Keyboard Layouts Primer

Types of Keyboards

With typewriters the keys were layed out in a staggered way, this is to allow the mechanical arms room between keys. This was continued when keyboards first started to be used on computers. This is the keyboard most are familar with.

Fingers, however, don't move at angles very easily. Instead a much better layout is to have the keys layed out in straight rows to allow smooth and easy finger movement. This is called an Ortho Linear layout:

However, many find this uncomfortable due to the need to bring your hands close putting a lot of strain on your wrists, neck, and back. So Split keyboards were created to allow you to keep your arms straight and comfortable at shoulderwidth. An exmaple of this is the Corne Keyboard:

The benefit of this is a smaller keyboard which allows reduced finger movement. And with modern microcontrollers and firmware they have much greater flexibility by using modifiers, home row mods, and much more. This turns your keyboard from an interface, to a powerful tool to help you get your work, or play, done more efficiently.