Is touch typing faster than hunt and peck?

Often, but not by a fixed margin. Hunt and peck means pressing each key individually, finding each one by sight, and using only one or two fingers, typically the index fingers ¹. Touch typing means each finger has its own keys, and you can keep your eyes on the text. The studies agree that touch typists look at the keyboard far less. They disagree on how much faster they type. The guide to touch typing covers the method in full.

Touch typists were faster in one study, but not by much

The Vanderbilt study compared standard (touch) typists with nonstandard typists. The gap between their average speeds was about 14 words per minute. That figure is our calculation from the two averages in the study ². Its title sums up the result: touch typists are faster, but not by much.

The Aalto University study found a much smaller gap. Typists without training averaged about 1.1 words per minute more than touch typists while copying text ³. The authors found that self-taught typists reached speeds comparable with touch typists, even when they used fewer fingers ⁴.

Put side by side, the two studies do not give one answer. The difference depends on which groups were compared and on the task. The Aalto study used a copying task, so it does not measure how fast people write their own words.

Typists without training spend far more time looking at the keys

Speed is not the clearest difference. Gaze is. In the Aalto study, typists without training spent about 40 percent of their time looking at the keyboard ⁵, against about 20 percent for touch typists ⁶. That is about twice the share of time, so untrained typists spend about twice as much of their typing time looking down ⁷.

An eye-tracking benchmark shows the pattern in each keystroke. Touch typists kept their gaze on the line of text on the screen, while non-touch typists looked down at the keys just before each press ⁸. Time spent looking down is time not spent checking the text.

Nonstandard typists came close to touch typists when they could see the keys

The Vanderbilt researchers concluded that nonstandard typists could type almost as quickly and accurately as touch typists, provided they could see the keyboard ⁹. That finding is about a condition, not a recommendation to look down. It suggests the skill that touch typing gives you is the ability to type without looking, which frees your attention for the text.

Some typists sit between the two methods. A study of 30 typists of varying styles and expertise found minimal difference in typing speed between touch typists and self-taught hybrid typists ¹⁰. That study is small, and we found it only in a second-hand summary, so treat it as one data point rather than a settled result.

It depends: the answer changes with the task, the device and your goal

• Copying versus composing. The Aalto study used a transcription task, where the source text is in front of the typist. Writing your own words involves thinking, which can limit speed for either method.
• Short versus long use. The studies are lab tests lasting minutes. We found no study that compares the two methods over months of daily work.
• Phones. The studies above are about physical keyboards. The finger map applies less directly on a phone, and these studies do not test phone typing.
• Accuracy. Speed is only half the measure. Check your error rate whichever method you use, since a fast score with many errors is not progress.

If you already type quickly with a few fingers and rarely look at the keys, the studies suggest you may gain little speed by switching. If you look at the keys most of the time, the gaze difference is the stronger case for learning.

What to do: measure your own speed before you switch

1. Take a one-minute test on the kind of text you normally type. Note your words per minute and typing accuracy.
2. Repeat the test after a few weeks of home-row practice, using the same test and the same counting rule each time.
3. Compare the two results, and notice how often you look down. If your speed is similar and you still look at the keys, the switch is about comfort and attention rather than speed.
4. Plan for a dip. Our question on how long touch typing takes explains why speed can fall before it rises, and sets out the timeline.

For the finger map you would learn, read the question on touch typing finger placement. Whether the switch is worth the time overall is covered in is touch typing worth learning.