Dvorak keyboard layout
Dvorak is the oldest widely used alternative to QWERTY: patented in 1936, it puts every vowel and the most common consonants on the home row so the hands alternate.
- Created by
- August Dvorak
- With William L. Dealey
- Year
- 1936
- ANSI standard since 1982
- Finger travel
- −43%
- vs QWERTY
- Home row
- 72%
- of letters, QWERTY 37%
The layouts
The Dvorak Simplified Keyboard: vowels under the left hand, common consonants under the right.
Dvorak is typed with standard touch-typing fingering on any keyboard.
How Dvorak measures
Dvorak typed on 23,331 words of English and compared with QWERTY.
History
- 1932August Dvorak and William Dealey file their patent after studying English letter frequencies, the hand, and slow-motion films of typists.
- 1936The patent is granted. Trials in schools and later for the US Navy report strong results; a 1956 government study finds no benefit.
- 1982ANSI recognises Dvorak as an alternative standard. Two years later the Apple IIc ships with a QWERTY and Dvorak switch.
- TodayBuilt into Windows, macOS and Linux. Roland Kaufmann’s Programmer Dvorak adapts it for writing code.
Design goal: Put the most frequent English letters, all the vowels among them, on the home row under the strongest fingers, and make the hands take turns.
Pros
- About 70% of letters are typed on the home row, roughly twice QWERTY.
- Vowels on one hand and consonants on the other make the hands alternate on most words.
- Built into Windows, macOS and Linux, and an ANSI standard since 1982.
Cons
- Nearly every key moves, so switching is a long relearn.
- Z, X, C and V are scattered, which breaks one-handed copy, cut, paste and undo.
- Punctuation moves too: the apostrophe, comma and full stop sit at the top left, and the minus and slash move.
Dvorak compared
Against QWERTY and other established alternatives, ranked by finger travel per 1,000 words.
| Layout | Finger travel | vs QWERTY | Home row | Same finger | Alternation | Left hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Workman | 70.8 m | −46% | 69% | 2.9% | 54% | 52% |
| Colemak-DH | 72.6 m | −44% | 68% | 1.4% | 56% | 46% |
| Colemak | 73.3 m | −44% | 75% | 1.4% | 56% | 46% |
| DvorakTHIS PAGE | 74.7 m | −43% | 72% | 2.9% | 67% | 44% |
| Dvorak ProgrammerTHIS PAGE | 75.7 m | −42% | 72% | 2.9% | 67% | 44% |
| QWERTY | 130.0 m | — | 37% | 6.5% | 55% | 57% |
Questions
SourcesDvorak was created by August Dvorak and his brother-in-law William L. Dealey, who filed their patent in 1932; it was granted in 1936.
It moves your fingers less. On 23,331 words of English, finger travel was −43% against QWERTY, 72% of letters landed on the home row against QWERTY’s 37%, and same-finger pairs were 2.9% against 6.5%. Less movement does not guarantee more speed, and switching takes weeks of practice.
Dvorak is typed with standard touch-typing fingering on any keyboard.
Yes. Dvorak is built into Windows (since Windows 95), macOS (with left-handed, right-handed and Dvorak – QWERTY ⌘ versions) and Linux. Programmer Dvorak ships with Linux; on Windows and macOS it needs the author’s installer.
Yes. Choose Dvorak as your keyboard layout and the on-screen keyboard and hands show where every key is.