'Optimal digram' 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 nameoptimal-digram.en.ansi
Form factorSlab : ANSI
'Author'Steven Tammen
Author data may not be correct, we're working on it.
Keys horizontally staggeredYes
Letters on thumb (lower and upper case)0
Avoids AltGr for standard charactersYes
Does not move non-character keys (ANSI/ISO)Yes
Maintains QWERTY 'shift' pairsNo
Maintains QWERTY top row (ANSI/ISO)No
Uppercase on same keyNo
Conventional home keys, fingering, Space, Enter, Shifts, AltGrYes
Maintains QWERTY ZXCVNo
Maintains Colemak punctuationNo
Vowel handLeft
Vowels and tricky charactersLeft hand: AEIOUYaeiouyRight hand: CHLRWchlrw

Click image for larger view

optimal-digram.en.ansi


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)

optimal-digram.en.ansi

Changes from Modified Blickensderfer (1892 / 2012)

optimal-digram.en.ansi

Changes from Dvorak (1936)

optimal-digram.en.ansi

Changes from Colemak (2006)

optimal-digram.en.ansi

Changes from MTGAP (2012)

optimal-digram.en.ansi

Changes from HIEAMTSRN (2014)

optimal-digram.en.ansi

Changes from Uciea Vanilla (2021)

optimal-digram.en.ansi

Changes from Poqtea-qp (Autogenerated, 2021)

optimal-digram.en.ansi

Similarity

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

Optimal digram is most similar to

LayoutScore
adnw-english-bigram.en.ansi23.50
dvormax.en.ansi15.75
n-ansi-maks.en.ansi13.75
kyudi.en.ansi13.50
full-maks-minimo.en.ansi12.75
g-ansi-maks.en.ansi12.75
uciea-gcsv.en.ansi12.25
s2-klopt.en.ansi12.25
beakl-hm1-mod-ian.en.ansi12.00
adnw-mod-keen.en.ansi11.75

Optimal digram is least similar to

LayoutScore
hands-down-alt.en.ansi2.00
hands_down_alt.en.ansi2.00
my_life_for_aeir.en.ansi2.00
embizone-mod-ian.en.ansi2.00
rtnsg.en.ansi2.25
embizone.en.ansi2.25
dvimcat.en.ansi2.25
minred2.en.ansi2.25
balance-twelve-mirrored.en.ansi2.50
balance-twelve.en.ansi2.50

Scores

Scores are percentages relative to the best layout for each metric.
MetricPercentage
Finger-based metrics63.31
Word-based metrics98.61
English62.89
Code63.15
Proglish65.14
Words metric for no same-finger98.61
Overall score75.08

All layouts (675)

MetricLowestLowest scoreoptimal-digram.en.ansi scoreHighestHighest score
Fingersnoel.en.ansi26.6163.31
vckb2.en.ergodox98.50
Wordsnoel.en.ansi18.2798.61
full-r2-rt162_25-2ec2c1.en.ansi100.00
Averagenoel.en.ansi23.8375.08
vckb2.en.ergodox97.54

Overview compared to all other layouts

optimal-digram.en.ansi optimal-digram.en.ansi

ANSI layouts

Ergo layouts

All ANSI/ISO (551)

MetricLowestLowest scoreoptimal-digram.en.ansi scoreHighestHighest score
Fingersnoel.en.ansi26.6163.31
full-maks-minimo.en.ansi74.58
Wordsnoel.en.ansi18.2798.61
dilbert.en.ansi100.00
Averagenoel.en.ansi23.8375.08
full-maks-minimo.en.ansi81.89

Overview compared to all other ANSI/ISO layouts

optimal-digram.en.ansi optimal-digram.en.ansi

ANSI layouts

Conventional ANSI/ISO (390)

MetricLowestLowest scoreoptimal-digram.en.ansi scoreHighestHighest score
Fingersnoel.en.ansi26.6163.31
g-ansi-maks.en.ansi68.71
Wordsnoel.en.ansi18.2798.61
full-r2-rt162_25-2ec2c1.en.ansi100.00
Averagenoel.en.ansi23.8375.08
g-ansi-maks.en.ansi77.53

Overview compared to all other Conventional ANSI layouts

optimal-digram.en.ansi optimal-digram.en.ansi

Conventional ANSI layouts

Comparison to other well-known layouts

optimal-digram.en.ansi optimal-digram.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

RankLayoutScoreDistanceSameFingerSameHand
Bestvckb2.en.ergodox41.0041.0531.9359.05
This layoutoptimal-digram.en.ansi65.1973.8751.3475.51
Referenceqwerty.en.ansi100.00100.00100.00100.00

Programming code

RankLayoutScoreDistanceSameFingerSameHand
Bestx1_atreus-44-keys.en.ergodox54.5034.5661.2880.83
This layoutoptimal-digram.en.ansi86.3086.0689.4980.40
Referenceqwerty.en.ansi100.00100.00100.00100.00

Proglish (an 80:20 English:Code mix)

RankLayoutScoreDistanceSameFingerSameHand
Bestvckb2.en.ergodox47.0841.5043.7464.91
This layoutoptimal-digram.en.ansi72.2877.2865.0376.77
Referenceqwerty.en.ansi100.00100.00100.00100.00

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

Higher is better. Score is out of 100.
RankLayoutPercentage
Bestvckb2.en.ergodox98.50
This layoutoptimal-digram.en.ansi63.31
Referenceqwerty.en.ansi44.26
MetricLowestLowest scoreoptimal-digram.en.ansi scoreHighestHighest score
Overall fingersnoel.en.ansi26.6163.31
vckb2.en.ergodox98.50

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:

aceinrst

Home key common words

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

Words handledWords not handled
a in is as it i at are an its can see set since the of and to that was for with on be by his he from had not which have or were this but you their they her has all been one will who would more she up him so out there into we when said them about other than time no if some only also first could two my what over such do may me any like then after very most these 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 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 lettersEnglish words typeableScoreLongest wordExample
aceinrst787345912necessitates

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 lettersEnglish words typeableScoreLongest wordExample
aceinrst23483453318telecommunications

Word count
Word length

Word metric comparisons

MetricLowest exampleLowest scoreoptimal-digram.en.ansi scoreHighest exampleHighest score
Home keys wordstahan.en.ansi43459
cahi.en.matrix5445
No same-finger wordsnoel.en.ansi8404533
dilbert.en.ansi4597
Words averagenoel.en.ansi18.27 %98.61 %
full-r2-rt162_25-2ec2c1.en.ansi100.00 %

Comparison to other layouts

optimal-digram.en.ansi optimal-digram.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

optimal-digram.en.ansi

Programming Code (all languages) heat map

optimal-digram.en.ansi 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)
optimal-digram.en.ansi

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

(er in en et ar el es or st at )
optimal-digram.en.ansi

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