Keyboard Health Guide

By Xah Lee. Date: 2024-02-13.

2024-02-13

A Comprehensive Guide to Buy a Keyboard for Keyboard Ergonomic and Repetitive Strain Injury Hand Pain Solution

There are lots causes of hand pain when using a keyboard. Different people have different issues. Some due to bad typing habit, some due to posture, many due to bad keyboard, and many due to lots keyboard shortcuts of pressing control alt command keys.

Here, i'll only focus on what's the best keyboard for hand health. This is based on my close to 30 years of using a computer keyboard daily.

Most Important, Get a Mechanical Switch Keyboard

The most important, is to buy a mechanical keyboard. Run and do it now. Laptop is not good. It gives you Repetitive Strain Injury fast. Mechanical key switch is much more important than the ergo shape, such as split keyboard and tenting.

Keyboard Key Switch Mechanisms

and, get a linear light switch. if you just start, and don't have hand pain yet, start with linear switch at 45g activation force. e.g. cherry mx red or cherry mx silent red.
if it is too light, get used to it. because, you are in for a long ride. 10 years, 20, 30... depending on your age.

That's the first thing you should do. And just run out and get a cheap chinese cheapo. No brainer. They start at some $40. Which would be good enough.

what about Microsoft and Logitech ergo keyboard? No, their key switch require too much force.

Second Importance, Avoid Pressing Control Alt Command Key Combos

once you got a linear light mech key switch keyboard, second most important, is get rid of control alt cmd etc key combos.
key combo, is the foremost cause for hand crippling.
web browser, Image editing, video editing, 3D CAD application, text editors Emacs Vim VSCode, all need lots key combo shortcuts.
Your goal, is to get rid of them.

There are 2 ways to avoid pressing most of the Control Alt ❖ Windows Command combos.

One is, turn on Sticky Keys. 〔see Sticky Keys〕 It's available on windows, mac, linux. Just do it. And, get used to it.

The second way to rid of key combos, is buy a macro keypad. 〔see Programable Keypad〕
Used to be expensive 10 years ago, but today it's cheap, $40 or so, get you a programable macro keypad for about 15 keys.
Just do it.
Now, if you have more money, you can shop for more expensive ones, with more macro keys, e.g. 20, 30.

so, the first thing to do, is the 2 above. one, get linear mech key switch keyboard, and buy a macro pad.
together, they cost you $100, no more.
ok. once you done that, that solved vast majority of keyboard problems.
there are other issues, such as pronation, etc. where you need a split keyboard, and also tending.
but again, these are much less important compared to linear light key switch.
again, let me emphasize. laptop keyboard, e.g. apple's, is no good, at all. and microsoft ergo keyboard, or the logitech ergo, also no good.

now, if you done the above 2, you are good to go.
now, you can continue to read the following.
as i said, ergo shape, split or not, physically one piece or two piece, and tending, are secondary issues.
now what about dvorak layout?

again, secondary importance.
for the ergo shape, split, tending, you can judge depend on your body, preference, and situation.
for example, if you actually sit in front of comp, as measured by a device say apple watch, for 8 hours a day, then, you do need a split and tenting.
by the way, important: actually sit for 6 or more hours a day. not what you think you sit whatever fuck long.
typically, programers or comp professional think the sit in front of keyboard all day.
but actually, half of that or even less.
another thing is, measure how many keystrokes you actually hit, as measured by a keystroke log.
not what you think.
because you are a idiot, you think shit.
when you actually use a keylog to measure how many keystroke you type, you'll realize, the entire day of your coding or whatever comp using, can be typed in just 15 min continuous typing.
link here.

now, about dvorak, or other layout.
they help a bit, but isn't significant.
for rsi issues.
link to the detail here.

ok, that's about it. is there anything else i missed.
ah, ok. what about remapping shortcuts?
such as for emacs users, vim users, or photoshop etc?
for photoshop and other apps, such as 3d cad, the macro pad should solve it, and or sticky keys.
but for emacs, there's something special. because it uses massive key combos.
u need to use xah fly keys, or evil mode.
Xah Lee — Today at 11:03 AM

because for emacs, macro keypad cannot solve the problem. unless u have like 70 key macro pad, even so, then u start to have problem remember which key is what and also u have to constantly move hand to the macropad.
so, for emacs users, u need to install xah fly keys, or evil mode.
pick one, stick with it.
what about god mode and other?
no.
only solution is xah fly keys, and evil mode.
absolutely, do not use any other.
let me emphasize, for emacs, u have 3 simple solutions: xah fly keys, evil mode, and or turn on sticky keys.

what about mouse? a lot people have hand pain due to mouse.
there's few solutions.
try track ball, vertical mouse, and or pen input.
and also, try use left hand.
(btw, some people tried left hand, the got pain in left hand too. lol)
basically, there's no simple single advice that fits all.
it depends on u. ur habit, body size, posture, etc.

ok. one more thing, general.
doesn't matter what fantastic ergo batman keyboard or mousing device u get, u still may have hand pain.
do not think, that just because u got a fancy ergo, it'll solve everything.
how u use the device, ur habit of typing or mousing, also critical.
but here we getting complex issues that's hard to descibe one solution for all.
but basically, pay attention to how u type or mouse.
when not actually finger pushing keys, get a habit to leave hand off the keyboard.
same with mouse.
and, avoid bending wrist to type keys, such as hitting 1, or backspace. or, moving thumb to push the thumb keys on batman keyboard or thumb ball trackball.
move ur entire whole hand instead.
but but, u find it akward?

yes, get rid of ur bad habits. habits is always comfy. changing habit is painful. rid of bad habits.

ok. i think that's it, what i want to say.
gonna put this into blog and clean up.
any comment or question, ask.

Steve — Today at 11:48 AM
What about touch typing advice in a standard (non-ergonomic) layout?
For example I think the common finger placement scheme you often find online, this thing
Image
Is really stupid. Pinky is the least flexible finger, and they tell you to use it for most of the keys. I think it's much easier to use the ring finger for 0-= and backspace

i think the standard is good
well, the standard actually covers just the pinky column.
beyond that column, it's not really part of the standard.
eg the diagram u show, is not technically correct.
but in practice, it's mostly correct, only because the lousy keyboard physical layout we got from mech typewriters.
so, for example, if u want to press enter, u basically have no choic, but use pinky. on a standard pc keyboard.

Steve — Today at 11:56 AM

What about backspace?

as for the plus sign and hyphen, and backspace, that's typically up to the person.
in these specific keys, i'd recommend, just move entire whole hand to press them.
and yes, do not press it with pinky.
so, move entire hand, to the spot, then use index finger to press the backspace.
for hypen and plus, i'd say, move entire hand, so that ur ring finger feels the backspace, then use ur pointing finger or index finger to press hyphen or plus.
again, all these is assuming we r using normal pc physical layout, such as on laptop.
this is when, ergo shaped keyboard helps a lot. fixed the problem.

Steve — Today at 12:01 PM
Anything in the number line is completely out of the reach of my pinky. Even for 1 and 0 I use ring finger, sometimes even middle finger (I'm inconsistent with the rarely used keys). For a long time I also used the ring finger to press P and Q, but nowadays I mostly use the pinky (as I probably should)
I always had a bad opinion of that coloring scheme. Like, you can tell it's purely positional and doesn't consider at all the fact that fingers have different length and different abilities. Basically, top row and bottom row looks wrong to me