Touch typing

Touch typing (also called blind typing, or touch keyboarding) is a style of typing. Although the phrase refers to typing without using the sense of sight to find the keys—specifically, a touch typist will know their location on the keyboard through muscle memory—the term is often used to refer to a specific form of touch typing that involves placing the eight fingers in a horizontal row along the middle of the keyboard (the home row) and having them reach for specific other keys. (Under this usage, typists who do not look at the keyboard but do not use home row either are referred to as hybrid typists.) Both two-handed touch typing and one-handed touch typing are possible.

Frank E. McGurrin, a court stenographer from Salt Lake City, Utah who taught typing classes, reportedly invented home row touch typing in 1888.

On a standard QWERTY keyboard for English speakers the home row keys are: "ASDF" for the left hand and "JKL;" for the right hand. Most modern computer keyboards have a raised dot or bar on the home keys for the index fingers to help touch typists maintain and rediscover the correct positioning of the fingers on the keyboard keys.

History

Original layouts for the first few mechanical typewriters were in alphabetical order (ABCDE etc.) Changes were made, mostly responding to suggestions from telegraphists who were among the first users. Common letters were moved towards the center and into the upper row. The view that the layout was intentionally redesigned to slow down the operator, to prevent jamming the mechanism, is widespread but not correct.

The calculations for keyboard layout were based on the language being typed and this meant different keyboard layouts would be needed for each language.