MTGAP keyboard layout
MTGAP is a computer-optimised layout from Michael Dickens’s Keyboard Layout Project, produced around 2008–2010 by an evolutionary algorithm with no QWERTY constraints.
- Created by
- Michael Dickens
- Known online as MTGAP
- Year
- c. 2008
- Published 2008–2010
- Finger travel
- −46%
- vs QWERTY
- Home row
- 65%
- of letters, QWERTY 37%
The layout
MTGAP’s layout optimised for the main 30 keys, with its own Shift pairs for punctuation.
MTGAP is typed with standard touch-typing fingering on any keyboard.
How MTGAP measures
MTGAP typed on 23,331 words of English and compared with QWERTY.
History
- 2008Michael Dickens writes his own evolutionary optimiser for his Keyboard Layout Project, scoring distance, same-finger use, rolls and alternation.
- 2010He publishes versions for standard keyboards, the main 30 keys and the Kinesis Advantage, while recommending Colemak to most people.
- 2025Installers arrive for Linux, macOS and Windows.
Design goal: A computer-optimised layout that minimises effort under its author’s own weighted measures, with no attempt to stay close to QWERTY.
Pros
- Produced by an openly documented optimiser, with its weights and results published.
- Rolls a lot: inward rolls far outnumber outward ones, and same-finger use is low.
- Versions exist for standard, 30-key and Kinesis keyboards, and installers now exist for Linux, macOS and Windows.
Cons
- Almost every letter moves, all the vowels included, so it is hard to learn from QWERTY.
- Several versions share the name, so “MTGAP” is ambiguous.
- A small user base.
MTGAP 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Halmak | 69.2 m | −47% | 65% | 3.3% | 66% | 51% |
| MTGAPTHIS PAGE | 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% |
MTGAP was created by Michael Dickens, known online as MTGAP, between about 2008 and 2010.
It moves your fingers less. On 23,331 words of English, finger travel was −46% 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.
MTGAP is typed with standard touch-typing fingering on any keyboard.
Yes. Choose MTGAP as your keyboard layout and the on-screen keyboard and hands show where every key is.