Author Topic: keyboard for maximum typing speed  (Read 8160 times)

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Offline isthereanybodyoutthere

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keyboard for maximum typing speed
« on: Wed, 30 December 2015, 07:25:23 »
Hello keyboard people,
I registered here on this forum because I am looking for some advice.

I am looking for a new keyboard that can help me with office work. Imagine a guy sitting in his office, having to type all day every day. The faster he can type, the sooner he can go home.
That guy is me.

With my current cheap cherry keyboard I can type roughly 110-120 wpm on average.
What bothers me a little about my keyboard is that the buttons are a little bit too deep, meaning I have to push them down a long way before a click registers.
They are also not sensitive enough for my liking. I prefer to only lightly touch a button.

Clickity sounds don't bother me too much so it is not necessary to consider that.

I am looking for QUALITY, meaning that I don't really care how much it costs as long as it is not more expensive than a whole new computer.
I want it to be durable.

Typing is the only factor here. I don't care about fancy lights, usb ports, gaming speed, extra buttons or whatever. Just typing.

I looked at Maltron and Kinesis Advantage keyboards but I am not too sure if those are good. Can you give me some pointers on that please? I don't really have too much time to spend hours researching keyboards, so I hope with your knowledge you can help me out a little.

Thank you in advance for your help. :)


edit:
What else might be of interest to you:
I am from Germany and use the Neo 2.0 keyboard layout (which is amazing by the way).
I touchtype and don't care if the buttons have some other layouts on them though. I'd like them to be blank, if that's an option for the keyboards you are going to suggest.




« Last Edit: Wed, 30 December 2015, 07:27:19 by isthereanybodyoutthere »

Offline davkol

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Re: keyboard for maximum typing speed
« Reply #1 on: Wed, 30 December 2015, 11:21:17 »
Welcome to GH.

It depends what you type. Snippets, text expansion or speech recognition might be a much better choice than brute force typing.

Offline SamirD

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Re: keyboard for maximum typing speed
« Reply #2 on: Fri, 01 January 2016, 08:44:04 »
If you're just wanting to change the typing experience to something with less travel and less force, then Cherry reds with o-rings (to reduce travel) may be the quickest and easiest for you. 

A really good test is to see how much easier it is for you to type at the same speed or if your speed improves with the same effort.

Offline isthereanybodyoutthere

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Re: keyboard for maximum typing speed
« Reply #3 on: Sun, 03 January 2016, 04:11:46 »
Hey there, thank you for your input.

I did a little bit of research.
- not bottoming out keys should increase the typing speed, correct?
How can that be achieved with a keyboard? A friend of mine suggested topre 45 keys and the novatouch keyboard.

Are there any good alternatives to that? I prefer as little resistance as possible but still some resistance so I have a feedback.  I currently bottom the **** out of my keys so I guess there is a little learning curve required before I can actually benefit from that. I have no problem with that though.

@davkol
I have looked into that and I agree that it would help me a lot.
Do you know any good way to implement macros into ubuntu?

@SamirD
I am afraid that cherry reds have too little resistance and will force me to bottom out because I get no feedback in my fingers.
I don't know if those o-rings would add to that though.


Offline davkol

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Re: keyboard for maximum typing speed
« Reply #4 on: Sun, 03 January 2016, 05:08:19 »
ActionA and AutoKey are both quite user-friendly task-automation apps, and esp. the latter is quite suitable for text expansion.

If you edit text as well, and don't use Vim or Emacs or at least something like Atom/Sublime/…, definitely look into that, because macros, advanced navigation, multiple cursors or vi's dot command can save a lot of time/effort.

There's also Plover (steno).

Offline SamirD

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Re: keyboard for maximum typing speed
« Reply #5 on: Sun, 03 January 2016, 10:22:30 »
@SamirD
I am afraid that cherry reds have too little resistance and will force me to bottom out because I get no feedback in my fingers.
I don't know if those o-rings would add to that though.
Sounds like you need to try cherry blues or greens.  Blues are available almost everywhere and I think they will give you the tactile bump you're looking for.  And if those work great for you, you may want to try a buckling spring board although it may not work well for the work environment, and if so, Topre may be your go to board then.

There's a lot of options out there when you want a tactile bump--just got to try them all and see what your hands like best!


Offline pr0ximity

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Re: keyboard for maximum typing speed
« Reply #6 on: Sun, 03 January 2016, 10:27:17 »
Alps switches seem to have a higher actuation point than Cherry (as in, they register earlier). You might look into that if you're interested in reducing the necessary key travel but retaining the mechanical spring-under-stem feeling of Cherry switches.
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Offline pyro

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Re: keyboard for maximum typing speed
« Reply #7 on: Sun, 03 January 2016, 12:33:50 »
You'll get low keytravel and reasonably light activation from chiclet type keyboards, additionally to a comfortable low keyboard height. Buy an Apple keyboard if you need a numberpad or want wireless; a Thinkpad keyboard, if you don't mind ANSI/QWERTY and don't need a numpad or wireless, because the on-keyboard-mousebuttons and trackpoint are very convenient for low distance mouse movement (since you can keep your hands on the keyboard).

If you want chiclettype keyboards, the above are sure bets qualitywise. I previously even owned a cheaper chiclet keyboard from a different manufacturer, but it didn't compare. I've also owned a bunch of mechanicals (Poker with Cherry Blues and Cherry Reds, Compaq with Browns, TECK with Reds, Advantage with Reds), and am quiet content with my current chiclet keyboard (the above linked Thinkpad one, although, as I said, the Apple ones are just as nice).
« Last Edit: Sun, 03 January 2016, 12:39:46 by pyro »

Offline neverused

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Re: keyboard for maximum typing speed
« Reply #8 on: Sun, 03 January 2016, 15:07:57 »
I was gifted some gateron black switches with cherry mx black tops and stems, those things are the most sensitive keys I have ever used. I could barely set my fingers on the keys without them registering. For my style that didn't work, but perhaps others can give some feedback and work out if all gaterons have a high actuation point, these things are ridiculous.

Offline Zustiur

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Re: keyboard for maximum typing speed
« Reply #9 on: Wed, 06 January 2016, 09:18:50 »
If speed is the only real goal, I have to echo plover. Stenography is all about speed.

Offline jacobolus

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Re: keyboard for maximum typing speed
« Reply #10 on: Fri, 08 January 2016, 02:05:00 »
If you want a completely standard layout keyboard, then my fastest switches are Alps plate spring, as found on certain IBM luggables from about 1990. Getting those in a modern keyboard requires making your own custom PCB and doing a lot of really annoying desoldering though, so I can’t really recommend it.

Not quite as fast, but I also like clicky Alps switches, clicky SMK (e.g. “Monterey blue”) switches, clicky Hi-Tek “space invader” switches, and IBM Model F switches.

They’re not my personal cup of tea, but you might want to try 45g Topre switches.

> office work. Imagine a guy sitting in his office, having to type all day every day. The faster he can type, the sooner he can go home.

How much of a learning curve can you handle? Stenography keyboards will get you to 250+ wpm, but they take a lot of training and they’re mostly only useful for plain language sentences, rather than computer code or tables of numerical data.

If you’re doing tons of typing all day every day, and you don’t want a stenography board, I highly recommend worrying about comfort/ergonomics before speed, and keyboard shape before switch type. If you don’t like weird layouts like the Maltron or the keyboard.io, try something split like the Matias ErgoPro.
« Last Edit: Fri, 08 January 2016, 02:14:14 by jacobolus »

Offline bocahgundul

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Re: keyboard for maximum typing speed
« Reply #11 on: Fri, 08 January 2016, 02:07:35 »
My fastest switches are Alps plate spring, as found on certain IBM luggables from about 1990. Getting those in a modern keyboard requires making your own custom PCB and doing a lot of really annoying desoldering though, so I can’t really recommend it.

Not quite as fast, but I also like clicky Alps switches, clicky SMK (e.g. “Monterey blue”) switches, clicky Hi-Tek “space invader” switches, and IBM Model F switches.

They’re not my personal cup of tea, but you might want to try 45g Topre switches.
Jacob search for the alpetit 2 in youtube it uses the alps plate spring. The sound of that baby is really good. If you want one I think you mght pm the korean who made this Zefyr IIRC hes on GH too

Offline jacobolus

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Re: keyboard for maximum typing speed
« Reply #12 on: Fri, 08 January 2016, 02:09:29 »
« Last Edit: Fri, 08 January 2016, 02:11:43 by jacobolus »

Offline bocahgundul

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Re: keyboard for maximum typing speed
« Reply #13 on: Fri, 08 January 2016, 02:10:24 »

Offline vatin

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Re: keyboard for maximum typing speed
« Reply #14 on: Fri, 08 January 2016, 10:27:59 »
Maltron 3d dual hand or Kinesis Advantage
OLKB Planck V6

Offline Richard A Conrad

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Re: keyboard for maximum typing speed
« Reply #15 on: Fri, 27 August 2021, 02:07:20 »
The type of keyboard you need depends on your needs. For all alternative layouts, comfort is king. It is just that Colemak and Dvorak offer comfort in different ways. Although typing speed is a little faster for Colemak users than Qwerty users, it still isn't very much. It was more comfortable to use Colemak/Dvorak than Qwerty for a long time. The feeling of comfort, however, is not recorded.

Offline timw4mail

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Re: keyboard for maximum typing speed
« Reply #16 on: Fri, 27 August 2021, 09:06:35 »
It's difficult to recommend a specific switch, as which is fastest to type on depends on your typing style. Model M or Model F keyboards are probably a bit easier not to bottom out on, at least compared to the tactile cherry switches.
Buckling Springs IBM Model F AT, New Model F 77, Unicomp New Model M
Clicky iOne Scorpius M10, OCN-branded Ducky DK-9008-C, Blackmore Nocturna, Redragon Kumara K552-1, Qtronix Scorpius Keypad, Chicony KB-5181(Monterey)
Tactile Apple AEKII (Cream damped ALPS), Filco FKBN91M/JB (Japanese Tenkeyless), Cherry G84-5200, Cherry G84-4100LPAUS, Datalux Spacesaver(Cherry ML), Redragon Devarajas K556 RGB, Newmen GM711, Poker II (Cherry MX Clear), Logitech G910 Orion Spark, Logitech K840
Linear Lenovo Y (Gateron Red), Aluminum kiosk keyboard (Cherry MX Black)

Offline _rubik

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Re: keyboard for maximum typing speed
« Reply #17 on: Fri, 27 August 2021, 11:41:47 »
The type of keyboard you need depends on your needs. For all alternative layouts, comfort is king. It is just that Colemak and Dvorak offer comfort in different ways. Although typing speed is a little faster for Colemak users than Qwerty users, it still isn't very much. It was more comfortable to use Colemak/Dvorak than Qwerty for a long time. The feeling of comfort, however, is not recorded.

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