Touch Typing Finger Chart: Which Finger Types Which Key?

In touch typing every key belongs to one finger: the left pinky types Q, A, Z and 1, the right index finger H, J, N, M, 6 and 7, the thumbs the space bar. The finger keyboard map shows this placement for the QWERTY keyboard as color zones, with both hands resting on the home row. Print it, keep it next to the keyboard, and every time you are unsure about a key your eyes go to the sheet instead of the keys.

What is on the sheet

• The full QWERTY keyboard with one color per finger: eight fingers, eight colors, grey for the thumbs
• The home position A S D F and J K L ; marked, with the bumps on F and J highlighted
• Two hands with colored fingertips so the assignment sinks in without thinking
• Three rules that make the difference: wrists float, eyes on the screen, accuracy before speed

Why finger placement matters this much

Fast typists differ from slow ones not by talent but by fixed finger-to-key assignment, little hand movement and eyes on the screen. That is the finding of the Aalto University study "How We Type", which tracked hand movements of typists at every level. Someone typing with six fingers moves the whole hand across the keyboard and has to look. Someone with all ten fingers assigned reaches every key from the home row without shifting the hand. The same group's study of 136 million keystrokes adds the number: fast typists use 8.4 fingers on average, slow ones 5.3.

How to use the map

1. Print it, in color if you can, and put it to the right of your keyboard.
2. Fingers on the home row: left hand on A S D F, right hand on J K L ;. The index fingers feel the bumps.
3. For every key you would search for, look at the map, never at the keyboard. After the keystroke the finger returns to the home row.
4. After one or two weeks you only need the map for numbers and symbols. Then it goes in the drawer.

The map is not a course, it is the map for one. The lessons in the touch typing course walk through the same layout row by row, with real words instead of letter salad.

Pro tip

Don't lay the map flat, lean it against the monitor. Your eyes then move up to the screen, not down to the keys, and that is exactly the habit you want to build. If you don't know which keys you already have, take the free placement test first: it checks every key and suggests where to start.

Next step

The map shows the layout, practice makes it stick. The guide to learning touch typing explains the method step by step, and the blank keyboard layout to fill in tells you after a week which keys really sit. Different keyboard? The keyboard layout tool shows the differences between QWERTY, QWERTZ and AZERTY.

Sources

• How We Type: Movement Strategies and Performance in Everyday Typing - Aalto University, CHI 2016: fixed finger-to-key assignment, preparing the next keystroke and little hand movement predict typing speed.
• Observations on Typing from 136 Million Keystrokes - Aalto University and University of Cambridge, CHI 2018: fast typists use 8.4 fingers on average, slow ones 5.3.
• Touch typing (Wikipedia) - home row and standard finger assignment on the QWERTY keyboard.