Hands Down keyboard layout
Hands Down Neu is a 2021 layout from Alan Reiser’s Hands Down family, built for many inward rolls and very few same-finger pairs, and the base for versions with a letter on a thumb key.
- Created by
- Alan Reiser
- Year
- 2021
- Hands Down family since 2020
- Finger travel
- −42%
- vs QWERTY
- Home row
- 65%
- of letters, QWERTY 37%
The layout
Hands Down Neu, the version for standard keyboards: punctuation fills the right hand’s centre column and Z and J move to the right edge.
Hands Down Neu is typed with standard fingering on a standard keyboard, using the right-hand centre column and outer keys as its creator’s Windows layout does.
How Hands Down measures
Hands Down Neu typed on 23,331 words of English and compared with QWERTY.
History
- 2020Alan Reiser tries Workman in September, designs his own layout weeks later, and soon posts the first Hands Down for feedback.
- 2021Neu arrives in early summer with every letter on the fingers. Gold, Silver and Bronze, built on it, each put a letter on a thumb key.
- TodayReiser recommends only the versions based on Neu.
Design goal: High alternation and rolling, with inward rolls outnumbering outward ones about three to one, very few same-finger pairs and graduated finger effort.
Pros
- Under 1% of letter pairs on the same finger, by its creator’s measure.
- Inward rolls outnumber outward ones about three to one.
- Works on any keyboard, and leads on to the thumb-letter versions with little retraining.
Cons
- Built for 34-key split keyboards: on standard ones some letters move to the outer keys and several Shift states are non-standard.
- AU is its most common same-finger pair.
- The family has many versions, which can be confusing; its creator now recommends only those based on Neu.
Hands Down 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| APT | 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 NeuTHIS PAGE | 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% |
| Engram | 77.8 m | −40% | 58% | 2.9% | 64% | 51% |
| QWERTY | 130.0 m | — | 37% | 6.5% | 55% | 57% |
Hands Down was designed by Alan Reiser from 2020, and the Neu version was released in early summer 2021.
It moves your fingers less. On 23,331 words of English, finger travel was −42% against QWERTY, 65% of letters landed on the home row against QWERTY’s 37%, and same-finger pairs were 1.0% against 6.5%. Less movement does not guarantee more speed, and switching takes weeks of practice.
Hands Down Neu is typed with standard fingering on a standard keyboard, using the right-hand centre column and outer keys as its creator’s Windows layout does.
Yes. Choose Hands Down Neu as your keyboard layout and the on-screen keyboard and hands show where every key is.