'Blick' computer keyboard layout

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	0
Uses AltGr for standard characters	No
Moves non-character keys (ANSI/ISO)	No
Changes 'shift' pairs	No
Changes top row (ANSI/ISO)	No
Uppercase on different key	No

Click image for larger view

Download the Keyboard Layout Analyzer .json file.

Rankings

Metric	Rank	Relative %
KLA original English prose	334	58.61
KLA original Programming	356	42.50
Den 1 English prose	336	53.06
Den 1 Programming	358	42.99
Homekeys words	220	0.97
Homeblock words	102	10.09
Angle mod Homeblock words	124	8.36
Easyblock words	209	2.82
One-handed words	300	4.47
Efficiency	262	73.40
Homekeys bigrams	97	65.89
Homekeys trigrams	111	51.94
Homekeys quadgrams	100	35.39
Homekeys common words	54	68.73
Samefinger bigrams	343	1.29
Overall ranking	268	37.19

Finger based metrics

Finger based metrics, as determined with Keyboard Layout Analyzer, using Patrick's original scoring model, and Den's first revised version.

We show the ranking Overall, for the broad Form Factor, and against other similar layouts (Peers), for English prose, assorted Programming, and Average of the two.

'Peers' means compared to other layouts with same characterics, e.g. ANSI/ISO vs Ergo, and matching 'Has letters on thumb', 'Uses AltGr for standard characters', 'Moves non-character keys (ANSI/ISO)', 'Changes shift pairs', 'Changes top row (ANSI/ISO)', and 'Uppercase on different key', as listed above.

	Overall	Overall	Overall	ANSI/ISO	ANSI/ISO	ANSI/ISO	Peers	Peers	Peers
Scoring model	English prose	Programming	Combined	English prose	Programming	Combined	English prose	Programming	Combined
KLA original	334 / 360	356 / 360	344 / 360	226 / 252	248 / 252	236 / 252	98 / 114	111 / 114	103 / 114
Den 1	336 / 360	358 / 360	346 / 360	228 / 252	250 / 252	238 / 252	99 / 114	112 / 114	105 / 114

English Word-based analysis

Home Keys Analysis

The Home Keys for this layout are shown with red dots in the image above, giving the following letters:

aehinost

Home key bigrams, trigrams, quadgrams and common words

Scores are based on which fingers are used for the top 20 bigrams, trigrams and quadgrams, and top 30 common words, with the scores weighted by strength of finger used, and frequency of occurance of the text.

Metric	Rank	Weighted score	Components handled and not handled
Bigrams	97	59.41 / 90.17	th he in an on en at ha to it is hi es er re nd ou ed or ng
Trigrams	111	20.61 / 39.68	the hat his tha ent ion ith thi tio and ing her ere for ter was you ver all wit
Quadgrams	100	5.62 / 15.88	that tion this thin atio ther with here ould ight have hich whic they ever from ough were hing ment
Common words	54	58.04 / 84.45	the to a in is that on he it as at his this an has not of and for was with by be from are I but have they or

Home Key letters	English words typeable	Longest word	Example
hiatenso	1685	17	anaesthetisations

Word count
Word length

Easyblock Analysis

The typical Easyblock Keys for this layout form factor are shown here:

Easyblock letters	English words typeable	Longest word	Example
wWfFcCmMiIaAtTeEnNsSbvV	5355	17	inattentivenesses

Word count
Word length

Homeblock Analysis

The typical Homeblock Keys for this layout form factor are shown here:

Homeblock letters	English words typeable	Longest word	Example
wWfFuUlLcCmMiIaAtTeEnNsSkKgGbBvVqQjJ	27571	20	unintelligiblenesses

Word count
Word length

Angle Mod Homeblock Analysis

The typical Angle Mod Homeblock Keys for this layout form factor are shown here:

Angle mod Homeblock letters	English words typeable	Longest word	Example
wWfFuUlLcCmMiIaAtTeEnNsSxXkKgGvVqQjJ	22836	19	gentlemanlikenesses

Word count
Word length

One-handed words Analysis

This looks at how many words can be typed with only left or right hand. We want these numbers to be low.
This metric was done "strictly" ... shifted or AltGr letters were only included if Shift or AltGr was on the same hand.
Note: we exclude the Dvorak one-handed layouts comparison, since clearly by design they can type every possible word with one hand.

Left hand letters	Left words	Longest left word	Left example	Right hand letters	Right words	Longest right word	Right example	Total
pPwWfFuUdDhHiIaAtTzZxXkKgGbB	1010	8	Abkhazia	lLcCmMyYeEnNsSoOrRvVqQjJ	2524	17	remorselessnesses	3534

Left hand		Right hand
Word count
Word length		Word length

SameFinger Bigrams

This is a weighted analysis of same-finger usage.

The probability that a letter will follow another given letter is used to evaluate layouts by which letters pairs are on the same fingers. We multiply this figure by the percentage frequency of the first letter, in English.
We add the probabilities in both directions, for example "er" and "re".

There are some exceptions: We only look at lower case, and if the second letter is on the same key as the first, we ignore that pair.

The idea is to see how much a finger has to fly around, and if the two letters are on the same key (as in the split-case layouts) then it doesn't have to fly between them.

The metric does not measure how far the finger has to fly, just that it has to. I'll look at adding distance, row jumps, inward rolls, outward rolls, to this metric if possible.

Finger	Letters	Score
Left pinky	'pdhzx'	10.9878
Left ring	'wik'	46.5689
Left middle	'fag'	50.4864
Left index	'utb'	79.952
Left thumb	'⍽'	0
Right thumb	''	0
Right index	'lev'	204.0391
Right middle	'cnq'	27.6408
Right ring	'msj'	11.8065
Right pinky	'yor'	191.2776
Both thumbs	''	0
Total		622.76

Word metric comparisons

Metric	Lowest	Lowest score	blick.en.ansi score	Highest	Highest score
Home keys	abcdef.en.ansi	3	1685	essie-2.en.matrix	174012
Easyblock	qwerty-rehomed.en.ansi	100	5355	essie-3-wip.en.ergolinear	189738
Homeblock	qwerty-typewriter.en.ansi	1562	27571	essie-3-wip.en.ergolinear	273265
Angle mod Homeblock	alphametric.en.ansi	1354	22836	essie-3-wip.en.ergolinear	273265
Left hand words	qgmlwy.en.ergolinear	34	1010	tnwmlc.en.ansi	22157
Right hand words	essie-3.en.ergolinear	26	2524	reverse-qwerty.en.ansi	14771
Total single handed	essie-3.en.ergolinear	158	3534	tnwmlc.en.ansi	22301
Average single handed	essie-3.en.ergolinear	79	1767	tnwmlc.en.ansi	11150.5
Same finger bigrams	seelpy-1.en.ergolinear	8.01	622.76	mcgunnigle-peoples.en.ansi	1757.11

Fraser Street analysis

"Fraser Street" (thanks Shai) is a specially-crafted text in which most of the words are typed with only the left hand, on the QWERTY layout.
It was designed to highlight how much better the Dvorak layout is at hand alternation.
We ignore spaces and punctuation.

Left letters	Right letters	Needs both hands
pPwWfFuUdDhHiIaAtTzZxXkKgGbB	lLcCmMyYeEnNsSoOrRvVqQjJ

Fraser Street was in West Everett. Westward of Fraser Street was the great vast sea. Awed, we gazed seawards, attracted by crested waves which raced and ebbed. Children were scattered on the beach edged and strewed with seaweed. They waded in water as the sea surged in and retreated. They bagged crabs as eagerly as beavers saw trees. Brave crews, seafarers in fact, steered sea craft far away. The site of Fraser Street was not overrated.

Few vegetated in Fraser Street. Nobody wasted time abed. "Acts test the breed," was ever the sacred adage. Varied crafts and trades were represented. There was a caterer, a barber, a weaver, a cabaret, and a garage. Attracted, we started to see several scenes. We were greeted as friends.

The barber catered to a varied trade, representing diverse careers and different creeds. Saturday drew the best crowd. All were seated, relaxed, aware of fewer cares, less fagged. There we saw a few starved tattered beggars who bragged of "bracers" served at cafes after a wee meal of beef stew and cabbage. A better fare was reserved for those reared on earth's greater awards.

Fraser Street summary

Left letters typed	416
Right letters typed	465
Needs both hands	0
Total letters typed	881
Switches	468
Hand balance	47.22 : 0.00 : 52.78

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	Easyblock words	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5
Week 3	Homeblock words	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5
Week 4	Common / tricky words	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5
Week 5	Pangrams	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5
Week 6	So you think you can type?	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5
Week 7	Extra practice 1: Common words in text	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5
Week 8	Extra practice 2: Lorem ipsum and friends	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5
Week 9	Extra practice 3: Underused words	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5