Dvorak vs Colemak vs QWERTY: Is Switching Keyboard Layouts Worth It?

The layouts in brief

• QWERTY dates from the typewriter era and is the default almost everywhere English is typed.
• Dvorak (the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard) was patented in 1936 by August Dvorak and William Dealey. It puts all the vowels on the left home row and the most common consonants on the right, so more typing happens on the home row with alternating hands.
• Colemak was released by Shai Coleman on 1 January 2006. It also moves frequent letters to the home row, but changes far fewer keys than Dvorak and keeps Z, X, C and V where they are — so copy, paste and undo stay put.

Are they faster?

Not automatically. Typing records have been set on Dvorak — Barbara Blackburn, listed by Guinness for 150 WPM over 50 minutes, used it — but most fast typists in the world use QWERTY, and studies comparing layouts have never shown a large, consistent speed advantage. The clearest benefit of Dvorak and Colemak is less finger travel, which some people find more comfortable.

What does reliably make people faster is touch typing itself. In a study of 168,960 typists, people who used 9–10 fingers were clearly faster than those who used fewer, whatever their layout.

Who should consider switching

• You already touch type, you type for many hours a day, and comfort matters more to you than a short-term speed dip.
• You mostly use your own computer, so you won’t constantly switch between layouts.
• You’re curious and enjoy the learning process — expect several weeks before you’re back to your old speed.

Who probably shouldn’t

• You don’t touch type yet. Learn touch typing on QWERTY first: the gain is far bigger and it works on every keyboard.
• You use shared or work computers where you can’t change the layout.
• You type in a language other than English — Dvorak and Colemak are optimised for English letter frequencies.

The practical recommendation

For most people, the best investment is the same: learn to touch type on the layout you already have, then build speed and accuracy. Start with the free lessons, check your progress with the typing test, and see how you compare in the average typing speed calculator.