best keyboard for a fast typist？

[Shyfe]

I didn't really like the Cherry MX Blues that much, although it might've been because I was using a crappy brand.
I do really like the buckling springs, but I think the deep presses decrease my typing speed.

Also, I encounter an issue where I hit consecutive keys too rapidly and it doesn't register in the order I actually hit it. This occurs on buckling springs which is part of the reason I want to try something else.

I type on avg 170-175 WPM and can hit 190 WPM.

So, does anyone have a suggestion for a keyboard that will suit my typing needs? I'm willing to spend a few hundred. I'd prefer tenkeyless, but it's okay if it doesn't have that.

[jabar]

If your mad typing is for professional reasons, consider looking into a Topre board. You can go with a Realforce 87U which is TKL, with either uniform or variable weighting.

[kmiller8]

one with letters.

but seriously, get something like a laptop keyboard, the shorter throw distance will let you recover from your downpress faster leading to moar speeds.

[Grim Fandango]

My girlfriend is the fastest typist I know and the only one I know who can easily and consistently type 100+wpm.

While I muck about on my modded filcos and fancy mechanical switches, she happily types away at a pace that I will never attain... on her laptop's chiclet keys.... which she prefers to any of my keyboards. She also says that she does not like how far the keys travel on the keyboards I use.

[rootwyrm]

My girlfriend is the fastest typist I know and the only one I know who can easily and consistently type 100+wpm.

While I muck about on my modded filcos and fancy mechanical switches, she happily types away at a pace that I will never attain... on her laptop's chiclet keys.... which she prefers to any of my keyboards. She also says that she does not like how far the keys travel on the keyboards I use.

Er, you do realize I type an average 150WPM right? And I've posted a Youtube video of me at 135+ on MX Blues too, right? ;P

But the answer is: whatever keyboard is most comfortable for you. Period. No exceptions. I type at around 155-160 on an IBM Model M (70cN) and the same on MX Greens. That's average. In a good groove, I will easily break 200WPM on Model M's. So the claims of 'long throws are bad' and such are pure rubbish. Full stop. It's moronic in the extreme. You're talking about a time difference which is less than average human reaction times, the end. Shorter throws are not better, they are not faster, and so on.

So go poking around and figure out what keyboard you're most comfortable on. That's all there is to it.

[Grim Fandango]

My girlfriend is the fastest typist I know and the only one I know who can easily and consistently type 100+wpm.

While I muck about on my modded filcos and fancy mechanical switches, she happily types away at a pace that I will never attain... on her laptop's chiclet keys.... which she prefers to any of my keyboards. She also says that she does not like how far the keys travel on the keyboards I use.

Er, you do realize I type an average 150WPM right? And I've posted a Youtube video of me at 135+ on MX Blues too, right? ;P

But the answer is: whatever keyboard is most comfortable for you. Period. No exceptions. I type at around 155-160 on an IBM Model M (70cN) and the same on MX Greens. That's average. In a good groove, I will easily break 200WPM on Model M's. So the claims of 'long throws are bad' and such are pure rubbish. Full stop. It's moronic in the extreme. You're talking about a time difference which is less than average human reaction times, the end. Shorter throws are not better, they are not faster, and so on.

So go poking around and figure out what keyboard you're most comfortable on. That's all there is to it.

I meant she is the fastest typist of people I actually know in "real life". I also did not mean that key travel is bad. I merely pointed out something to illustrate the same point you are making: She prefers chiclet keys, generally regarded as awful by a lot of people, and she still is a more than decent typist on it. What you want to get would depend on you preferences rather than there being one universal "best keyboard for fast typists".

[Shyfe]

My girlfriend is the fastest typist I know and the only one I know who can easily and consistently type 100+wpm.

While I muck about on my modded filcos and fancy mechanical switches, she happily types away at a pace that I will never attain... on her laptop's chiclet keys.... which she prefers to any of my keyboards. She also says that she does not like how far the keys travel on the keyboards I use.

Er, you do realize I type an average 150WPM right? And I've posted a Youtube video of me at 135+ on MX Blues too, right? ;P

But the answer is: whatever keyboard is most comfortable for you. Period. No exceptions. I type at around 155-160 on an IBM Model M (70cN) and the same on MX Greens. That's average. In a good groove, I will easily break 200WPM on Model M's. So the claims of 'long throws are bad' and such are pure rubbish. Full stop. It's moronic in the extreme. You're talking about a time difference which is less than average human reaction times, the end. Shorter throws are not better, they are not faster, and so on.

So go poking around and figure out what keyboard you're most comfortable on. That's all there is to it.

This isn't a good argument. The time between consecutive keypresses is also faster than human reaction time. It's a consecutive motion that's already planned out after your initial reaction to start typing. Your reaction time a minimally relevant quantity at best. The matter of fact is, it will take me longer to press a key with longer keypress, which means overall it has to take me longer to type that same word, since I have to wait for one key to be pressed before I can press the next.

I agree with the others saying that laptop keyboard might just be the best due to their shortest keystrokes, since I was able to reach 199.4 WPM on a Macbook Pro keyboard. However, I also like the feel of mechanical keyboards, so I'm wondering if there's any compromises. I also want NKRO. I've also heard that Topre isn't really great for extremely fast typing.

[knotra]

My girlfriend is the fastest typist I know and the only one I know who can easily and consistently type 100+wpm.

While I muck about on my modded filcos and fancy mechanical switches, she happily types away at a pace that I will never attain... on her laptop's chiclet keys.... which she prefers to any of my keyboards. She also says that she does not like how far the keys travel on the keyboards I use.

Er, you do realize I type an average 150WPM right? And I've posted a Youtube video of me at 135+ on MX Blues too, right? ;P

But the answer is: whatever keyboard is most comfortable for you. Period. No exceptions. I type at around 155-160 on an IBM Model M (70cN) and the same on MX Greens. That's average. In a good groove, I will easily break 200WPM on Model M's. So the claims of 'long throws are bad' and such are pure rubbish. Full stop. It's moronic in the extreme. You're talking about a time difference which is less than average human reaction times, the end. Shorter throws are not better, they are not faster, and so on.

So go poking around and figure out what keyboard you're most comfortable on. That's all there is to it.

This isn't a good argument. The time between consecutive keypresses is also faster than human reaction time. It's a consecutive motion that's already planned out after your initial reaction to start typing. Your reaction time a minimally relevant quantity at best. The matter of fact is, it will take me longer to press a key with longer keypress, which means overall it has to take me longer to type that same word, since I have to wait for one key to be pressed before I can press the next.

I agree with the others saying that laptop keyboard might just be the best due to their shortest keystrokes, since I was able to reach 199.4 WPM on a Macbook Pro keyboard. However, I also like the feel of mechanical keyboards, so I'm wondering if there's any compromises. I also want NKRO. I've also heard that Topre isn't really great for extremely fast typing.

this isn't a good argument either. it isn't the travel distance that matters, it's the actuation point. generally a short travel distance means a shorter actuation point and so on but that doesn't mean all switches with short travel distance are "faster" than ones with longer travel distances.

"I have to wait for one key to be pressed before I can press the next." this depends on the keyboard/switches ability to double tap. if it can double tap easily then you aren't really waiting at all. If you are touch typing and not bottoming out every key as hard as you can when you type then the travel distance for each key is irrelevent.

The speed at which you type depends on preference. how comfortable you are with the keyboard and switches. I type at an average of about 175 WPM. With brown switches, I can get about 190, with blues I get about 160, but with the macbook pro laptop keyboard, I get around 120.

[Dimswitch]

To reply to OP's question:

IBM Model M2 (P#1395300)

Buckling spring but shorter keys and key travel. Just gotta find one that works. Or be handy with a soldering iron, apparently.

[bubchi89]

If we are going to show off our e-peens perhaps we should standardize the typing test? I like hi-games.net: http://hi-games.net/typing/. If you guys are all so amazing at typing I'd like to see you kick sean wrona off his throne.

I'm going to be sort of a **** and suggest that it's not the arguments about which keyboard is faster that are dumb... but the OP's question. Does anyone actually think that, with appropriate practice, the variance between using one standard keyboard over another one (with reasonable limits) would be more than say... five percent? I haven't seen any experience to the contrary (I type at pretty much exactly the same speeds on my laptop as I do on my brown switches). And who cares anyways? Let's give a _generous_ estimate and say that you can type 20% faster on some keyboard over another. That's the difference between 160 wpm and 128 wpm. What occupation do you have that requires you to make up that 32 wpm difference? Are you a court reporter? Then use a Stenograph Stenotype. If you have that sort of requirement (and only type English words) then that's the best option--compress your output into a smaller number of keystrokes. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shorthand. Or more generally: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_compression

[Jack Karneval]

I find it amazing that people can type 150+wpm without their wrists exploding  )

[Polymer]

This isn't a good argument. The time between consecutive keypresses is also faster than human reaction time. It's a consecutive motion that's already planned out after your initial reaction to start typing. Your reaction time a minimally relevant quantity at best. The matter of fact is, it will take me longer to press a key with longer keypress, which means overall it has to take me longer to type that same word, since I have to wait for one key to be pressed before I can press the next.

I agree with the others saying that laptop keyboard might just be the best due to their shortest keystrokes, since I was able to reach 199.4 WPM on a Macbook Pro keyboard. However, I also like the feel of mechanical keyboards, so I'm wondering if there's any compromises. I also want NKRO. I've also heard that Topre isn't really great for extremely fast typing.

I think this has already been bunked by someone that worked out the physics of it all. The keys rebound far quicker than what you can doubletap so the shorter travel isn't doing anything.

Also, on one hand you're saying the keys are already set in motion (there is no reaction time involved,I totally agree) so the travel would be non-consequential as well.  You're already setting them in motion, you're not waiting for anything. 

People will react differently to different keyboards....Some people even hate browns but will type fastest with them..not sure how that works out but it does...

[sth]

you're thinking about it too much. try a bunch of keyboards and use the one you like the most.

[sadbox]

Just use whatever is comfortable. The person who is (most likely) the world's fastest typist got there using some ****ty logitech rubber dome board. Practice and natural ability mean much MUCH more than subtle differences in the tool.

That being said... get whatever feels comfortable or makes you happy. If you enjoy typing more you'll probably practice more and end up typing faster.

[PointyFox]

Probably something with a short throw distance and distinct actuation point, like a scissor switch board.  You'll want a short throw distance since one of the limitations to typing at that speed is how fast you can move your fingers; and the shorter time they spend pressing the key down and recovering, the better.

[dorkvader]

ignoring all the arguments (good and bad) on what keyswitch may be objectively better for typing, the OP might consider a keyboard with shorter-throw switches like cherry ML. Though there aren't many boards with Ml and a good layout, it's something to try at least, and at least they can be had cheap.

So perhaps the title is a little misleading. you can be a fast typist on anything, but what keyboard will be the best for the OP's preferences?

What about a kinesis LF?

[Philister]

Practice and natural ability mean much MUCH more than subtle differences in the tool.

Well, here we have more clear proof that typing is really no different from having sex.  )

[Sorry, couldn't resist necroing these great words of wisdom...]

[Altis]

Practice and natural ability mean much MUCH more than subtle differences in the tool.

Well, here we have more clear proof that typing is really no different from having sex.  )

[Sorry, couldn't resist necroing these great words of wisdom...]

2013...

[DaBubbs]

I wonder what keyboard they ended up with...