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Layouts Wiki

QWERF

QWERF aims to reduce finger movement while maintaining some similarity to QWERTY. Like other QWERTY mods of the era, it moves the most common letters to the home row and places frequently used keys under the strongest fingers. However, its improvements over QWERTY are much more modest than the other QWERTY-inspired layouts of the time, including Colemak and Asset.

Versions

Section titled “Versions”

QWERF

Section titled “QWERF”
Finger 1234678910
Usage 5.88% (P49)6.51% (P11)13.86% (P87)16.37% (P94)17.5%15.89% (P91)10.44% (P17)7.38% (P15)2.12% (P5)
Same Finger Full Scissor Half Scissor Lat. Stretch
Bigram 3.62% (P94) 0.22% (P82) 1.13% (P40) 4.74% (P90)
Skipgram 7.55% (P97) 0.40% (P75) 1.67% (P14) 5.09% (P60)
No Thumbs With Thumbs
Weak-ish Redirs. 0.75% (P54) 0.90% (P64)
Weak Redirects 0.38% (P56) 0.18% (P61)
Other Same Finger 29.37% (P95) 19.21% (P95)
Rolls : Alts 2.15 (P87) 1.59 (P50)
2-Roll In : Out 1.29 (P51) 1.14 (P46)
3-Roll In : Out 1.17 (P44) 0.95 (P28)
Author
Michael Capewell
Year
2007
Finger Map
Traditional
Official Website

QWERF

Section titled “QWERF”
Finger 1234678910
Usage 5.88% (P49)6.51% (P11)13.86% (P87)16.37% (P94)17.5%15.89% (P91)7.16% (P5)10.65% (P68)2.12% (P5)
Same Finger Full Scissor Half Scissor Lat. Stretch
Bigram 3.62% (P93) 0.25% (P90) 1.21% (P49) 4.72% (P88)
Skipgram 7.54% (P96) 0.50% (P87) 1.62% (P12) 5.02% (P57)
No Thumbs With Thumbs
Weak-ish Redirs. 1.12% (P77) 1.21% (P85)
Weak Redirects 0.35% (P50) 0.17% (P55)
Other Same Finger 29.35% (P94) 19.18% (P94)
Rolls : Alts 2.14 (P86) 1.59 (P48)
2-Roll In : Out 1.31 (P53) 1.14 (P47)
3-Roll In : Out 0.94 (P35) 1.03 (P37)
Author
Michael Capewell
Year
2006
Finger Map
Traditional
Official Website

QWERF

Section titled “QWERF”
Finger 1234678910
Usage 5.88% (P51)6.51% (P13)13.86% (P88)16.37% (P95)17.5%15.89% (P92)6.63% (P2)10.65% (P69)2.65% (P9)
Same Finger Full Scissor Half Scissor Lat. Stretch
Bigram 3.54% (P92) 0.13% (P59) 1.19% (P47) 4.55% (P85)
Skipgram 7.47% (P95) 0.34% (P64) 1.61% (P11) 4.84% (P49)
No Thumbs With Thumbs
Weak-ish Redirs. 1.26% (P85) 1.31% (P92)
Weak Redirects 0.53% (P70) 0.25% (P74)
Other Same Finger 28.87% (P92) 18.90% (P93)
Rolls : Alts 2.15 (P88) 1.59 (P49)
2-Roll In : Out 1.25 (P49) 1.12 (P44)
3-Roll In : Out 0.89 (P33) 0.92 (P26)
Author
Michael Capewell
Year
2005
Finger Map
Traditional
Official Website

Install

Section titled “Install”

Kanata is a keyboard remapper that works on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

  1. Install Kanata by following “Step 1: Set Up Kanata” in Nova’s Kanata setup guide:

    Step 1: Set Up Kanata (Kanata Guide for Alt Layouts)

  2. Download the Kanata config file for the desired version of QWERF:

    QWERF (QWERF 2007)
    QWERF (QWERF 2006)
    QWERF (Original)

  3. Make sure you know how to type your computer password using QWERF.

  4. Run Kanata with the downloaded config file and make sure the layout works as you expect: 

    kanata --cfg path/to/config.kbd

  5. To have QWERF activate whenever your computer starts up, follow the instructions to “Automatically start Kanata”:

    Automatically start Kanata (Kanata Guide for Alt Layouts)