Colemak

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ANSI Colemak keyboard layout (US) KB US-Colemak.svg
ANSI Colemak keyboard layout (US)

Colemak is a keyboard layout for Latin-script alphabets, designed to make typing more efficient and comfortable than QWERTY by placing the most frequently used letters of the English language on the home row while keeping many common keyboard shortcuts the same as in QWERTY. [1] Created on 1 January 2006, it is named after its inventor, Shai Coleman. [2]

Contents

Most major modern operating systems such as macOS, Linux, Android, ChromeOS, and BSD support Colemak natively. A program to install the layout is available for Microsoft Windows. [3] On Android and iOS, the layout is offered by several virtual keyboard apps like GBoard and SwiftKey, [4] as well as by many apps which support physical keyboards directly. [5] [6]

Overview

Diagram of English letter frequencies on Colemak Buchstabenhaeufigkeit Colemak.jpg
Diagram of English letter frequencies on Colemak
Diagram of English letter frequencies on QWERTY Buchstabenhaeufigkeit QWERTY.jpg
Diagram of English letter frequencies on QWERTY

The Colemak layout was designed with the QWERTY layout as a base, changing the positions of 17 keys while retaining the QWERTY positions of most non-alphabetic characters and many popular keyboard shortcuts, supposedly making it easier to learn than the Dvorak layout for people who already type in QWERTY without losing efficiency. It shares several design goals with the Dvorak layout, such as minimizing finger path distance and making heavy use of the home row. [7] 74% of typing is done on the home row compared to 70% for Dvorak and 32% for QWERTY. [8] The default Colemak layout lacks a Caps Lock key; an additional Backspace key occupies the typical position of Caps Lock on modern keyboards. [1]

Coleman states that he designed Colemak to be fun and easy to learn, explaining that Dvorak is hard for QWERTY typists to learn due to it being so different from the QWERTY layout. [9] The layout has attracted media attention as an alternative to Dvorak for improving typing speed and comfort with an alternate keyboard layout. [8] [10] [11] [12]

Variants

ISO Colemak-DH keyboard layout (UK) KB UK-Colemak-DH.svg
ISO Colemak-DH keyboard layout (UK)

A series of intermediate layouts known as Tarmak have been created with the intention of making it easier for new users to adopt the layout. [11] The layouts change only 3–5 keys at a time in a series of 5 steps. [13]

Colemak has been criticised for placing too much emphasis on the middle-row center-column keys (D and H) leading to lateral finger stretches for certain common English bigrams such as HE. Some find these awkward. The Colemak user community developed a modified version of Colemak named Colemak-DH, to address these concerns. [14]

The Colemak community has created several other modifications and variants; some of these are not directly related to Colemak but would work on other layouts as well. [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">QWERTY</span> Keyboard layout for Latin-script alphabets

QWERTY is a keyboard layout for Latin-script alphabets. The name comes from the order of the first six keys on the top letter row of the keyboard. The QWERTY design is based on a layout included in the Sholes and Glidden typewriter sold via E. Remington and Sons from 1874. QWERTY became popular with the success of the Remington No. 2 of 1878, and remains in ubiquitous use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">QWERTZ</span> Keyboard layout

The QWERTZ or QWERTZU keyboard is a typewriter and keyboard layout widely used in Central and Southeast Europe. The name comes from the first six letters at the top left of the keyboard:.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AZERTY</span> Keyboard layout used for French

AZERTY is a specific layout for the characters of the Latin alphabet on typewriter keys and computer keyboards. The layout takes its name from the first six letters to appear on the first row of alphabetical keys; that is,. Similar to the QWERTZ layout, it is modelled on the English QWERTY layout. It is used in France and Belgium, although each of these countries has its own national variation on the layout. Luxembourg and Switzerland use the Swiss QWERTZ keyboard. Most residents of Quebec, the mainly French-speaking province of Canada, use a QWERTY keyboard that has been adapted to the French language such as the Multilingual Standard keyboard CAN/CSA Z243.200-92 which is stipulated by the government of Quebec and the Government of Canada.

Touch typing is a style of typing. Although the phrase refers to typing without using the sense of sight to find the keys—specifically, a touch typist will know their location on the keyboard through muscle memory—the term is often used to refer to a specific form of touch typing that involves placing the eight fingers in a horizontal row along the middle of the keyboard and having them reach for specific other keys. Both two-handed touch typing and one-handed touch typing are possible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Typing</span> Text input method

Typing is the process of writing or inputting text by pressing keys on a typewriter, computer keyboard, mobile phone, or calculator. It can be distinguished from other means of text input, such as handwriting and speech recognition. Text can be in the form of letters, numbers and other symbols. The world's first typist was Lillian Sholes from Wisconsin in the United States, the daughter of Christopher Sholes, who invented the first practical typewriter.

The PLUM keyboard is a keyboard layout which differs from the traditional QWERTY keyboard in both physical key layout and letter arrangement. Unlike most keyboards, the PLUM keyboard organizes keys in a square grid, as opposed to the staggered rows of a typewriter. Though the Plum Keyboard is currently off-line, it is still being promoted.

FITALY is a keyboard layout specifically optimized for stylus or touch-based input. The design places the most common letters closest to the centre to minimize distance travelled while entering a word. The name, FITALY, is derived from the letters occupying the second row in the layout.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dvorak keyboard layout</span> Keyboard layout

Dvorak is a keyboard layout for English patented in 1936 by August Dvorak and his brother-in-law, William Dealey, as a faster and more ergonomic alternative to the QWERTY layout. Dvorak proponents claim that it requires less finger motion and as a result reduces errors, increases typing speed, reduces repetitive strain injuries, or is simply more comfortable than QWERTY.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keyboard layout</span> Arrangement of keys on a typographic keyboard

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The idea of one-hand typing is to touch type using only one hand, or mainly one hand. Its history and application are closely related to keyboard research on QWERTY and Dvorak keyboard layouts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neo (keyboard layout)</span> Keyboard layout

The Neo layout is an optimized German keyboard layout developed in 2004 by the Neo Users Group, supporting nearly all Latin-based alphabets, including the International Phonetic Alphabet, the Vietnamese language, and some Cyrillic alphabets.

ETAOI keyboard is a text input software for touch screen-reliant devices. It is based on ETAOI method for coding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fleksy</span> Virtual keyboard

Fleksy is a third-party, proprietary virtual keyboard app for Android and iOS devices. It attempts to improve traditional typing speed and accuracy through enhanced auto-correction and gesture controls. Fleksy uses error-correcting algorithms that analyze the region where the user touches the keyboard and feeds this through a language model, which calculates and identifies the intended word. Swiping gestures are used to control common functions, such as space, delete, and word correction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MessagEase</span> Input method for touchscreen devices

MessagEase is an input method and virtual keyboard for touchscreen devices. It relies on a new entry system designed by Saied B. Nesbat, formatted as a 3x3 matrix keypad where users may press or swipe up, down, left, right, or diagonally to access all keys and symbols. It is a keyboard that was designed for devices like cell phones, mimicking the early cell phones' limited number of 12 keys.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keysmash</span> Internet slang

A keysmash is internet slang for the typing out of a random sequence of letters on a computer keyboard or touchscreen, often to express intense emotion. Gaining popularity since 2019, the term is often used to convey intense or indescribable emotions, and it can also be used as an expression of laughter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">EurKEY</span>

EurKEY is a multilingual keyboard layout which is intended for Europeans, programmers and translators and was developed by Steffen Brüntjen and published under the GPL free software license. It is available for common desktop operating systems such as Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Typewise</span> Virtual keyboard featuring hexagonal keys

Typewise is a Swiss deep tech company that builds text prediction AI. In January 2022, the company filed a patent for its technology which it claims outperforms that of Google's and Apple's.

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References

  1. 1 2 "Colemak keyboard layout". Archived from the original on 2020-02-28. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
  2. "FAQ - Colemak". colemak.com. Retrieved 2024-03-24.
  3. "Colemak keyboard layout". Colemak. Archived from the original on 2014-06-25. Retrieved 2013-02-23. ergonomic, fast and easy to learn QWERTY/Dvorak alternative
  4. "How do I change the keyboard layout (e.g. QWERTY to AZERTY) with Microsoft SwiftKey Keyboard for Android? – SwiftKey Support". Archived from the original on 2020-10-29. Retrieved 2020-09-25. Supported layouts include [...] Colemak
  5. "Extra Physical Keyboard Layouts". Archived from the original on 2021-02-13. Retrieved 2020-09-25. Adds a few choices to the list of layouts to use when a physical keyboard is connected e.g. via OTG or Bluetooth.
  6. "mod-dh/android at master · ColemakMods/mod-dh". GitHub . Archived from the original on 2022-01-30. Retrieved 2020-09-25. Colemak Mod-DH layouts for a physical keyboard connected to an Android device via USB or Bluetooth
  7. Krzywinski, Martin. "Colemak – Popular Alternative". Carpalx keyboard layout optimizer. Canada: Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre. Archived from the original on 2019-04-18. Retrieved 2010-02-04.
  8. 1 2 Dunn, Matthew (2017-11-30). "Why you should ditch the QWERTY keyboard layout for one of two other options". news.com.au. Archived from the original on 2018-02-11. Retrieved 2018-02-09.
  9. Coleman, Shai. "What's wrong with the Dvorak layout". Archived from the original on 2018-02-10. Retrieved 2018-02-02.
  10. Klosowski, Thorin (2013-10-18). "Should I Use an Alternative Keyboard Layout Like Dvorak?". Lifehacker. Archived from the original on 2018-03-03. Retrieved 2018-02-09.
  11. 1 2 Zukerman, Erez (2012-06-08). "How I Quickly Mastered A Superior Keyboard Layout Without Losing Productivity". Makeuseof. Archived from the original on 2018-03-02. Retrieved 2018-02-09.
  12. "Why we can't give up this odd way of typing". BBC Worklife. Archived from the original on 2022-12-09. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
  13. "The Tarmak Transitional Learning Layouts". DreymaR's Big Bag – Tarmak. Archived from the original on 2022-01-25. Retrieved 2022-01-25.
  14. "Colemak Mod-DH". GitHub. Archived from the original on 2020-07-28.
  15. "DreymaR's Big Bag of Keyboard Tricks". DreymaR's Big Bag – Index. Archived from the original on 2022-01-25. Retrieved 2022-01-25.