Why are keyboards in QWERTY order?

Keyboards are in QWERTY order because of how the first practical typewriters were built and sold. The layout was not designed to slow typists down ¹. Its inventor, Christopher Sholes, started with an alphabetical arrangement and kept rearranging the keys while he refined the machine ². The arrangement that survived became the basis of the Sholes and Glidden typewriter, which the sales company Remington brought to market. Historians still debate which factors shaped the letter order, but the sources we read reject the idea that the layout was designed to slow typing.

The first design was alphabetical, and Sholes kept changing it

Wikipedia dates the layout's creation to the early 1870s, when Christopher Sholes devised it ³. He kept refining the machine and rearranging its keys by trial and error. One documented step, in November 1868, changed the second half of the alphabet on his prototype, moving N to Z from right to left ².

The alphabetical arrangement was a starting point, not a standard. The keys were moved by trial and error, and the arrangement that remained was the one that stuck.

The layout followed the Sholes and Glidden machine, and Remington made it popular

The Sholes and Glidden typewriter was sold by E. Remington and Sons from 1874 ⁴. The layout that became QWERTY is based on that machine. It became popular with the success of the Remington No. 2 of 1878 ⁵. The sources we read do not show that anyone tested it against alternatives at the time.

Historians disagree on why the letters ended up where they did

Two explanations are common. One credits a study of letter pairs by Amos Densmore. Some historians reject that explanation. They attribute the letter groupings to feedback from American Morse telegraph operators ⁶. Both explanations concern how the letters were grouped, not a plan to make typing harder.

The documented parts are the alphabetical start, the 1874 sale and the 1878 success. The exact reasons for each letter's position are still argued over.

The layout was not designed to slow typists down

The belief that QWERTY was built to slow typists is common, but the historical account we read rejects it. Wikipedia's article on the layout says that, contrary to popular belief, QWERTY was not designed to slow the typist down ¹. The article adds that there is evidence that placing often-used letter pairs farther apart increases typing speed, because it encourages alternation between the hands ⁷.

That second point is a design principle and a claim from the same historical literature, not a timed test of typists. It explains the arrangement's intent. It does not show how fast any particular person can type on it.

For skilled typists, the layout may matter less

The Wikipedia article on the layout notes that some studies have suggested that, for a skilled typist, layout is largely irrelevant ⁸. The article does not name those studies, so treat this as a suggestion rather than a settled result. If it holds, switching layouts would matter little for someone who already types well.

What to do if you want to learn or change layouts

If you are learning to type, learn touch typing on the layout your keyboard uses. It is the standard on most machines, and the habits transfer to any other layout. The guide to touch typing explains how to build them, and is touch typing worth learning covers whether the effort pays off. The QWERTY glossary entry defines the layout in more detail.

If you are considering a switch for speed or comfort, the two main alternatives have their own questions. Is Dvorak faster than QWERTY covers the 1944 Navy test and the 1956 study. Is Colemak worth learning covers a layout with fewer changes from QWERTY. The full comparison of the three layouts is in the guide on keyboard layouts compared.