Here you go, I analysed the layouts. For comparison I put some other layouts in as well.
Method:
- I used the AdnW-algorithm, trigram variety (meaning that AdnW will score very high... AdnW make Dvorak-like assumptions, favoring alternation over rolls and punishing too much 'adjacent' keys. So, if you don't "buy"those assumptions, feel free to reject the metrics).
- on an
english-only text-only corpus- Total score is what it says..... lower is better
- Distance: the ranking of the keys. Keys in easy location = better (lower) score. (There are trade-offs however. For instance, you might end up with too many frequent letters on the left hand). You may or may not like AdnW's assumptions of what a nice location is, but imho in all analysers these are more or less the same: home row is good, top / bottom rows less good, qwerty YB are the worst locations/ highest distance
- Same Finger: the precentage of lettercombinations that are typed with the same finger. Lower is better
- Alternation: the precentage of lettercombinations that are typed with two hands. Higher is better
- In/Outwards: the ratio of inward to outward movements (or rolls). 1.000 means there are exactly as many inward as outward rolls. > 1 means there are more inward rolls. Higher is better
- AdjacentKey: the percentage of lettercombinations that are typed with letters that are neighbours. Such as (qwerty) AS or KJ or OP. Important: AdnW (and Dvorak) think adjacent keys are bad, especially on linky/ring; Colemak thinks they are good (Colemak call this rolls. AdnW thinks a ring-> index rolls is good but a ring->middle finger roll is bad). This influences the total score, so please look at the detailed numbers as well and draw you own conclusions)
- left, right: the percentage of strokes with each hand. 50/50 is best.
- top, mid, bot: the percentage of strokes on the top row, mid row (home) and bottom row.
- also you see the percentage of each finger (left pinky, left ring, left mid, left index, right index, right mid, right ring, right pinky; sum = 100%; thumbs are not part of this percentage)
- ignore the symbols ßäöü. They are only there because I still haven't modified the German source code of the analyser, I have to put those in or the program will complain. They are not part of the analysis.
- the program only analyses the alpha's and ,. Other signs, such as []/? etc. are not analysed.
Here we go.
OneProd 301.458 TotalScore 195.616 Distance left right
1.322 SameFinger 20.992 Shift-SameFinger top 12.7 10.1
bldwg j.oyqß 71.206 Alternation 23.896 Shift-Alternation mid 30.3 33.9
nrstm uaeihä 3.583 In/outward 6.735 IndirKollision bot 9.1 3.9
pzcfv x,öük 10.791 Adjacent 9.021 Shift-Adjacent sum 52.1 47.9
11.2 9.9 13.3 17.7 --.- --.- 13.1 18.7 8.7 7.4 Sh 1.0 1.8
OneProd2 300.875 TotalScore 196.320 Distance left right
1.322 SameFinger 20.992 Shift-SameFinger top 12.7 11.5
bldwg juoyqß 71.206 Alternation 23.896 Shift-Alternation mid 30.3 32.5
nrstm .aeihä 3.583 In/outward 6.735 IndirKollision bot 9.1 3.9
pzcfv x,öük 10.791 Adjacent 9.021 Shift-Adjacent sum 52.1 47.9
11.2 9.9 13.3 17.7 --.- --.- 13.1 18.7 8.7 7.4 Sh 1.0 1.8
Bal12 285.587 TotalScore 186.903 Distance left right
1.057 SameFinger 21.163 Shift-SameFinger top 12.7 13.5
byouß kdclpq 70.387 Alternation 24.549 Shift-Alternation mid 32.5 31.2
hiea, mtsrnv 3.408 In/outward 7.038 IndirKollision bot 3.2 6.9
xöü.ä wgfjz 10.553 Adjacent 9.638 Shift-Adjacent sum 48.4 51.6
8.2 8.7 18.7 12.8 --.- --.- 19.2 11.6 10.0 10.9 Sh 1.8 1.0
Bal12_2 283.075 TotalScore 187.900 Distance left right
1.106 SameFinger 20.870 Shift-SameFinger top 12.7 13.7
byouß vcdlpq 70.387 Alternation 24.549 Shift-Alternation mid 32.5 30.6
hiea, fstrnk 2.747 In/outward 6.754 IndirKollision bot 3.2 7.3
xöü.ä wgmjz 10.829 Adjacent 9.638 Shift-Adjacent sum 48.4 51.6
8.2 8.7 18.7 12.8 --.- --.- 16.2 14.8 10.0 10.7 Sh 1.8 1.0
QWERTY 576.383 TotalScore 338.719 Distance left right
6.804 SameFinger 6.299 Shift-SameFinger top 28.0 20.2
qwert yuiopü 52.755 Alternation 41.474 Shift-Alternation mid 22.1 9.5
asdfg hjklöä 1.080 In/outward 11.226 IndirKollision bot 6.8 13.3
zxcvb nm,.ß 21.628 Adjacent 12.586 Shift-Adjacent sum 56.9 43.1
9.1 8.4 18.5 20.9 --.- --.- 18.4 8.9 12.1 3.6 Sh 1.1 1.7
Colemak 307.722 TotalScore 186.227 Distance left right
1.348 SameFinger 14.374 Shift-SameFinger top 7.8 8.2
qwfpg jluyäö 58.143 Alternation 39.607 Shift-Alternation mid 32.7 37.3
arstd hneioü 1.041 In/outward 8.772 IndirKollision bot 6.8 7.3
zxcvb km,.ß 17.492 Adjacent 9.009 Shift-Adjacent sum 47.2 52.8
9.1 7.8 11.6 18.7 --.- --.- 18.8 15.4 9.8 8.7 Sh 1.1 1.7
Dvorak 321.724 TotalScore 201.888 Distance left right
2.668 SameFinger 13.145 Shift-SameFinger top 6.0 17.0
ä,.py fgcrlq 70.679 Alternation 33.265 Shift-Alternation mid 36.1 30.5
aoeui dhtnsß 1.606 In/outward 6.623 IndirKollision bot 2.9 7.6
öüjkx bmwvz 11.100 Adjacent 20.835 Shift-Adjacent sum 45.0 55.0
9.7 8.2 13.0 14.1 --.- --.- 16.5 13.3 13.7 11.5 Sh 1.8 0.9
Carpalx 381.171 TotalScore 192.445 Distance left right
5.031 SameFinger 14.177 Shift-SameFinger top 10.1 6.6
qgmlw byuvßö 67.448 HAlternation 29.065 Shift-Alternation mid 31.6 38.3
dstnr iaeohä 1.084 In/outward 11.224 IndirKollision bot 6.7 6.7
zxcfj kp,.ü 12.358 Adjacent 14.363 Shift-Adjacent sum 48.4 51.6
5.2 8.6 14.1 20.6 --.- --.- 20.6 15.4 9.2 6.4 Sh 1.2 1.6
The Balance12 versions perform very good - although Oneproducts aren't bad either. A weakness of Balance12(_2) is, however, a heavy use of the left or right pinky, since the much used letter N is put there.
The Balance12 layouts resemble AdnW. Therefore, I will make you crazy and give you two more alternatives
Stock AdnW (optimized for 50/50 English/German) and DvorMax, an AdnW version I calculated, optimized for for 100% English. PS, I forgot to copy the distribution over fingers for DvorMax, but believe me, it is fine just like AdnW.
AdnW 281.047 Total score 184.270 Distance left right
1.020 Same Finger 17.224 Shift-Same Finger tp 4.5 12.0
kuü.ä vgcljf 71.389 Alternation 21.757 Shift-Alternation mi 38.3 31.6
hieao dtrnsß 2.136 In/Outwards 7.795 Indir SameHand bm 5.0 8.6
xyö,q bpwmz 8.122 AdjacentKey 20.009 Shift-AdjacentKey sum47.8 52.2
7.6 11.2 11.7 17.4 --.- --.- 18.7 10.7 13.1 9.7 Sh 1.9 0.9
DvorMax 261.172 Total score 183.941 Distance left right
0.882 SameFinger 7.423 Shift-Samefingfer ob 6.1 13.1
kyu.ö zlmdpv 65.718 Alternation 28.070 Shift-Alternation mi 39.5 31.4
rieao hnstcw 1.016 In/Outward 6.177 IndirKollision un 3.3 6.5
xßü,ä jqfgb 8.665 AdjacentKey 9.226 Shift-AdjacentKey sum 49.0 51.0
Conclusions: all these layouts are fine - minus Qwerty of course
OneProduct's layouts and the Balance12 layouts are fine. I further gave you 2 alternatives, stock (English/German) AdnW and a pure English AdnW-version. Which does of course better than the German/English optimized one, because optimizing for 1 language will have less compromises than optimizing for a mix of languages.
Comparing DvorMax and Balance12_2, DvorMax does better on
- SameFinger (0.88 % !!),
- Distance (you can see this partly in the very high home row use: 39.5 + 31.4 = 70.4 % of all letters typed are on the home row - Balance12 has many letters on the top row, which it sees as good. This is an assumption ),
- Adjacent Keys
- Balance over hands
- Balance over fingers (I'll post the metrics later)
Balance12 has a better in/outward ratio and an even higher alternation.
All in all you are looking at some very nice layouts which are all (much) better then Qwerty. The agony of choice....
Try some of them out and let your hands decide which layout they like best. PS, put whatever symbols you want on ßäöü (e.g. /:">)