Abandoning QWERTY for Dvorak

Most people don’t know this about me, but I am a Dvorak typist. This means that contrary to most people who used the QWERTY layout that has been the standard since the age of the typewriter, I use the much more obscure Dvorak keyboard layout.

The Dvorak layout is not new. It was patented back in 1936 as an alternative to the standard QWERTY layout. The key fault with QWERTY is that it was actually designed to slow down typing in order to prevent the jamming of typewriter arms. Dvorak, by comparison, is more ergonomic and, by design, consolidates the most-used letters onto a single row, thus reducing finger motion.

Here’s what the Dvorak layout looks like:

As you can see, it’s much different from the standard QWERTY layout: