QWERTY vs Dvorak vs Colemak: is switching worth it?

7 minute read

QWERTY was not designed for speed or comfort on a computer keyboard. Two alternatives, Dvorak and Colemak, were. Both have devoted fans, and both promise less finger movement. Here is what each one is, what the evidence says, and how to decide whether switching is worth the effort.

At a glance

*Home row figures are commonly cited estimates for English text, collected on Wikipedia. The exact share depends on the text being typed.

QWERTY

QWERTY took shape on Remington typewriters in the 1870s and became the standard by the 1890s (see why the keyboard is QWERTY). Its strengths are practical: it is on almost every keyboard in the world, every shortcut assumes it, and you already know it. Its weakness is that many common letters sit off the home row, so your fingers travel further than they need to.

Dvorak

August Dvorak and his brother-in-law William Dealey completed the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard in 1932 and received US patent 2,040,248 in 1936. It puts the vowels and the most used punctuation under the left hand and the most common consonants under the right, so that most typing happens on the home row and the hands alternate often.

• The American National Standards Institute recognised it as an alternative standard in 1982.
• It is built into all major operating systems, including Windows, macOS and Linux, and has been available on iPhone since iOS 16 in 2022.

Is Dvorak actually faster?

This is where it gets contested. The first studies, which favoured Dvorak, were run by Dvorak and his associates, which led to accusations of bias. A 1956 study for the US government by Earle Strong found Dvorak no more efficient than QWERTY. That study used only ten people per group, and critics say it was biased in favour of the QWERTY group.

In 1990, economists Stan Liebowitz and Stephen Margolis published "The Fable of the Keys", arguing that the evidence for Dvorak's superiority was weak and that later ergonomic studies suggested little or no advantage. The fair summary is that the speed benefit is debated, and many people reach similar speeds on any layout once trained.

Colemak

Shai Coleman released Colemak on 1 January 2006. It takes a different approach to Dvorak: instead of starting from scratch, it changes only 17 keys from QWERTY, keeping many shortcuts where they are, including Ctrl+Z, X, C and V. It also turns the Caps Lock key into an extra Backspace.

• Commonly cited figures put about 74% of typing on the home row, slightly more than Dvorak.
• It is supported natively on macOS, Linux, Android and ChromeOS, and on Windows 11 from version 24H2. Older Windows versions need a small installer.
• A popular variant, Colemak-DH, moves D and H to reduce the sideways stretch some typists dislike in the original.

Colemak's own FAQ does not recommend it for phones, saying it increases finger travel and errors on a touchscreen compared with QWERTY.

So should you switch?

Reasons to consider it

• You type for many hours a day and want your fingers to move less.
• You enjoy the learning process and have a few weeks to get through the slow start.
• You mostly use your own computer, where you can set the layout once.

Reasons to stay with QWERTY

• You often use shared or work computers.
• You rely heavily on shortcuts, which Dvorak moves.
• Your goal is simply to type faster. Large-scale research on typists found that speed is linked to technique: overlapping keypresses, making few errors and spreading the work across fingers. That study did not compare layouts, but it suggests there is a lot of speed available on the layout you already know. See what makes fast typists fast.

Whatever you choose, expect your speed to drop sharply for the first weeks after switching. Colemak was designed to make that transition easier: only 17 keys move, and you only have to relearn those.

Practising a new layout on Keystride

Keystride works with any layout, because it compares the characters you type rather than the keys you press. In Settings → Keyboard, choose QWERTY, Dvorak or Colemak so your heatmap and finger stats match your keyboard. Then use the lessons, which start with the home row, and smart practice to target the keys you have not yet mastered.