Keyboard Comparison Applet

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This applet compares the standard QWERTY keyboard layout with 7 other layouts.  Type in or cut and paste some text and hit the calculate button.

The applet was written by Jon A. Maxwell, who kindly released the source to the world.  I have modified it to be able to compare 8 layouts at once. 
Updated source code here.



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Sample texts

Most common words
Top 500 words

What the labels mean



Distance The approximate distance in meters that it takes to type in the text. Normal typing keys are assumed to be 1.8cm square (including gap between keys). Distance is calculated with the following algorithm:
for each key pressed
if previous key pressed with same finger
add distance from previous key to this key
else
add distance from previous key back to the home row
add distance from home row to key
So for "look" the distance is l->l + l->o + o->o + o->l + k->k using qwerty. The distance it takes to actually depress a key is not included. The distance from the last key back to the home row is not included.


Same hand The percent of keys that use the same hand to type as the previous key did. The thumb and repeated keys are not counted toward same hand, but the percent is of the total keys. For example, in "cool" (qwerty) only the l counts toward same hand.


Same finger The percent of keys that use the same finger to type as the previous key did. The thumb and repeated keys are not counted toward same finger, but the percent is of the total keys.


Total keys shows the number of keys processed. Characters not appearing on the corresponding keyboard are not processed.


Finger This lists the percent of keys pressed with each finger (in order). Percents are of fingers only and do not include the thumb/spacebar.


Number row,
Top row,
Home row,
Bottom row
The percent of key presses on the four rows (spacebar not included).

Bugs

Distance field only displays up to 9999 meters.
Some browsers limit the text length.