r/Norman

110 archived posts · Apr 2012 – Jul 2026

Norman

r/Norman

This is a sub for the Norman keyboard layout. This is an alternative to QWERTY to the likes of Dvorak, Colemak, Colemak-DH, Workman, Asset, Capewell, Carpalx QFMLWY/QGMLWB/QGMLWY, Minimak, etc.

Created Jan 27, 2009

283Members (last snapshot)

110Archived posts

Welcome all.

This is for discussion, testimonials, questions, respectful debate, on anything Norman or keyboard layout related.

###Norman is an alternate keyboard layout.

Norman Layout and Heatmap.

Norman, Colemak, Workman keyboards with changes compared. (Green are letters that stay on the same finger, orange are letters that change finger. More below.)

Official site and download

###Quick Explanation of Norman This is a great layout from two approaches:

It’s an easy-to-transition-to layout. Most letters stay on the same finger, switching with an up-down swap. You can harness your existing muscle memory.
It utilizes the middle finger-upper row positions for frequent letters. The middle finger is very strong and it's upper row is easy to press. This also avoids putting common letters on the centre column and avoids overloading the index finger.

I think Norman is the 80/20 rule. It solves 80% of the issues by fixing 20% of the problems. The goal here is to get the most gain for the least pain. Great improvement for the minimal effort. A high payoff ratio. However you want to word it.

It doesn’t matter how great a layout is if one doesn't use it. I believe this layout expands the pool of people that are able/willing to switch from Qwerty.

See the Wiki for a more in depth explanation and details.

Also see r/Plover, it’s open source steganography. It’s an interesting approach that should get more attention. It is not limited to transcription, you can use it for typing, coding, etc.

###If you use Norman, leave a testimonial.

Cover 1) how much you like it, 2) how long it took to become proficient, and 3) thoughts for those considering a change.

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