Everything You Need to Know About Dvorak

Dr. August Dvorak and his brother-in-law Dr. William Dealey patented the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard in 1936 after years of studying English letter frequencies, common bigrams, and finger mechanics. Their goal was to create a layout that maximized hand alternation, kept the most-used keys on the home row, and minimized finger travel. The layout is documented at dvorak-keyboard.com.

Dvorak has been a standard option in every major operating system since the 1990s. Despite decades of advocacy and several studies, it never displaced QWERTY as the default — a fact often cited in discussions about path dependence and technology lock-in. However, the layout maintains a loyal following and remains the second most popular keyboard layout worldwide.

Dvorak's design rests on three core principles. First, the home row should contain the most frequently used letters: A, O, E, U, I on the left and D, H, T, N, S on the right. This places roughly 70% of English typing on the home row alone. Second, the layout maximizes hand alternation — consecutive letters in a word tend to switch between left and right hands, creating a rhythmic typing pattern. Third, the right hand (dominant for most people) handles slightly more work.

The trade-off for this efficiency is that nearly every key changes position from QWERTY. The common shortcuts Ctrl+Z, X, C, V all move to inconvenient locations, which is a frequent complaint from switchers who rely on those shortcuts. The bottom row contains mostly low-frequency letters, so once the home and top rows are learned, the remaining keys are encountered less often.

Dvorak rewards typists who are willing to invest in a full retraining cycle and who primarily type prose in English. The hand-alternation rhythm that Dvorak produces is genuinely different from QWERTY — many Dvorak typists describe it as more comfortable and flowing, especially during sustained writing sessions.

Dvorak has a steeper initial learning curve than Colemak because nearly every key changes position. Most learners reach 20–30 WPM in the first two weeks and recover their previous QWERTY speed in 2–4 months. The transition period can be frustrating, especially for typists who need to maintain productivity during the switch.

A structured curriculum makes a significant difference. SureTyping's lesson paths start with the Dvorak home row — which alone covers the majority of English text — then progressively add the top and bottom rows. This approach lets you build real typing ability early because Dvorak's home-row coverage is so high. The AI trainer identifies which of the relocated keys are still causing hesitation and generates targeted practice.

The home-row stage is especially rewarding on Dvorak because you can type a large proportion of real words using only home-row keys (the vowel-consonant split makes this possible). Work through the full curriculum from home row to full keyboard, and lean on custom training once you have completed the guided lessons.

SureTyping tracks your Dvorak stats separately from any other layout, so you can maintain a QWERTY practice path simultaneously if you are transitioning gradually. Per-key accuracy data helps you focus daily practice on the exact positions that need the most work.