Keyboard layouts compared: QWERTY, Dvorak, Colemak, AZERTY and QWERTZ

QWERTY is the standard layout for English, named after the first six letters of its top row. Dvorak, from 1936, moves the vowels and the most common consonants to the home row, where your fingers rest. Colemak, from 2006, moves 17 keys and leaves Z, X, C and V, the keys of the common shortcuts, where they are. AZERTY and QWERTZ are the French and German versions of QWERTY. A layout is a setting in your system, so you can try any of them on the keyboard you have.

QWERTY 35% of letters on the home row

Dvorak 71% of letters on the home row

Colemak 74% of letters on the home row

Each layout drawn on a US keyboard. The home row is outlined; keys that differ from QWERTY are highlighted. The share of letters is counted from the 4,529 letters of the everyday passages in our typing test.

QWERTY, Dvorak and Colemak side by side
Layout	Made	Letters on the home row	Keys moved from QWERTY	Z, X, C and V
QWERTY	1870s, for Christopher Latham Sholes' typewriters	35%	0	Where they are on QWERTY
Dvorak	1936, by August Dvorak and William Dealey	71%	33	Moved
Colemak	2006, by Shai Coleman	74%	17	Where they are on QWERTY

Is Dvorak or Colemak faster?

Whether either is faster is disputed. Dvorak's own studies favoured his layout; a 1956 study for the US government found that retraining experienced typists did not pay for itself, and later reviews found the evidence thin either way. What the drawing shows is clearer: both keep your fingers on the home row far more than QWERTY, and many people who switch say typing feels easier on the hands.

The cost is the switch itself. Expect to type much slower for the first weeks while the new positions settle, and to lose some QWERTY speed if you stop using it. Colemak is the gentler change, because most keys and the shortcuts stay put; Dvorak moves almost everything. Colemak also turns Caps Lock into a second Backspace.

AZERTY and QWERTZ

France and Belgium type on AZERTY, which swaps A with Q and Z with W, moves M to the home row and puts accented letters on the number row, so the digits need Shift. Germany, Austria, Switzerland and much of Central Europe type on QWERTZ, which swaps Y and Z and adds Ü, Ö, Ä and ß. Both are mainly sold on the ISO keyboard shape, with its extra key beside the left Shift.

AZERTY France and Belgium

QWERTZ Germany, Austria, Switzerland

French AZERTY and German QWERTZ as printed on those countries' keyboards, with the letter keys that differ from US QWERTY highlighted.

Switching layouts

Windows includes Dvorak, AZERTY and QWERTZ, and Colemak from Windows 11 version 24H2; add one in the keyboard or language settings. On older versions, Colemak is installed from the layout's own website.
macOS includes Dvorak, Colemak, AZERTY and QWERTZ among its input sources in Keyboard settings.
Linux desktops include all of them in their keyboard settings.
Phones and tablets offer them as on-screen and hardware keyboard options.
The letters printed on your keys will no longer match what you type. Many people learn without looking anyway; stickers or new keycaps are optional.

Games after a switch

Some games bind keys by their position, so W, A, S and D stay under your fingers whatever the layout; others bind by the letter, so movement lands on different keys. Check your game's key bindings after switching, and keep a QWERTY layout one shortcut away if a game insists on it.

Try a layout here

The typing test reads the characters your layout types, so it measures your speed on any of them. The keyboard test draws your keys with the letters your layout types, which is a quick way to check a switch worked. Our touch-typing lessons teach QWERTY.

Typing test

The layout is not the shape of the keyboard: see ANSI vs ISO keyboards.