Halmak keyboard layout
Halmak is a 2016 layout designed by an evolutionary algorithm trained on modern web English, named after HAL 9000 and Dvorak.
- Created by
- Nikolay Nemshilov
- Year
- 2016
- Revised as Halmak Reborn
- Finger travel
- −47%
- vs QWERTY
- Home row
- 65%
- of letters, QWERTY 37%
The layout
Halmak, the final version, with brackets on Shift of comma and full stop.
Halmak is typed with standard touch-typing fingering on any keyboard.
How Halmak measures
Halmak typed on 23,331 words of English and compared with QWERTY.
History
- Feb 2016Nikolay Nemshilov starts keyboard-genetics, open-source software that evolves layouts and scores them on a corpus of online articles.
- Dec 2016Halmak Reborn revises the result. The name joins HAL 9000, since a machine designed it, with Dvorak.
- LaterThe project is declared finished.
Design goal: Near-maximal typing efficiency for modern, web-based English: low finger travel and few same-finger or same-hand sequences.
Pros
- Designed by an open-source algorithm, so its results can be reproduced.
- Tuned on modern English as people actually write it online.
- Ready-made installers for several platforms.
Cons
- Its efficiency claims come from its author’s own scoring model.
- Tuned for English prose rather than code, and moves nearly every key.
- Finished, so there is no further development.
Halmak compared
Against QWERTY and other research and ergonomic layouts, ranked by finger travel per 1,000 words.
| Layout | Finger travel | vs QWERTY | Home row | Same finger | Alternation | Left hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HalmakTHIS PAGE | 69.2 m | −47% | 65% | 3.3% | 66% | 51% |
| MTGAP | 70.6 m | −46% | 65% | 1.3% | 63% | 49% |
| Capewell | 72.0 m | −45% | 67% | 1.8% | 50% | 49% |
| Arensito | 72.4 m | −44% | 67% | 1.6% | 52% | 52% |
| Soul | 73.2 m | −44% | 67% | 1.6% | 56% | 48% |
| RSTHD | 73.2 m | −44% | 70% | 1.2% | 57% | 45% |
| BEAKL 15 | 87.4 m | −33% | 59% | 3.4% | 68% | 49% |
| QWERTY | 130.0 m | — | 37% | 6.5% | 55% | 57% |
Halmak was created by Nikolay Nemshilov in 2016, by a genetic algorithm he wrote.
It moves your fingers less. On 23,331 words of English, finger travel was −47% against QWERTY, 65% of letters landed on the home row against QWERTY’s 37%, and same-finger pairs were 3.3% against 6.5%. Less movement does not guarantee more speed, and switching takes weeks of practice.
Halmak is typed with standard touch-typing fingering on any keyboard.
Yes. Choose Halmak as your keyboard layout and the on-screen keyboard and hands show where every key is.