IN THIS ARTICLE
You have heard that Dvorak is "the faster layout" and now you want to know what it is and whether it is worth your time. The short answer is that it is a different arrangement of the same keys, you can try it for free tonight, and the gains are smaller than the legend suggests.
The layout facts below come from the Wikipedia entries on Dvorak and on keyboard layouts, plus Apple and Microsoft support pages. The Keychron Launcher details come from our help pages, checked October 28, 2026. We did not run typing tests for this article.
In short
- Dvorak is a letter arrangement patented in 1936. It puts the vowels and the most used consonants on the middle row, and your keyboard hardware stays exactly the same.
- About 70% of letter keystrokes land on the home row with Dvorak, against 32% on QWERTY, so your fingers travel less. Measured speed gains are small and still debated.
- You can switch in your system settings on any computer, or remap a Keychron keyboard in Launcher so the board itself types Dvorak. Keep QWERTY within reach for shortcuts and shared computers.
What the Dvorak keyboard layout is
A keyboard layout is the map that decides which letter each key produces. Dvorak is one such map, named after August Dvorak, an education professor who designed it with William Dealey in the early 1930s. They finished it in 1932 and the patent was granted in 1936, about sixty years after QWERTY had already become the standard on typewriters.
Think of it as rearranging a kitchen. QWERTY keeps the pans you use every day in a cupboard across the room. Dvorak moves them to the counter in front of you and pushes the fondue set to the back.
Two things stay the same. The keys, the switches and the keycaps on your desk do not change, because the arrangement lives in software. And the number row keeps its normal order on the modern version of the layout.
A schematic of the letter rows only, drawn for this article from the standard US Dvorak map. Key shapes, the number row and the modifiers are left out.
How Dvorak works
Dvorak studied how often each English letter appears and how the hand moves, then placed the keys by a few rules.
- The home row is the middle row where your fingers rest. Dvorak puts the five vowels on the left side of it (A O E U I) and five common consonants on the right (D H T N S).
- The least common letters, such as Q, J, K and X, go on the bottom row, which is the hardest row to reach.
- Vowels on one side and consonants on the other means many words alternate hands, one letter from the left, the next from the right.
- The right hand gets a little more of the work, because most people are right handed. On QWERTY about 56% of strokes fall on the left hand; on Dvorak about 56% fall on the right.
The result is the number everyone quotes. About 70% of letter keystrokes stay on the home row, with roughly 22% on the top row and 8% on the bottom. On QWERTY the home row handles only about 32%, and the top row takes 52%.
Only two letters keep their QWERTY spot, A and M. Everything else moves, which is why it feels like typing with mittens on at first.
What changes for you
Your fingers move less. The home-row share above is the whole point. Proponents say this makes long sessions feel easier. Keep the evidence in mind, though: one study found a 4% average speed increase for a small group, a 1950s government study, run by a researcher who had publicly opposed new layouts, found no speed or training benefit, and later experiments showed that trained typists reach similar speeds on several different layouts. Treat Dvorak as a bet on comfort that costs some learning time. The speed gains are small.
Your shortcuts move too. Copy and paste live under C and V on QWERTY, within easy reach of the left hand. On Dvorak those letters sit elsewhere, so the familiar Ctrl combinations feel awkward. macOS ships a layout called Dvorak - QWERTY ⌘ that switches back to QWERTY while you hold the Command key, so your shortcut habits survive.
Games vary. The WASD cluster that games use for movement is spread out on Dvorak. Some games detect the layout and adjust, some let you rebind, and a few with fixed keys are a pain. One option is to keep QWERTY as a second layout and switch before you play.
The bumps land under new letters. The two raised bars that guide your index fingers sit on F and J. On Dvorak those positions type U and H. For a touch typist the bumps matter more than the printed letters, so this is the detail that tells you where home is.
The printed letters stay wrong. Until you change keycaps or stop looking, the tops of the keys show QWERTY. Some treat that as a feature, since it forces them to learn by touch.
How to switch to Dvorak
Most major operating systems include Dvorak. You add it as a second layout and toggle between the two.
On a Mac: open System Settings, choose Keyboard, go to Text Input and click Edit. Click the plus button, search for Dvorak and add it. Apple offers four versions: Dvorak, Dvorak - Left-Handed, Dvorak - Right-Handed and the Dvorak - QWERTY ⌘ variant mentioned above. The Input menu in the menu bar switches layouts while you work, and Keyboard Viewer shows the map on screen. The steps are on Apple's Dvorak support page.
On Windows: open Settings, go to Time & language, then Language & region. Select the three dots next to your language, open Language options and click Add a keyboard. Choose United States-Dvorak. To switch, hold the Windows logo key and press the Spacebar, or use the language icon in the taskbar. Microsoft's guide walks through each screen.
Elsewhere: Linux desktops list Dvorak with the other keyboard layouts. iPhone has had a Dvorak keyboard since iOS 16, and Android's built-in touchscreen keyboard has supported it since version 4.1.
One warning before you commit. Some shared or locked-down computers will not let you change the layout, which is a good reason to keep QWERTY in your fingers for a while.
Where Keychron uses it
Keychron Launcher, our free web app, remaps individual keys or the entire keyboard on our QMK and ZMK boards, which is all you need to build a full Dvorak map key by key. Open it in the latest Chrome, Opera or Edge, connect the keyboard by cable or, on models that support it, the 2.4 GHz receiver, and click Keymap. You select a key on the virtual keyboard, then click the letter it should send from the Basic section, and repeat for each key that moves. You can also upload a keymap file for the whole board, and export yours once it is done. Launcher keeps separate default layers for Mac mode and Windows mode. You could remap one and leave the other on QWERTY, but switching modes also changes the modifier keys (Command and Option on Mac, Windows and Alt on Windows), so most people are better off remapping only the layer they use. The Keychron Q6 Max is one example, and if the printed letters distract you while you learn, its Fully Assembled Knob (Side-Printed Keycaps) version prints the legends on the front edge of each key instead of the top.
After a keyboard remap, the board sends the new letter for each key, so leave your computer on its normal layout. Use one method or the other, never both, or the letters will be translated twice. Our step-by-step remap guide shows the screens, and our keyboard layout explainer covers ANSI, ISO and sizes if those words are new to you.
Common questions
Is Dvorak faster than QWERTY?
Not by much, as far as anyone has measured. One study put the gain at about 4% for a small group, and a 1950s government study found no benefit in typing or training speed, though its author had opposed Dvorak's work, so the record is still debated. What Dvorak reliably changes is where your fingers spend their time: about 70% of letter strokes on the home row instead of 32%.
How long does it take to learn Dvorak?
There is no trustworthy average. In the 1950s study, typists needed 100 hours of training to get back to their old QWERTY speed. Your pace depends on how much you type each day and whether you can stay on Dvorak without switching back for work.
Do I need a special keyboard for Dvorak?
No. The arrangement lives in your operating system, so any keyboard works once you add the layout in settings. A keyboard that supports Keychron Launcher lets you move the map into the board itself instead, which is handy if you plug into several computers. Our QWERTY vs Dvorak article compares the two in more detail.
If you want to try Dvorak on the keyboard rather than in your settings, our programmable keyboards run QMK or ZMK firmware and can be remapped in Launcher on supported models.
References & Citations
- Dvorak patented in 1936 by August Dvorak and William Dealey; home-row, hand-share and row-share figures; why it did not replace QWERTY; the 1950s General Services Administration study; shortcuts, games and operating-system support. (Wikipedia, Dvorak keyboard layout)
- One study found a 4% average speed increase for a small group; the layout lives in software, and the tactile bumps on the home keys matter more to touch typists than the printed letters. (Wikipedia, Keyboard layout)
- Adding Dvorak on a Mac, the four Dvorak variants and the Dvorak - QWERTY ⌘ behaviour. (Apple Support, Use Dvorak keyboard layouts on Mac)
- Adding a keyboard layout in Windows and switching with the Windows logo key and the Spacebar. (Microsoft Support, Manage language and keyboard layout settings)
- Keychron Launcher remaps individual keys or the entire keyboard, accepts uploaded keymap files, and runs in Chrome, Opera or Edge over cable or the 2.4 GHz receiver. (Keychron, How to remap a key on Launcher)
- Launcher keeps two layers for Mac and two for Windows. (Keychron, How to use Launcher to program your keyboard)
- Q6 Max, K10 HE and K3 Max product pages: QMK firmware and Launcher remapping; the Q6 Max Side-Printed Keycaps option. (Keychron Q6 Max product page)