I'm trying to use vanilla Colemak with Spanish on Windows. I've been looking at tools like DreymaR's EPKL (I know you're around on this subreddit 😄) because I want a portable solution that I can use both on my work laptop (where I have limited permissions) and on my personal PC.

I've tried several layouts, and the closest one for my Latin American ISO keyboard is Colemak\Cmk-eD-Es\Cmk-eD2VK-EsAlt_ISO_Angle because it keeps the symbols exactly where they're printed on my physical keyboard. However, I've run into three issues:

1. The acute accent/umlaut dead key (the physical key next to P) outputs a [ instead. In other words, it behaves exactly like the key next to the physical Ñ. Since I type in Spanish, this is probably the key I use the most, so it's a pretty big issue.
2. I actually like having Ñ on the physical P key, but it's mapped twice: once on P and again on the physical B key. From what I can tell, this happens because the ISO version remaps the physical <|> key to Z, then shifts everything one key to the left, leaving an extra position that gets filled with another Ñ.
3. I'd really prefer the ISO <|> key to stay where it is. I'm a programmer, and having to press AltGr every time I need < or > gets old really fast. One of the biggest advantages of vanilla Colemak is that I can keep shortcuts like Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+V, etc., without changing my muscle memory. Shifting the entire row to the left kind of defeats that purpose.

I found a post on the Colemak forum from 2019 where someone had apparently created the perfect layout for Latin American keyboards, but unfortunately all the download links are dead now. That's why I'm hoping there's still a portable solution available. Post's link: https://forum.colemak.com/topic/2518-colemak-para-espanol-latino-colemak-for-spanish-la/#p22639

I guess I could also remap everything with PowerToys Keyboard Manager, but that seems like a pretty clunky workaround. :p

Has anyone dealt with this before, or is there a better way to get a proper vanilla Colemak layout for a Latin American ISO keyboard?

So... I've been typing on qwerty for... quite a while ;) Over 4 decades. Not super fast (50-70 wpm) but not terrible. Not an office /IT worker or coder where I live-n-die by typing speed / output, just a computer hobbyist / enthusiast who dabbles with Linux (so a little light sys-admin / scripting from time to time) and emacs (starting to get going with org-mode, or at least trying). While I've used computers for quite a while, I've never had any specific discomfort directly related to the ills of qwerty. I've had some other physical injuries that ended up not playing nicely with keyboard use in general for periods of time, but I'm not sure any layout would have helped that. One of those did lead to my first encounter with a M$ 'Natural' keyboard about 30 years ago.

Recently I've been working on cleaning up / improving my typing habits. Started playing with 'conventional' (TKL) split mech keyboards and such, and have a couple cheap split ergo mech pre-built key boards on order to see what size/layout I prefer and/or can adapt to.

I was poking around on various typing websites (monkeytype, keybr, edclub.com, etc.), and started finding out that maybe part of the reason I tended to 'cheat' - ie having my ring finger do about half of what my pinky fingers 'should' be doing - is that apparently my little fingers are a bit on the short side, relatively speaking. Hence my interest in exploring ergo keyboards with possibly more 'pinky stagger', and/or something like colemak-dh, maybe dh +wide/symbols - I literally managed to give myself a little bit of RSI trying to hit all the keys with my pinkies like I'm supposed to, on a conventional qwerty laptop keyboard. All better now ;)

Work related stuff is going to stay qwerty, period. This is all just for my own entertainment/benefit at home.

I don't plan on doing a lot of heavy typing directly on the laptop, and if I do, I'm reasonably confident that having an external split keyboard with a little tenting + layers will probably address 99% of whatever physical/irritaiton/issues might arise, even with qwerty. I'm debating whether to try to add colemak-dh into that mix, at least on the ergo mech keyboard. It seems like colemak-dh + wide/symbols (caws?) would be of more benefit on the row-staggered laptop keyboard than on a col-staggered split mech board?

All this to say... does it make any sense to learn/run different colemak variants, for different keyboards? Or better to just go with colemak-dh on both the laptop and the external keyboard for the sake of continuity?

Assuming reprogramming my fingers/brain for a new keyboard layout in my 50s is even going to stick in the first place ;)

After 15 years on Dvorak (80-85 wpm), I decided to try Colemak and am up to about 50 wpm after 4 weeks. It's great to have shortcuts back again and I kind of like the rolls, but I'm also finding Colemak to be surprisingly uncomfortable. My right palm cramps a lot (maybe because it's missing that infamous leap to "L" in Dvorak!). Words like "thought" are no fun to type, either.

Should I keep going with Colemak to see if the palm strain goes away? Is 4 weeks long enough of an experiment? I also wonder if there is a different hand technique for Colemak, such as floating over rested palm, etc.?

Curious to hear about others' experience.

Anyone else having this issue? Was using Colemak app on iPhone just fine for a few months then after the latest iPhone update the keyboard is now stuck on QWERTY

I don't write much in English, but I'll soon need programming a lot and I want to be prepare. Firstly I wanted to use dvorak, but it has a lot of problems with shortcuts. As I understand, colemaka has fewer problems with this, but I still worry about it.

I think I should learn it and repeat qwerty to sweatch betwen them. I want to use blender, other specific programs and don't be confused at someone's computer.

What do you think?

I'm still here, and it has officially been half a decade.
July 2021 was the beginning of my journey with Colemak. Passing the 5-year mark feels a bit surreal, but at this point, Colemak isn't just a layout I chose anymore—it is simply how I type. I still haven't thought about going back to QWERTY on a computer even once, which pretty much settles the debate for me. If my 3-year update proved that the switch was sustainable, this 5-year milestone proves it is permanent.
Looking back at my last post (https://www.reddit.com/r/Colemak/comments/1dsqlcw/3_years_of_colemak_my_experience), I mentioned that I was experimenting with going back to the standard backspace position instead of using the Caps Lock rebind. After two more years of typing, I can say that I stuck with it, and my focus on accuracy over raw speed has kept my typing completely fluid. On my mobile phone, I still use the default QWERTY keyboard. The muscle memory split between using thumbs on a screen and full fingers on a physical keyboard remains perfectly separated, and I still experience absolutely zero confusion switching between the two.
At this point, my typing speed has completely stabilized. I am not trying to break any typing speed records, but the real victory after 5 years is the pure comfort. I get absolutely no finger fatigue, even after long sessions at the computer. Using other people's computers can still be a bit funny (which I rarely do), but for my daily life, making the switch remains one of the best decisions I've made.
If you are on year one, year two, or just starting out, hang in there. It is entirely worth it.
If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments!

Been practicing my Colemak for a few months. Besides English, I do often type in French, and the positions of the Q and U keys are kind of annoying (Q more common in French & EU bigram very common in French). Besides that Colemak is nice for French.

After a lot of unsuccessful tweaks, and trying extra layouts which didn't really bring enough to justify starting from scratch again, here's what I converged to:

ZWFPG JLUQ;
ARSTD HNEIO
YXCVB KM,./

Y > Z > Q rotation is what happened. And you could apply usual DH(m) mods on top as they affect different keys.
This brings the Q ready to inward roll into U (hence the name), which is extra neat because in both French and English Q is always followed by U.

What's interesting is that it results in a layout that is more pleasant (at least to me) in English too. Because it breaks the dreaded YOU trigram, removes the awkward scissor movement on "my", redistributes a bit of workload to the less-used left hand, and improves hand alternation on common words like "eye" or "only".
However it is at the expense of words like "way" (now pretty horrendous to type), but my (non-measured) feeling from using it is that it's on average better. Also since I use a QMK keyboard, I set up a way to type A with the right hand (using a N+E+I combo), which is already pretty useful in standard Colemak when typing e.g. "war", "was" or "face".

(Bonus side effect: you get usual Ctrl+Z/Y Undo/Redo shortcuts closer to one another. I don't care much but why not)

I just started touch typing for the first time. I've also just switched from qwerty to colemak. I'm about 2 weeks in. My PB is about 33 wpm at 98%.

Do you guys have any tips for progressing please?

Buenos días a todos, Estuve explorando las distribuciones de teclado para ergonomía ya que yo soy typer de QWERTY de toda la vida y soy capaz de escribir a 90 ppm, no obstante yo sufro de déficit de motricidad fina así que hago muchísimo esfuerzo y me equivoco demasiado al escribir, sobre todo al programar. Explore el Dvorak pero me di cuenta que estaba mal hecho para el español, y Colemak me parece una opción increíble pero la posición especifica de la D me molestaba bastante.

Intenté colemak-dh y era comodo a medias por culpa de la m y me tocaba rodar la V hacia la derecha y la B hacia arriba y se sentía raro, y la H abajo era muy extraña de utilizar... Porqué rayos está la K abajo si es tan poco usable? Para el inglés, sí pero para el hispanoparlante no sirve, así que lo mandé a pastar, devolví la posición de la B y la V se siente increíblemente cómoda arriba.

Por último, debido a que no uso un teclado iso pues con el AltGr puse combinaciones cómodas para acceder a símbolos complicados, así quedaría todo. Se ve tosco, pero es bastante cómodo

No se que opinan ustedes

I just started Colemak a few days ago. I've been doing about 2 hours a day on Typing Club and KeyBR and woke up this morning with very stiff index fingers. The joint in the middle of my fingers was sore on both hands. Not sure if I'm doing something wrong. Anyone else experienced this?

I was one of the very first adopters of this layout. Proof is here. Been doing some Monkeytype 15s drills lately for fun. For that mode, I have peaked at 145wpm, so I'd like to think of myself as rather fast and experienced (for reference, 140wpm in Qwerty = top 1.33%). My thoughts:

• I'm left-handed, so my left hand is stronger. Despite this, I think the layout is terrible for the left hand, and does not account for the fact that the standard keyboard positions the keys so that the right hand is in a more natural position. If you look at the best Qwerty speedtypers, you'll see that the right hand is angled naturally, but the left hand isn't. I feel numbness in my left arm, but not my right, if I spend too much time on Monkeytype. That's when I stop to prevent any long-term damage.

• I don't follow this finger-placement chart, which again is poor for the left hand. I use my left ring finger to hit W/F/Z, and the left middle finger for P/X, and the left index finger for C. Colemak was not created with this in mind, as it undervalued C in its design, and valued the left hand and right hand equally.

• The default Monkeytype 15s test uses the 200 most common words. Note that Q, X, and Z are omitted entirely. The complaint from 20 years ago still stands: the PT and CT bigrams are poor, and any 4+ letter word that uses only the left hand feels horrible to type. My slowest words are FACT/PACT/PART. Even words on the left-hand home row like STAR are slower. (I'm a fan of Starcraft and I hate how that word requires entirely the left hand to type in both Qwerty and Colemak.) On the other hand, words that are skewed towards the right hand and have a rolling motion feel great to type, like NATION/PEOPLE.

I wonder if after 20 years, AI analysis can determine something that's better, while keeping Q and ZXCV where they are due to keyboard shortcuts prioritizing those. I'm open to trying something more exotic now that I have a custom TKL keyboard. (I used QMK Configurator to program Colemak hardware support, and can switch layouts instantly by pressing the PAUSE key.) It's funny how 20 years ago, I balked at the idea of spending $150 for a keyboard, but now I own and am typing on a keyboard that cost me almost $900.

• It feels as though moving punctuation to the left hand, like , and . and / would work wonders. This is what Dvorak does for the first two of those, and now I see the logic behind that. The Colemak site page that states what is wrong with Dvorak doesn't mention how Dvorak's placement of , and . is fantastic. If my left ring finger that is currently used for W and F is used for , and . then that would be intuitive for muscle memory.

• The obvious change is to move T to the right hand so that the PT/CT bigrams are no longer an issue, but I don't know where it should go. Maybe swap T and I because CI and GI aren't used as much, but computer analysis would need to be done. For now I'm leaving it as-is. Colemak has the index fingers handle only consonants, so moving a vowel to an index finger would be very jarring.

• I'm not considering Colemak-DH at all, and don't believe in the rationale behind it. As an early adopter of the original Colemak layout, Colemak-DH doesn't address the shortcomings I've experienced. It actually makes it worse by getting by moving V. I have never had any issues typing D/H on Colemak.

Curious to know what other veterans of this keyboard layout think! For now, this is what I'll try over the next few weeks. Five key changes to relieve the left hand:

Q,.PGJLUY;
ARSTDHNEIO
ZXCVBFMKW/

This causes the FL bigram to be on the same right index finger, but removes the WR/FR bigrams from the left ring finger. It also removes the WA/FA bigrams from the left hand, which were more awkward to type than YO from the right hand. This could be a long-term solution!

Today I have finally deleted qwerty from my phone and PC.

Writing this on colemak, and my hands feel amazing =)

It took me 17 days to reach 93 WPM on 10 words and 70 on time 15, now whenever I am writing on qwerty I feel extreme pain in my hands, especially wrists. Hoping to reach 200 WPM on words 10 until GTA 6 releases =) But comfort was a must for me.

So I'm about to commission SignaturePlastics for a custom keycap set for my 104 Beam Spring keyboard from https://modelfkeyboards.com

I'm planning on black keys with white legends. 100% full size ANSI.

I'll be ordering at least 5 sets for myself, but please let me know if you're interested and I'll order more. I'll likely want $100+shipping for a set and I'll be losing money on it. I just want these to exist and I'm hoping maybe some of y'all do too.

My quote on the keycaps:

1 set $975

5 sets $343.07 per set

10 sets $214.04 per set

Heads up, this is pretty unconventional and I am experimenting with a few things.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<keyboard width="11" bottom_row="false" name="Colemak-DHm Ortholinear" script="latin">
  <row>
    <key key0="q" key5="!" key7="1" key8="6"/>
    <key key0="w" key5="\@" key7="2" key8="7"/>
    <key key0="f" key5="\#" key7="3" key8="8"/>
    <key key0="p" key5="$" key7="4" key8="9"/>
    <key key0="b" key5="%" key7="5" key8="0"/>
    <key key0="esc"/>
    <key key0="j" key5="^" key7="^"/>
    <key key0="l" key5="&amp;" key7="%"/>
    <key key0="u" key5="*" key7="*"/>
    <key key0="y" key5="(" key7="-" key8="-"/>
    <key key0=";" key5=")" key6=":" key7="+" key8="_"/>
  </row>
  <row>
    <key key0="a" key7="[" key8="{"/>
    <key key0="r" key7="&lt;"/>
    <key key0="s" key7="'" key8="&quot;"/>
    <key key0="t"/>
    <key key0="g"/>
    <key key0="capslock"/>
    <key key0="m"/>
    <key key0="n"/>
    <key key0="e" key7="'" key8="&quot;"/>
    <key key0="i" key7=">"/>
    <key key0="o" key7="]" key8="}"/>
  </row>
  <row>
    <key key0="z"/>
    <key key0="x"/>
    <key key0="c"/>
    <key key0="d"/>
    <key key0="v"/>
    <key key0="shift"/>
    <key key0="k"/>
    <key key0="h"/>
    <key key0=","/>
    <key key0="."/>
    <key key0="/" key5="|" key7="\?" key8="!"/>
  </row>
  <row>
    <key key0="ctrl"/>
    <key key0="alt"/>
    <key width="7" key0="space" key5="left" key6="right" key7="up" key8="down"/>
    <key key0="enter"/>
    <key key0="backspace"/>
  </row>
</keyboard>

The layout looks as such in Unexpected Keyboard: https://imgur.com/a/RwSDhuH

Notable features:

1. Left handed numbers qwdpb maps to 12345 and 67890 on different layers. Arithmetic on the opposing side, ^ & = - +
2. 4 has most major currencies. $ on the left (because its the norm for me). Pounds, Euros, Rupees, Yen and Rubles.
3. <>. {}, [],. '", are matching on the left and right side of the keyboard.
4. A middle spacing row with shift, capslock, and escape
5. Enter is second from the right on the bottom because i hate accidentally pressing it. The right to it is escape
6. / maps to ? | and !
7. Ctrl and Alt are peasant on the bottom row for terminal use.

I'm aware these are odd choices, feel free to edit it here: https://unexpected-keyboard-layout-editor.lixquid.com/ and paste your edits below for the design which works the best for you.

I made the switch to colemak last September and never regretted it. It's so much more comfortable than qwerty, especially when typing for long periods of time, and I went from 80 wpm average to ~110 wpm with a personal best of 151!

Colemak progression:
10 wpm - 31.3.26
20 wpm - 3.4.26
30 wpm - 5.4.26
40 wpm - 7.4.26
50 wpm - 11.4.26
60 wpm - 14.4.26
70 wpm - 20.4.26
80 wpm - 25.4.26
90 wpm - 4.5.26
100 wpm - 20.5.26

Hi guys, just wanted to share a little bit of my experience switching from QWERTY to Colemak.

I started to get into typing in the begging of 2026. My 60s PB on QWERTY was 110 WPM when i started learning Colemak. I really like this layout way more than QWERTY, it is way more comfortable and enjoyable to type.

The transition wasn't easy and i still press some QWERTY letters, but the further i got in this journey the more my brain started adapting to new layout. I think the learning would be much easier if I set Coleman everywhere, not just on my PC, because i sometimes caught myself wanting to type Colemak on my Iphone and that was a bit confusing.

I tried to spend at least 15 mins daily to practice, but as you can see sometimes i got engaged too much into chasing PBs :D. Nevertheless, the start was boring and probably the hardest(think ~0-40). I also played a bit of typeracer in this period, maybe 300-500 races, just to practice more words.

Very interesting thing I learned from this is that our brain learns the new way to type by typing a new words(maybe morphemes?), so I really recommend typing as much different words as possible, because when i got, let's say "infinity" for the first time on typeracer, my hands wanted to type it fully in QWERTY, because that's how they remember this word, and i needed to build a new pathways on Colemak, so i don't freeze next time i see that word.

If you have any questions feel free to ask!

UPD: Because the hands doesn't move as much on Colemak as on QWERTY, it started to hurt to press a spacebar, because my hand is almost always in the same place, i think it's a keyboard thing, as my spacebar not rounded, rather a bit edgy, so i think i will need to switch to somethink different, will try to stick with a lowprofile one for a few weeks.

I was pleasantly surprised recently that Deadlock binds its defaults to physical key locations, making it the first FPS I've played that isn't a complete chore to rebind.

I'm aware that Factorio is layout-aware, but otherwise, I've been curious - has anyone found a game that worked out of the box with Colemak set at the OS level?

I switched to Colemak a while ago, and I use it as my default keyboard layout. I even use it as my phone layout. But I've been struggling to reach speeds beyond 60 wpm. I would like to be extremely fast! But I don't see much progress. Should I train specific drills? Or just keep using it? I'm concerned there might be a limit to the speed you can get by pure practice. I want to have the same speed I had on QWERTY, or even more! Any advice?

After trying blank keycaps and not wanting to give up homing bumps or sculptured profile, I finally caved and created a custom set of keycaps for colemak through YUZU Custom keycaps. Of course, falls slightly short of premium aspects compared to non-custom sets, but the look is definitely worth it ^^

Context: I'm a 30 years old software developer. After dealing with some wrist and foreaarm pain I started to take a more in depth look into my home office ergonomics. Purchased a better office chair, and wanted to look into building a split keyboard. As my keyboard parts arrive, I thought I'd start learning the new layout. My keyboard arrives in two days and, just in time, I managed to learn the layout enough to feel comfortable with practice sessions.

I started practicing in Keybr with their key progression, spent between 30-60min daily, and just yesterday I unlocked the last letter (J) at 35WPM and thought it'd be a good idea to switch to Monkeytype now.

I average about 80 WPM in QWERTY, but it's not quite touch type, but a custom weird system I unconsciously developed, as I guess happens with most people.

Looking at the subreddit and some other testimonies, my short term goal will be to keep practicing until I get to around 50-60 WPM with at least 98% accuracy before making the switch at work.

This is the first time I have learnt a new layout other than QWERTY and it has been fun so far.

This post is just to share how happy I am and what my journey has been. I know it's different for everyone. If you want to share your journey or have any feedback, you're more than welcome.

When I started learning DV colemak had literally just been invented, so I decided it was too new to adopt at the time.

However 20 years later I realized I'm typing with "angle mod" and I'm wondering if I might finally consider switching to a new more modern layout.

Anyone else type like this, but on on Colemak?