'Nirvana opt' computer keyboard layout

Sections

1. Summary
2. Changes from other layouts
3. Similarity to other layouts
4. Scores
5. Comparison to other well-known layouts
6. Finger based metrics
7. English Word-based analysis
8. Comparison to other layouts (word metrics)
9. English heat map
10. Programming Code (all languages) heat map
11. Most common English bigram pairs
12. Most common Code bigram pairs
13. Typing lessons

Canonical name	nirvana-opt.en.ansi
Form factor	Slab : ANSI
'Author'	Ian Douglas Author data may not be correct, we're working on it.
Keys horizontally staggered	Yes
Letters on thumb (lower and upper case)	0
Avoids AltGr for standard characters	Yes
Does not move non-character keys (ANSI/ISO)	Yes
Maintains QWERTY 'shift' pairs	No
Maintains QWERTY top row (ANSI/ISO)	No
Uppercase on same key	Yes
Conventional home keys, fingering, Space, Enter, Shifts, AltGr	Yes
Maintains QWERTY ZXCV	No
Maintains Colemak punctuation	No
Vowel hand	Right
Vowels and tricky characters	Left hand: CHLRWchlrw	Right hand: AEIOUYaeiouy

Click image for larger view

Download the Keyboard Layout Analyzer .json file.
Download the Computer install files for Linux, MacOS and Windows (Untested ALPHA/BETA. Use at own risk. Includes ahk, keylayout, klc, pkl, tmk, xkb).

Changes from QWERTY (1873)

Changes from Modified Blickensderfer (1892 / 2012)

Changes from Dvorak (1936)

Changes from Colemak (2006)

Changes from MTGAP (2012)

Changes from HIEAMTSRN (2014)

Changes from Uciea Vanilla (2021)

Changes from Poqtea-qp (Autogenerated, 2021)

Similarity

Ancestor	Score
QWERTY (1873)
Modified Blickensderfer (1892 / 2012)
Dvorak (1936)
Colemak (2006)
MTGAP (2012)
HIEAMTSRN (2014)
Uciea Vanilla (2021)
Poqtea-qp (2021)
Maximum

Nirvana opt is most similar to

Layout	Score
aehi.en.ansi	16.25
hands_down_alt.en.ansi	14.50
hands-down-neu.ts.eu.ansi	14.50
hands-down-neu.eu.ansi	14.50
halmak.en.ansi	14.50
carbyne-ian.en.ansi	14.25
hands-down-neu-sym.eu.ansi	14.00
hands-down-neu-angle.ts.eu.ansi	14.00
hands-down-neu-angle.eu.ansi	14.00
widely-alternating-a.en.ansi	13.25

Nirvana opt is least similar to

Layout	Score
right-pinky-friend.en.ansi	2.00
mtgap-optimised-shifted.en.ansi	2.00
colibius.en.ansi	2.00
quesnel_mtgap.en.ansi	2.00
widepdk-custom.en.ansi	2.00
vukeys-swapped-mod-ian-2.en.ansi	2.00
ninedotnine-mod-ian.en.ansi	2.25
mtgap.en.ansi	2.25
klausler.en.ansi	2.25
ninedotnine.en.ansi	2.25

Scores

Scores are percentages relative to the best layout for each metric.

Metric	Percentage
Finger-based metrics	63.78
Word-based metrics	94.41
English	62.86
Code	65.04
Proglish	66.19
Words metric for no same-finger	94.41
Overall score	73.99

All layouts (711)

Metric	Lowest	Lowest score	nirvana-opt.en.ansi score	Highest	Highest score
Fingers	noel.en.ansi	26.61	63.78	vckb2.en.ergodox	98.50
Words	noel.en.ansi	18.21	94.41	snth.en.matrix	100.00
Average	noel.en.ansi	23.81	73.99	vckb2.en.ergodox	97.42

Overview compared to all other layouts

nirvana-opt.en.ansi ANSI layouts Ergo layouts

All ANSI/ISO (578)

Metric	Lowest	Lowest score	nirvana-opt.en.ansi score	Highest	Highest score
Fingers	noel.en.ansi	26.61	63.78	full-maks-minimo.en.ansi	74.58
Words	noel.en.ansi	18.21	94.41	dilbert.en.ansi	99.65
Average	noel.en.ansi	23.81	73.99	full-maks-minimo.en.ansi	81.78

Overview compared to all other ANSI/ISO layouts

nirvana-opt.en.ansi ANSI layouts

Conventional ANSI/ISO (409)

Metric	Lowest	Lowest score	nirvana-opt.en.ansi score	Highest	Highest score
Fingers	noel.en.ansi	26.61	63.78	g-ansi-maks.en.ansi	68.71
Words	noel.en.ansi	18.21	94.41	full-r2-rt162_25-2ec2c1.en.ansi	99.65
Average	noel.en.ansi	23.81	73.99	g-ansi-maks.en.ansi	77.42

Overview compared to all other Conventional ANSI layouts

nirvana-opt.en.ansi Conventional ANSI layouts

Comparison to other well-known layouts

nirvana-opt.en.ansi colemak.en.ansi mtgap.en.ansi workman.en.ansi dvorak.en.ansi norman.en.ansi qwerty.en.ansi Best ANSI full-maks-minimo.en.ansi dilbert.en.ansi Worst ANSI noel.en.ansi

Finger based metrics

Finger based metrics, as determined with Keyboard Layout Analyzer, using KLAnext scoring model, and then normalised to ANSI QWERTY = 100.
Lower is better.

English

Rank	Layout	Score	Distance	SameFinger	SameHand
Best	vckb2.en.ergodox	41.00	41.05	31.93	59.05
This layout	nirvana-opt.en.ansi	65.22	73.94	56.12	65.98
Reference	qwerty.en.ansi	100.00	100.00	100.00	100.00

Programming code

Rank	Layout	Score	Distance	SameFinger	SameHand
Best	x1_atreus-44-keys.en.ergodox	54.50	34.56	61.28	80.83
This layout	nirvana-opt.en.ansi	83.80	89.47	80.41	79.23
Reference	qwerty.en.ansi	100.00	100.00	100.00	100.00

Proglish (an 80:20 English:Code mix)

Rank	Layout	Score	Distance	SameFinger	SameHand
Best	vckb2.en.ergodox	47.08	41.50	43.74	64.91
This layout	nirvana-opt.en.ansi	71.13	78.26	65.00	69.13
Reference	qwerty.en.ansi	100.00	100.00	100.00	100.00

Overall Fingers score (4 * English % + Code % + Proglish %) / 6

Higher is better. Score is out of 100.

Rank	Layout	Percentage
Best	vckb2.en.ergodox	98.50
This layout	nirvana-opt.en.ansi	63.78
Reference	qwerty.en.ansi	44.26

Metric	Lowest	Lowest score	nirvana-opt.en.ansi score	Highest	Highest score
Overall fingers	noel.en.ansi	26.61	63.78	vckb2.en.ergodox	98.50

English Word-based analysis

Home Keys Analysis

The Home Keys for this layout are shown with red dots in the first image above, giving the following letters:

abehinst

Home key common words

Not part of final score.
Which of the 200 most common words are typeable on the home keys.

Words handled

Words not handled

the a in that is as it be i his at he an this has been she its than then these see set

of and to was for with on by from are had not which have or were but you their they her all one will who would more up can him so out there into we when said them about other time no if some only also first could two my what over such do may me any like after very most new made your people now between should where years many being our before through much way work those did well down back just even because own little make must good under man used both same how still three while use last too life against know year each us get mr take long part off go day might great never found old gbp right another place came during again without come world men end upon think later say few left number away thought until home here small different system though around since often called within always every need went

Home key words

How many of the 30,000 most common words in the English corpus are typeable on the home keys.
Not included in final score ... layouts with letters on thumb have unfair advantage, and it punishes layouts which opt to keep O and U off the home row.

Home Key letters	English words typeable	Score	Longest word	Example
abehinst	420	1617	11	inhabitants

Word count
Word length

No same-finger words

How many of the 30,000 most common words in the English corpus can be typed without using the same finger twice.

Home Key letters	English words typeable	Score	Longest word	Example
abehinst	21984	4355	19	seventeenth-century

Word count
Word length

Word metric comparisons

Metric	Lowest example	Lowest score	nirvana-opt.en.ansi score	Highest example	Highest score
Home keys words	tahan.en.ansi	4	1617	hands-down-platinum-ts.en.ergodox	6068
No same-finger words	noel.en.ansi	840	4355	snth.en.matrix	4613
Words average	noel.en.ansi	18.21 %	94.41 %	snth.en.matrix	100.00 %

Comparison to other layouts

nirvana-opt.en.ansi colemak.en.ansi mtgap.en.ansi workman.en.ansi dvorak.en.ansi norman.en.ansi qwerty.en.ansi ANSI layouts Ergo layouts Best ANSI dilbert.en.ansi bone.en.ansi Worst ANSI tahan.en.ansi noel.en.ansi

Heat map

English heat map

Programming Code (all languages) heat map

Note: Colour change points are different in the Code heat map due to the different character frequency distribution.

Ten most common English bigram pairs (excluding space and enter)

( er ht eh in an it no en es at)

Ten most common Code bigram pairs (excluding space and enter)

(er in en et ar el es or st at )

Typing lessons

Download some English words suitable for learning the layout.
Note if any files are empty it's because there are not enough words to create a lesson. This is most noticeable in the bad layouts.

Week 1	Homekey words	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5
Week 2	No same-finger words	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5
Week 3	Common / tricky words	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5
Week 4	Pangrams	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5
Week 5	So you think you can type?	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5
Week 6	Extra practice 1: Common words in text	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5
Week 7	Extra practice 2: Lorem ipsum and friends	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5
Week 8	Extra practice 3: Underused words	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5
Week 9	Extra practice 4: Commonly misspelled words	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5