'A joy' 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 namea-joy.en.ansi
Form factorSlab : ANSI
'Author'Ajoy
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' pairsYes
Maintains QWERTY top row (ANSI/ISO)Yes
Uppercase on same keyYes
Conventional home keys, fingering, Space, Enter, Shifts, AltGrYes
Maintains QWERTY ZXCVYes
Maintains Colemak punctuationYes
Vowel handBoth
Vowels and tricky charactersLeft hand: ACHRachrRight hand: EILOUWYeilouwy

Click image for larger view

a-joy.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)

a-joy.en.ansi Layouts most similar to Qwerty

Changes from Modified Blickensderfer (1892 / 2012)

a-joy.en.ansi

Changes from Dvorak (1936)

a-joy.en.ansi Layouts most similar to Dvorak

Changes from Colemak (2006)

a-joy.en.ansi Layouts most similar to Colemak

Changes from MTGAP (2012)

a-joy.en.ansi

Changes from HIEAMTSRN (2014)

a-joy.en.ansi

Changes from Uciea Vanilla (2021)

a-joy.en.ansi

Changes from Poqtea-qp (Autogenerated, 2021)

a-joy.en.ansi

A joy is most similar to

LayoutScore
a-joy-rehomed.en.ansi27.00%
qwpr-no-altgr.en.ansi19.25%
qwerfj.en.ansi19.25%
power.en.ansi19.00%
syperk-qwfrj.en.ansi19.00%
siwei.en.ansi19.00%
aryo.en.ansi19.00%
etni.en.ansi19.00%
qwerty-programmer.en.ansi18.75%
qwerty.en.ansi18.75%

A joy is least similar to

LayoutScore
reverse-qwerty.en.ansi2.25%
shz.en.ansi2.50%
s2.en.ansi2.75%
s2-klopt.en.ansi3.00%
oiseau.en.ansi3.00%
beakl-hm1-mod-ian.en.ansi3.00%
kyudi.en.ansi3.00%
noname-30.en.ansi3.25%
newden-mod-ian.en.ansi3.25%
uiy-g-ansi-maks.en.ansi3.25%

Scores

Scores are percentages relative to the best layout for each metric.
MetricPercentage
Finger-based metrics46.22
Word-based metrics76.02
English43.27
Code55.36
Proglish48.86
Words metric for no same-finger76.02
Overall score56.15

All layouts (711)

MetricLowestLowest scorea-joy.en.ansi scoreHighestHighest score
Fingersnoel.en.ansi26.6146.22
vckb2.en.ergodox98.50
Wordsnoel.en.ansi18.2176.02
snth.en.matrix100.00
Averagenoel.en.ansi23.8156.15
vckb2.en.ergodox97.42

Overview compared to all other layouts

a-joy.en.ansi a-joy.en.ansi

ANSI layouts

Ergo layouts

All ANSI/ISO (578)

MetricLowestLowest scorea-joy.en.ansi scoreHighestHighest score
Fingersnoel.en.ansi26.6146.22
full-maks-minimo.en.ansi74.58
Wordsnoel.en.ansi18.2176.02
dilbert.en.ansi99.65
Averagenoel.en.ansi23.8156.15
full-maks-minimo.en.ansi81.78

Overview compared to all other ANSI/ISO layouts

a-joy.en.ansi a-joy.en.ansi

ANSI layouts

Conventional ANSI/ISO (409)

MetricLowestLowest scorea-joy.en.ansi scoreHighestHighest score
Fingersnoel.en.ansi26.6146.22
g-ansi-maks.en.ansi68.71
Wordsnoel.en.ansi18.2176.02
full-r2-rt162_25-2ec2c1.en.ansi99.65
Averagenoel.en.ansi23.8156.15
g-ansi-maks.en.ansi77.42

Overview compared to all other Conventional ANSI layouts

a-joy.en.ansi a-joy.en.ansi

Conventional ANSI layouts

Conventional ANSI/ISO + QWERTY shift pairs (361)

MetricLowestLowest scorea-joy.en.ansi scoreHighestHighest score
Fingersnoel.en.ansi26.6146.22
g-ansi-maks.en.ansi68.71
Wordsnoel.en.ansi18.2176.02
dilbert.en.ansi99.65
Averagenoel.en.ansi23.8156.15
g-ansi-maks.en.ansi77.42

Overview compared to all other Conventional ANSI with QWERTY shift pairs layouts

a-joy.en.ansi a-joy.en.ansi

Conventional ANSI with QWERTY shift pairs layouts

Conventional ANSI/ISO + QWERTY shift pairs + ZXCV (82)

MetricLowestLowest scorea-joy.en.ansi scoreHighestHighest score
Fingersus-split-v3.en.ansi35.5146.22
k-u_tea_shrt-pnct.en.ansi64.90
Wordspower.en.ansi64.0876.02
poqtea-sqp-multi.en.ansi97.83
Averageus-split-v3.en.ansi45.0856.15
k-u_tea_shrt-pnct.en.ansi75.75

Overview compared to all other Conventional ANSI with QWERTY shift pairs and ZXCV layouts

a-joy.en.ansi a-joy.en.ansi

Conventional ANSI + QWERTY shift pairs + ZXCV layouts

Conventional ANSI/ISO + QWERTY shift pairs + ZXCV + Colemak punctuation (35)

MetricLowestLowest scorea-joy.en.ansi scoreHighestHighest score
Fingersqwerty-p.en.ansi40.8846.22
poqtea-qp.en.ansi63.33
Wordsswapsix.en.ansi70.3476.02
poqtea-qp.en.ansi97.83
Averageqwerty-p.en.ansi50.7056.15
poqtea-qp.en.ansi74.83

Overview compared to all other Conventional ANSI with QWERTY shift pairs, ZXCV and Colmak punctuation layouts

a-joy.en.ansi a-joy.en.ansi

Conventional ANSI + QWERTY shift pairs + ZXCV + Colemak punctuation

Comparison to other well-known layouts

a-joy.en.ansi a-joy.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 layouta-joy.en.ansi94.7684.0790.15125.38
Referenceqwerty.en.ansi100.00100.00100.00100.00

Programming code

RankLayoutScoreDistanceSameFingerSameHand
Bestx1_atreus-44-keys.en.ergodox54.5034.5661.2880.83
This layouta-joy.en.ansi98.4494.25101.09101.52
Referenceqwerty.en.ansi100.00100.00100.00100.00

Proglish (an 80:20 English:Code mix)

RankLayoutScoreDistanceSameFingerSameHand
Bestvckb2.en.ergodox47.0841.5043.7464.91
This layouta-joy.en.ansi96.3586.9294.11119.69
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 layouta-joy.en.ansi46.22
Referenceqwerty.en.ansi44.26
MetricLowestLowest scorea-joy.en.ansi scoreHighestHighest score
Overall fingersnoel.en.ansi26.6146.22
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:

adelmnpt

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
and a at an all me made man men end need the of to in that is was for with as on it be by i his he from are had not which have or were this but you their they her has been one will who would more she its up can 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 any like then after very most these new your people now between should where years many being our before through much way work those did well down back just see even because own little make must good under 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 upon think later say few left number away thought until home here small set different system though around since often called within always every 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
adelmnpt40115389attempted

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
adelmnpt16474350719seventeenth-century

Word count
Word length

Word metric comparisons

MetricLowest exampleLowest scorea-joy.en.ansi scoreHighest exampleHighest score
Home keys wordstahan.en.ansi41538
hands-down-platinum-ts.en.ergodox6068
No same-finger wordsnoel.en.ansi8403507
snth.en.matrix4613
Words averagenoel.en.ansi18.21 %76.02 %
snth.en.matrix100.00 %

Comparison to other layouts

a-joy.en.ansi a-joy.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

a-joy.en.ansi

Programming Code (all languages) heat map

a-joy.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)
a-joy.en.ansi

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

(er in en et ar el es or st at )
a-joy.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