Did you know that the first typewriter with a standard QWERTY keyboard was invented in 1873? The QWERTY keyboard is named after the first six letters of its top row. But why are those the most common letters, and not something else? And what does “QWERTY” mean anyway?
Why not JWERTY or some other combination of letters? We all take it for granted today, but the layout of our keyboard has quite a history. This article reveals why our keyboard is so unhelpful for fast and fluent typing and unhelpful towards fast and fluent typing.
Standard QWERTY Layout Explained
The standard QWERTY keyboard is the most widely used keyboard layout in the English-speaking world. It is used for computer and typewriter keyboards. There are several competing theories about where and when the QWERTY layout was invented.
The most popular theory is that the layout was designed to prevent keys from jamming on early 19th-century printing presses.
QWERTY was an effort to slow down the very rapid typists, and to prevent the type bars on early 19th-century printing presses from jamming together. The discovery of the first keyboard with a standard QWERTY layout dates back to 1873.
The Birth of the QWERTY Keyboard
QWERTY began life when two inventors were competing to build the machine that could print words. Their machines had a series of levers and springs, and each lever moved several letters on a typical bar. Typists would move a lever down to select a letter, then lift the lever again to type it.
The problem was that the levers would get tangled up, and the typists were very quick. The machine lost out to its competitor, but the inventor of the losing machine decided to improve his design by putting commonly used letters on the outside of the keyboard.
Then he decided to put the most common letters first on the keyboard so that the typists would need to move their fingers less to type those letters.
Why Is Our Keyboard Qwerty Anyway?
The inventor of the first keyboard with a standard QWERTY layout needed to slow down the very rapid typists and to prevent the type bars on early 19th-century printing presses from jamming together.
The first six letters of the top row on the keyboard are QWERTY so that the typists would have to move their fingers less to type those letters. The first six letters of the top row on the QWERTY keyboard are the most commonly used.
The letters are arranged on a QWERTY keyboard in order of decreasing frequency of use. When you type on a QWERTY keyboard, you usually use your middle finger for the “A” and “S” keys, your index finger for the “D” and “F” keys, and your ring finger for the “H” and “J” keys, and your little finger for the “B” and “C” keys.
Dvorak and Colemak – Alternative Keyboards
In the early 1930s, a group of researchers led by a certain Dr. August Dvorak proposed a completely different keyboard layout. They thought the QWERTY keyboard was flawed and that there was a better way to arrange the letters on a keyboard.
This alternative keyboard layout is known as the Dvorak keyboard and became very popular in the 1960s. The Dvorak layout is designed so that the most common letters are typed with the fewest number of keystrokes. Because of changing times and technologies, Dvorak is no longer in vogue.
For many people, typing is an occasional task that doesn’t require serious consideration. But for others, typing is a profession, a part of their livelihood. Nowadays, it’s the Colemak keyboard that’s making headlines.
Its proponents claim that Colemak is more ergonomic than QWERTY and as efficient or even more efficient than Dvorak. However, the verdict on Colemak is still out.
Summary
The standard QWERTY keyboard is the most widely used keyboard layout in the English-speaking world. It is used for computer and typewriter keyboards. The first six letters of the top row on the keyboard are the most commonly used. The letters are arranged on a QWERTY keyboard in order of decreasing frequency of use.
The Dvorak layout is designed so that the most common letters are typed with the fewest number of keystrokes. Nowadays, it’s the Colemak keyboard that’s making headlines.
We all take it for granted today, but the layout of our keyboard has quite a history. This article reveals why our keyboard is so unhelpful for fast and fluent typing and unhelpful towards fast and fluent typing.
