'Rhythmic' computer keyboard layout

Canonical name	rhythmic.en.ansi
Language	English
Form factor	Slab : ANSI
'Author'	Maxwell (1953), slightly modded to ANSI 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)	Yes
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	238	72.76
KLA original Programming	258	57.73
Den 1 English prose	238	65.29
Den 1 Programming	286	50.63
Homekeys words	298	0.52
Homeblock words	35	20.84
Angle mod Homeblock words	40	18.41
Easyblock words	157	3.60
One-handed words	182	11.51
Efficiency	290	69.12
Homekeys bigrams	171	54.96
Homekeys trigrams	134	49.19
Homekeys quadgrams	159	20.53
Homekeys common words	152	53.36
Samefinger bigrams	237	2.72
Overall ranking	217	40.54

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	238 / 360	258 / 360	245 / 360	136 / 252	152 / 252	142 / 252	15 / 28	18 / 28	16 / 28
Den 1	238 / 360	286 / 360	248 / 360	133 / 252	178 / 252	143 / 252	14 / 28	19 / 28	15 / 28

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:

aehnstwy

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	171	49.56 / 90.17	th he an en at ha es in er re nd on ou ed to or it is hi ng
Trigrams	134	19.52 / 39.68	the hat tha ent was and ing her his ere for ion ter you ith ver all wit thi tio
Quadgrams	159	3.26 / 15.88	that they ther with tion here ould ight have hich whic this thin atio ever from ough were hing ment
Common words	152	45.06 / 84.45	the a that was he as at an has they of and to in is for on with it his by be from are this I but have not or

Home Key letters	English words typeable	Longest word	Example
ysaehtnw	907	12	synaestheses

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
bBoOcCpPsaAeEhHtTnNkKm	6829	15	toothsomenesses

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
bBoOiIrRcCpPsSaAeEhHtTnNxXkKmMgGjJ	56948	24	microspectrophotometries

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
bBoOiIrRcCpPsSaAeEhHtTnNxXmMgGjJ	50298	24	microspectrophotometries

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
bBoOiIqQyYsSaAeEuUxXkKzZ	1206	12	squeezeboxes	fFrRcCpPdDhHtTnNwWlLmMgGjJvV	167	5	crwth	1373

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	'y'	0
Left ring	'bs'	3.5116
Left middle	'oax'	9.0977
Left index	'iqeukz'	129.3788
Left thumb	'⍽'	0
Right thumb	''	0
Right index	'frdhlm'	121.026
Right middle	'ctg'	30.5949
Right ring	'pnj'	1.2181
Right pinky	'wv'	0
Both thumbs	''	0
Total		294.83

Word metric comparisons

Metric	Lowest	Lowest score	rhythmic.en.ansi score	Highest	Highest score
Home keys	abcdef.en.ansi	3	907	essie-2.en.matrix	174012
Easyblock	qwerty-rehomed.en.ansi	100	6829	essie-3-wip.en.ergolinear	189738
Homeblock	qwerty-typewriter.en.ansi	1562	56948	essie-3-wip.en.ergolinear	273265
Angle mod Homeblock	alphametric.en.ansi	1354	50298	essie-3-wip.en.ergolinear	273265
Left hand words	qgmlwy.en.ergolinear	34	1206	tnwmlc.en.ansi	22157
Right hand words	essie-3.en.ergolinear	26	167	reverse-qwerty.en.ansi	14771
Total single handed	essie-3.en.ergolinear	158	1373	tnwmlc.en.ansi	22301
Average single handed	essie-3.en.ergolinear	79	686.5	tnwmlc.en.ansi	11150.5
Same finger bigrams	seelpy-1.en.ergolinear	8.01	294.83	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
bBoOiIqQyYsSaAeEuUxXkKzZ	fFrRcCpPdDhHtTnNwWlLmMgGjJvV

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	448
Right letters typed	433
Needs both hands	0
Total letters typed	881
Switches	560
Hand balance	50.85 : 0.00 : 49.15

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