'Balance 12' 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 namebalance_12.en.ansi
Form factorSlab : ANSI
'Author'found on net, slightly modded by Ian.
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 ZXCVNo
Maintains Colemak punctuationNo
Vowel handLeft
Vowels and tricky charactersLeft hand: AEHIOUYaehiouyRight hand: CLRWclrw

Click image for larger view

balance_12.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)

balance_12.en.ansi Layouts most similar to Qwerty

Changes from Modified Blickensderfer (1892 / 2012)

balance_12.en.ansi

Changes from Dvorak (1936)

balance_12.en.ansi Layouts most similar to Dvorak

Changes from Colemak (2006)

balance_12.en.ansi Layouts most similar to Colemak

Changes from MTGAP (2012)

balance_12.en.ansi

Changes from HIEAMTSRN (2014)

balance_12.en.ansi

Changes from Uciea Vanilla (2021)

balance_12.en.ansi

Changes from Poqtea-qp (Autogenerated, 2021)

balance_12.en.ansi

Balance 12 is most similar to

LayoutScore
hieamtsrn.en.ansi24.25%
balance-12-steven-tammen.en.ansi24.25%
hands-up.en.ansi18.25%
heiadtsrn-wfgv.en.ansi17.25%
blou.en.ansi16.75%
hieaqmtsrn.en.ansi16.25%
newden-mod-ian.en.ansi15.00%
hieamtsrn-optimized.en.ansi15.00%
kyu-normalshift.en.ansi14.75%
kyu-anglemod.en.ansi14.75%

Balance 12 is least similar to

LayoutScore
balance-twelve.en.ansi1.50%
balance-twelve-mirrored.en.ansi1.50%
pow_123.en.ansi2.00%
ali-kian.en.ansi2.00%
freq3.en.ansi2.00%
typehack.en.ansi2.00%
minred.en.ansi2.00%
rhea.en.ansi2.25%
bone.en.ansi2.25%
vas_keys.en.ansi2.25%

Scores

Scores are percentages relative to the best layout for each metric.
MetricPercentage
Finger-based metrics60.14
Word-based metrics96.36
English59.52
Code60.63
Proglish62.14
Words metric for no same-finger96.36
Overall score72.21

All layouts (711)

MetricLowestLowest scorebalance_12.en.ansi scoreHighestHighest score
Fingersnoel.en.ansi26.6160.14
vckb2.en.ergodox98.50
Wordsnoel.en.ansi18.2196.36
snth.en.matrix100.00
Averagenoel.en.ansi23.8172.21
vckb2.en.ergodox97.42

Overview compared to all other layouts

balance_12.en.ansi balance_12.en.ansi

ANSI layouts

Ergo layouts

All ANSI/ISO (578)

MetricLowestLowest scorebalance_12.en.ansi scoreHighestHighest score
Fingersnoel.en.ansi26.6160.14
full-maks-minimo.en.ansi74.58
Wordsnoel.en.ansi18.2196.36
dilbert.en.ansi99.65
Averagenoel.en.ansi23.8172.21
full-maks-minimo.en.ansi81.78

Overview compared to all other ANSI/ISO layouts

balance_12.en.ansi balance_12.en.ansi

ANSI layouts

Conventional ANSI/ISO (409)

MetricLowestLowest scorebalance_12.en.ansi scoreHighestHighest score
Fingersnoel.en.ansi26.6160.14
g-ansi-maks.en.ansi68.71
Wordsnoel.en.ansi18.2196.36
full-r2-rt162_25-2ec2c1.en.ansi99.65
Averagenoel.en.ansi23.8172.21
g-ansi-maks.en.ansi77.42

Overview compared to all other Conventional ANSI layouts

balance_12.en.ansi balance_12.en.ansi

Conventional ANSI layouts

Conventional ANSI/ISO + QWERTY shift pairs (361)

MetricLowestLowest scorebalance_12.en.ansi scoreHighestHighest score
Fingersnoel.en.ansi26.6160.14
g-ansi-maks.en.ansi68.71
Wordsnoel.en.ansi18.2196.36
dilbert.en.ansi99.65
Averagenoel.en.ansi23.8172.21
g-ansi-maks.en.ansi77.42

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

balance_12.en.ansi balance_12.en.ansi

Conventional ANSI with QWERTY shift pairs layouts

Comparison to other well-known layouts

balance_12.en.ansi balance_12.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 layoutbalance_12.en.ansi68.8972.6862.2374.62
Referenceqwerty.en.ansi100.00100.00100.00100.00

Programming code

RankLayoutScoreDistanceSameFingerSameHand
Bestx1_atreus-44-keys.en.ergodox54.5034.5661.2880.83
This layoutbalance_12.en.ansi89.8992.5791.8680.57
Referenceqwerty.en.ansi100.00100.00100.00100.00

Proglish (an 80:20 English:Code mix)

RankLayoutScoreDistanceSameFingerSameHand
Bestvckb2.en.ergodox47.0841.5043.7464.91
This layoutbalance_12.en.ansi75.7778.2573.0776.21
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 layoutbalance_12.en.ansi60.14
Referenceqwerty.en.ansi44.26
MetricLowestLowest scorebalance_12.en.ansi scoreHighestHighest score
Overall fingersnoel.en.ansi26.6160.14
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:

aehinrst

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
the a in that is as it i his at he are an this their her has she its there than then these see three here set of and to was for with on be by from had not which have or were but you they all been one will who would more up can him so out 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 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 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 lettersEnglish words typeableScoreLongest wordExample
aehinrst690291411earnestness

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
aehinrst22774444519seventeenth-century

Word count
Word length

Word metric comparisons

MetricLowest exampleLowest scorebalance_12.en.ansi scoreHighest exampleHighest score
Home keys wordstahan.en.ansi42914
hands-down-platinum-ts.en.ergodox6068
No same-finger wordsnoel.en.ansi8404445
snth.en.matrix4613
Words averagenoel.en.ansi18.21 %96.36 %
snth.en.matrix100.00 %

Comparison to other layouts

balance_12.en.ansi balance_12.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

balance_12.en.ansi

Programming Code (all languages) heat map

balance_12.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)
balance_12.en.ansi

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

(er in en et ar el es or st at )
balance_12.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