If you have tried to type faster, you have probably met someone who swears by the Dvorak keyboard layout: QWERTY is an old, awkward design, they say, and Dvorak puts the letters you use most right under your fingers. This guide explains how the two layouts differ, works through a comparison you can check yourself, and lays out the real costs of switching. Spoiler: for most people, technique matters far more than layout.
Where QWERTY came from
QWERTY, named after the first six letters on the top row, grew out of the typewriters Christopher Latham Sholes designed in the 1870s and Remington sold. Once typists and schools standardized on it, it carried over to computers and phones, which is why nearly every keyboard today uses it or a regional variant such as AZERTY or QWERTZ.
QWERTY was not designed around how often letters appear in English. Very common letters such as E, T, O and I sit on the top row, while the home row includes rarely used J and K. That is the main criticism Dvorak answers.
What makes Dvorak different
The Dvorak Simplified Keyboard was patented in 1936 by August Dvorak and William Dealey. It rearranges the letters around a few clear ideas:
- Put the most common letters on the home row. The left hand rests on the vowels A O E U I, and the right hand rests on very common consonants D H T N S.
- Alternate hands more often. Because vowels are on one side and many consonants on the other, ordinary words tend to bounce between hands, which can feel smoother.
- Move rare letters out of the way. Letters like Q, J, X and Z go to the bottom row.
Here is how the letter rows compare on a standard U.S. keyboard:
| Row | QWERTY | Dvorak |
|---|---|---|
| Top | Q W E R T Y U I O P | ' , . P Y F G C R L |
| Home | A S D F G H J K L ; | A O E U I D H T N S |
| Bottom | Z X C V B N M , . / | ; Q J K X B M W V Z |
Only A and M stay in the same place. Everything else moves, including the comma and period, which jump to the top-left.
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Open the free typing speed test →A worked comparison: how much stays on the home row?
You can test the "home row" idea yourself. Take an ordinary sentence and count where each letter lives on each layout. We used this sentence, which has 70 letters (spaces and punctuation ignored):
Please send the updated report to the team before the meeting on Thursday afternoon.
| Row | QWERTY letters | Dvorak letters |
|---|---|---|
| Top row | 42 (60%) | 13 (19%) |
| Home row | 20 (29%) | 54 (77%) |
| Bottom row | 8 (11%) | 3 (4%) |
On this sentence, Dvorak keeps about three-quarters of the letters on the home row, compared with under a third on QWERTY. The split between hands also changes: on QWERTY, 45 of the 70 letters (64%) are typed by the left hand, while on Dvorak the left hand types 32 (46%), so the work is shared more evenly.
One sentence is a tiny sample (and a pangram would be a poor test, since it uses every letter on purpose), but you can repeat the count with any text you type often and you will usually see the same pattern: much less reaching on Dvorak.
Does less finger movement mean faster typing?
Not automatically. Less reaching can make typing feel more relaxed, but speed depends on other things too:
- Practice time. Years of QWERTY muscle memory are hard to beat with a new layout.
- Technique. Touch typing, staying on the home row, rhythm and accuracy usually matter more than which letter sits where.
- What you type. Dvorak is optimized for English prose, not code, numbers or symbols.
Very fast typists exist on both layouts, and the evidence that one is dramatically faster for everyone is mixed. If your goal is a higher WPM score, improving your technique on the layout you already know is the most reliable path. Our guide on how to type faster covers that in detail.