Fact · Typing and writing speed
Touch typists keep their gaze on the line of text on screen, while non-touch typists look down at the keys just before each press.
Checked against its source on October 16, 2026
In the source's own words
“touch typists stay focused on the line on the screen that the text is written on zeroing in on the characters typed just after a key press, while non-touch typists look straight down just before the key is pressed.”
The Eye of the Typer: A Benchmark and Analysis of Gaze Behavior during Typing, Alexandra Papoutsaki et al., Proceedings of the 2018 ACM Symposium on Eye Tracking Research and Applications (ETRA 2018), 2018, Results.
Open the original- What it measures
- This is the study's analysis of gaze timing around each key press, combined across participants.
- What it does not show
- Describes patterns in the average. Individual typists vary.