APT keyboard layout
APT is a 2021 layout by Apsu, built on MTGAP-style optimisation for strong inward rolls and very little sideways stretching, with an official angle-mod form for standard keyboards.
- Created by
- Apsu
- Year
- 2021
- Version 3, late 2021
- Finger travel
- −45%
- vs QWERTY
- Home row
- 65%
- of letters, QWERTY 37%
The layout
APT v3 in its official angle-mod form for standard keyboards.
APT is shown in its official angle-mod form: on a standard staggered keyboard the left hand’s bottom row is struck one finger over.
How APT measures
APT typed on 23,331 words of English and compared with QWERTY.
History
- Jun 2021Apsu begins APT, based on the work done in MTGAP and CTGAP, and measures it with community analysers.
- Late 2021Version 3 arrives, with an angle-mod form for standard keyboards.
- 2022Development stops in January. Apsu later hosts the community’s Canary layout and publishes Aptmak, a sibling for small split keyboards.
Design goal: An MTGAP-style optimised layout with strong inward rolling and very little sideways stretching.
Pros
- About half of all three-letter sequences are rolls, most of them inward.
- Under 1% of letter pairs on the same finger.
- Very little sideways stretching, with an official angle-mod form.
Cons
- A middling rate of redirects.
- The semicolon sits on the right pinky’s home extension and punctuation fills the bottom right.
- Inactive since January 2022, with no installers.
APT compared
Against QWERTY and other modern optimised layouts, ranked by finger travel per 1,000 words.
| Layout | Finger travel | vs QWERTY | Home row | Same finger | Alternation | Left hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gallium Rowstag | 71.6 m | −45% | 67% | 0.9% | 66% | 48% |
| APTTHIS PAGE | 71.7 m | −45% | 65% | 1.3% | 61% | 48% |
| Nerps | 71.8 m | −45% | 67% | 1.2% | 66% | 48% |
| Graphite | 72.0 m | −45% | 67% | 0.9% | 66% | 48% |
| Hands Down Neu | 75.3 m | −42% | 65% | 1.0% | 68% | 51% |
| Semimak | 75.3 m | −42% | 64% | 0.9% | 64% | 47% |
| Sturdy | 76.1 m | −41% | 63% | 1.0% | 61% | 44% |
| QWERTY | 130.0 m | — | 37% | 6.5% | 55% | 57% |
APT was created by Apsu, starting in June 2021; version 3 followed late that year.
It moves your fingers less. On 23,331 words of English, finger travel was −45% against QWERTY, 65% of letters landed on the home row against QWERTY’s 37%, and same-finger pairs were 1.3% against 6.5%. Less movement does not guarantee more speed, and switching takes weeks of practice.
APT is shown in its official angle-mod form: on a standard staggered keyboard the left hand’s bottom row is struck one finger over.
Yes. Choose APT as your keyboard layout and the on-screen keyboard and hands show where every key is.