Engram keyboard layout
Engram is a data-driven layout by Arno Klein, first released in 2021 and rebuilt in 2025 from crowdsourced typing-preference data, with punctuation in the centre columns.
- Created by
- Arno Klein
- Year
- 2021
- Rebuilt as Engram-en, 2025
- Finger travel
- −40%
- vs QWERTY
- Home row
- 58%
- of letters, QWERTY 37%
The layout
Engram-en (2025), with punctuation grouped in the centre columns and its own Shift pairs.
Engram is typed with standard touch-typing fingering on any keyboard.
How Engram measures
Engram typed on 23,331 words of English and compared with QWERTY.
History
- 1990sArno Klein develops repetitive strain injury, and spends years on QWERTY, Dvorak and Colemak.
- 2021The first Engram, built from a scoring model of ergonomic factors and English letter-pair frequencies.
- 2025Engram-en, rebuilt by optimising for crowdsourced typing preferences and described in a peer-reviewed paper. That version is the one shown here.
Design goal: Comfortable, efficient English typing that cuts sideways finger movement and makes frequent letter pairs easy, with punctuation grouped in the middle.
Pros
- Well documented and science-led, with a peer-reviewed paper and open-source optimiser.
- Letters avoid the centre columns, so index fingers hardly stretch sideways.
- Easy to install through Keyman, with a strong emphasis on inward rolls.
Cons
- More same-finger pairs than the newest community layouts.
- The pinkies move more in exchange for the empty centre columns.
- Digits share keys with maths symbols and punctuation is paired unusually, and the 2021 and 2025 versions are different layouts with the same name.
Engram 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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% |
| EngramTHIS PAGE | 77.8 m | −40% | 58% | 2.9% | 64% | 51% |
| Recurva | 79.6 m | −39% | 61% | 1.1% | 63% | 46% |
| Canary | 79.6 m | −39% | 62% | 0.9% | 60% | 44% |
| QWERTY | 130.0 m | — | 37% | 6.5% | 55% | 57% |
Engram was created by Arno Klein: first in 2021, and rebuilt as Engram-en in 2025.
It moves your fingers less. On 23,331 words of English, finger travel was −40% against QWERTY, 58% 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.
Engram is typed with standard touch-typing fingering on any keyboard.
Yes. Choose Engram as your keyboard layout and the on-screen keyboard and hands show where every key is.