 2.04% | 2.53% |
| Boo (2021) | 0.78% | 0.21% | 1.58% | 0.08% | 50.40% | 8.22% | 4.81% |
| Colemak Qi;x (2021) | 0.74% | 0.23% | 1.50% | 0.16% | 48.47% | 7.60% | 2.36% |
| Engram (2021) | 1.01% | 0.40% | 0.41% | 0.36% | 44.31% | 3.08% | 8.83% |
| ISRT (2021) | 0.65% | 0.40% | 1.51% | 0.28% | 50.70% | 7.64% | 3.87% |
| Pine (2021) | 0.90% | 0.27% | 2.44% | 0.97% | 49.15% | 4.65% | 6.50% |
| Semimak (2021) | 0.59% | 0.20% | 1.65% | 0.39% | 44.70% | 6.44% | 6.31% |
| APTv3 (2021) | 0.81% | 0.31% | 0.33% | 0.11% | 49.55% | 5.57% | 6.18% |
| Whorf (2021) | 0.45% | 0.18% | 1.66% | 0.77% | 46.66% | 6.23% | 6.28% |
| Nerps (2022) | 0.85% | 0.40% | 1.24% | 1.11% | 46.30% | 2.49% | 2.81% |
| CTGAP (2022) | 0.74% | 0.39% | 1.01% | 0.68% | 45.45% | 3.59% | 3.05% |
| Canary (2022) | 0.66% | 0.15% | 1.75% | 0.42% | 50.36% | 6.95% | 5.30% |
| Octa8 (2022) | 0.88% | 0.20% | 0.64% | 0.10% | 48.79% | 4.89% | 6.40% |
| Seht Drai (2022) | 1.67% | 0.20% | 0.54% | 0.48% | 55.61% | 6.89% | 6.29% |
| Sturdy (2022) | 0.62% | 0.20% | 1.58% | 0.42% | 50.10% | 5.01% | 4.30% |
| Gallium v1 (2023) | 0.64% | 0.24% | 0.96% | 0.95% | 46.06% | 2.68% | 5.39% |
| Gallium v2 (2023) | 0.64% | 0.20% | 0.85% | 0.42% | 46.07% | 2.65% | 5.50% |
| Graphite (2023) | 0.68% | 0.24% | 0.87% | 0.41% | 46.01% | 2.59% | 4.51% |
| Recurva (2023) | 0.56% | 0.21% | 1.19% | 0.44% | 50.19% | 4.43% | 7.08% |
| Hanster-23 (2024) | 0.86% | 0.52% | 1.99% | 0.19% | 43.58% | 2.02% | 2.54% |
| Vylet (2024) | 0.92% | 0.28% | 0.75% | 0.07% | 49.23% | 5.91% | 6.18% |
| Focal (2024) | 0.53% | 0.30% | 0.99% | 0.46% | 47.00% | 4.22% | 4.30% |
Layouts that assign a letter to a thumb key:
| Layout | SFBs | DSFBs | LSBs | Scissor | Rolls | Redir | Pinky off |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maltron (1977) | 0.66% | 0.13% | 0.70% | 0.11% | 49.06% | 6.49% | 10.07% |
| RSTHD (2016) | 0.70% | 0.29% | 0.81% | 0.09% | 49.36% | 5.95% | 3.96% |
| Vibranium (2023) | 0.57% | 0.35% | 0.36% | 0.44% | 46.42% | 1.60% | 4.77% |
| Promethium (2024) | 0.58% | 0.36% | 0.24% | 0.11% | 45.22% | 2.03% | 7.88% |
| Caster (2024) | 0.63% | 0.40% | 0.05% | 0.54% | 48.78% | 3.12% | 4.89% |
| Nordrassil (2024) | 0.78% | 0.48% | 0.82% | 0.33% | 40.04% | 1.29% | 0.87% |
Notes:
These tables are periodically updated. Since 2025-02-01, metrics are computed with Cyanophage’s layout playground, which supports scissors and outer columns.
Off-home pinky use is computed by summing the finger usage for columns 1 and 10 and subtracting the frequencies corresponding to the home pinky keys, which can be found in this table.
For each layout, the parenthesized year is my estimate when it was released. Take this with a grain of salt, information is often unfortunately limited.