I’m personally not convinced by the theory of ortho.
It seems to stem from the idea that stagger is a hangover from the typewriter, in which it was required to make room for the mechanics, and that if we didn’t need to make them like that, we wouldn’t have.
Hence the keys should be lined up so your fingers just move up and down.
However I think this has 2 problems.
1) Most ortho keyboards have 5 columns for 4 fingers.
2) In stagger I use different fingers to strike the same letter dependent on what the preceding letter was, so that I almost never use the same finger twice in a row. You can’t do this in ortho if the 2 letters are in the same column, leading to more repeated strikes from the same finger.
Which I would expect is both slower and more straining.
But maybe my technique is weird, or haven’t given the ortho enough time.
(if you like ortho, good for you, not trying to spoil your fun, just musing)
Vertical stagger is where it's at. Shifting key height per column put keeping columns straight.
The comfortable level of stagger is individual. I just can't with ortho but I guess it's a good fit for some folks' hands. For most of us, middle finger rests comfortably in a higher spot than pinky does. Just look at your hand. You won't really know until you try yourself.
What theory of ortho? It's merely a rejection of stagger. Stagger represents our unwillingness to try new things even if the old thing makes no sense whatsoever.
OK, attitude aside now: for me it's partly about the ability to find keys by feel. With stagger you can learn touch typing one row above the home row and one row below the home row, no problem. But when you start trying to learn touch typing for the number row the difficulty jumps up significantly, because the nonsensical stagger makes it difficult to feel your way up the column.
So the benefits of ortho, according to me:
- It's easier to touch type once you eliminate the stagger, especially when deviating more than one row.
- Being better able to feel your way around helps with gaming, as does removing the stagger from WASD.
- Being straightened out allows you to map a numpad over the keys, to be invoked with a function key. I tried this with stagger and it was awful.
- I just dig the way it looks. It's like a lazy cartoon drawing of a keyboard.
It seems to stem from the idea that stagger is a hangover from the typewriter, in which it was required to make room for the mechanics, and that if we didn’t need to make them like that, we wouldn’t have.
Hence the keys should be lined up so your fingers just move up and down.
However I think this has 2 problems.
1) Most ortho keyboards have 5 columns for 4 fingers.
2) In stagger I use different fingers to strike the same letter dependent on what the preceding letter was, so that I almost never use the same finger twice in a row. You can’t do this in ortho if the 2 letters are in the same column, leading to more repeated strikes from the same finger.
Which I would expect is both slower and more straining.
But maybe my technique is weird, or haven’t given the ortho enough time.
(if you like ortho, good for you, not trying to spoil your fun, just musing)