'Blick' 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 name	blick.en.ansi
Language	English
Form factor	Slab : ANSI
'Author'	Nick Matavka from George Canfield Blickensderfer, captured by Ian Douglas Author data may not be correct, we're working on it.
Keys horizontally staggered	Yes
Letters on thumb (lower and upper case)	0
Avoids AltGr for standard characters	Yes
Does not move non-character keys (ANSI/ISO)	Yes
Maintains QWERTY 'shift' pairs	Yes
Maintains QWERTY top row (ANSI/ISO)	Yes
Uppercase on same key	Yes
Conventional home keys, fingering, Space, Enter, Shifts, AltGr	No
Maintains QWERTY ZXCV	No
Maintains Colemak punctuation	No

Click image for larger view

Download the Keyboard Layout Analyzer .json file.

Changes from QWERTY (1873)

Changes from Modified Blickensderfer (1892 / 2012)

Changes from Dvorak (1936)

Changes from Colemak (2006)

Changes from MTGAP (2012)

Changes from HIEAMTSRN (2014)

Changes from Uciea Vanilla (2021)

Changes from Poqtea-qp (Autogenerated, 2021)

Similarity

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

Blick is most similar to

Layout	Score
blick-mod-ian.en.ansi	13.00
colemak-dhv.en.ansi	11.00
colemak-jph.en.ansi	10.75
colemak-uk.en.ansi	10.75
asset-corrected.en.ansi	10.50
colemak-h.en.ansi	10.25
codemak.en.ansi	10.25
atreyata.en.ansi	10.25
colemak-mod-fox.en.ansi	10.25
norman.en.ansi	10.25

Blick is least similar to

Layout	Score
canary-plusplus.en.ansi	2.75
einbinder-10-finger.en.ansi	3.50
nerts.en.ansi	3.50
nerps.en.ansi	3.50
aptx.en.ansi	3.50
e-442-colswap.en.ansi	3.50
maya.en.ansi	3.75
rick.en.ansi	3.75
kumar-desai.en.ansi	4.00
hands-down-ref-sym.en.ansi	4.00

Scores

Scores are percentages relative to the best layout for each metric.

Metric	Percentage
Finger-based metrics	40.10
Word-based metrics	68.28
English	37.95
Code	46.37
Proglish	42.45
Words metric for no same-finger	68.28
Overall score	49.49

All layouts (613)

Metric	Lowest	Lowest score	blick.en.ansi score	Highest	Highest score
Fingers	noel.en.ansi	27.83	40.10	maks-ex.en.ergodox	98.54
Words	noel.en.ansi	18.27	68.28	dilbert.en.ansi	100.00
Average	noel.en.ansi	24.64	49.49	maks-ex.en.ergodox	98.56

Overview compared to all other layouts

blick.en.ansi ANSI layouts Ergo layouts

All ANSI (493)

Metric	Lowest	Lowest score	blick.en.ansi score	Highest	Highest score
Fingers	noel.en.ansi	27.83	40.10	full-maks-minimo.en.ansi	78.62
Words	noel.en.ansi	18.27	68.28	dilbert.en.ansi	100.00
Average	noel.en.ansi	24.64	49.49	full-maks-minimo.en.ansi	84.59

Overview compared to all other ANSI layouts

blick.en.ansi ANSI layouts

Unconventional ANSI (136)

Metric	Lowest	Lowest score	blick.en.ansi score	Highest	Highest score
Fingers	qwerty-typewriter.en.ansi	33.82	40.10	full-maks-minimo.en.ansi	78.62
Words	rowell.en.ansi	51.88	68.28	dhorf.en.ansi	99.43
Average	rowell.en.ansi	42.45	49.49	full-maks-minimo.en.ansi	84.59

Overview compared to all other Unconventional ANSI layouts

blick.en.ansi Unconventional ANSI layouts

Comparison to other well-known layouts

blick.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

Rank	Layout	Score	Distance	SameFinger	SameHand
Best	maks-ex.en.ergodox	43.87	43.40	32.76	67.01
This layout	blick.en.ansi	115.60	85.41	140.79	125.58
Reference	qwerty.en.ansi	100.00	100.00	100.00	100.00

Programming code

Rank	Layout	Score	Distance	SameFinger	SameHand
Best	x1_atreus-44-keys.en.ergodox	54.50	34.56	61.28	80.83
This layout	blick.en.ansi	117.54	113.21	131.54	98.18
Reference	qwerty.en.ansi	100.00	100.00	100.00	100.00

Proglish (an 80:20 English:Code mix)

Rank	Layout	Score	Distance	SameFinger	SameHand
Best	maks-ex.en.ergodox	49.22	42.49	44.78	71.55
This layout	blick.en.ansi	115.94	93.15	137.26	118.88
Reference	qwerty.en.ansi	100.00	100.00	100.00	100.00

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

Higher is better. Score is out of 100.

Rank	Layout	Percentage
Best	maks-ex.en.ergodox	98.54
This layout	blick.en.ansi	40.10
Reference	qwerty.en.ansi	46.53

Metric	Lowest	Lowest score	blick.en.ansi score	Highest	Highest score
Overall fingers	noel.en.ansi	27.83	40.10	maks-ex.en.ergodox	98.54

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:

aehinost

Home key common words

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

Words handled

Words not handled

the to a in that is as on it i his at he not an this has one she its so into than no then these those see too set

of and was for with be by from are had which have or were but you their they her all been will who would more up can him out there we when said them about other time 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 did well down back just even because own little make must good under man used both same how still three while use last 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 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 letters	English words typeable	Score	Longest word	Example
aehinost	465	1821	13	assassination

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 letters	English words typeable	Score	Longest word	Example
aehinost	14926	3139	19	massachusetts-based

Word count
Word length

Word metric comparisons

Metric	Lowest example	Lowest score	blick.en.ansi score	Highest example	Highest score
Home keys words	tahan.en.ansi	4	1821	cahi.en.matrix	5445
No same-finger words	noel.en.ansi	840	3139	dilbert.en.ansi	4597
Words average	noel.en.ansi	18.27 %	68.28 %	full-r2-rt162_25-2ec2c1.en.ansi	100.00 %

Comparison to other layouts

blick.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

Programming Code (all languages) heat map

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)

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

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

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