Learn about key terms and concepts in the keyboard world.
Diagram and Key Definitions
- Alphanumeric keys: Also called "alphas" for short, these are the core typing keys consisting of letters (A-Z), numbers (0-9), and punctuation.
- Function Keys: Located at the top row (F1-F12), these keys perform specific tasks depending on the software.
- Modifier Keys: These include Shift, Ctrl, Alt, and the Windows or Command key on Macs. They modify the behaviour of other keys when pressed together (e.g., Ctrl+C for copy).
- Navigation Keys: Moves the cursor or scrolls through documents.
- Number Pad: A dedicated grid of numbers and math symbols, usually on the right side.
Keyboard Layout Types
Staggered keyboard
The vast majority of keyboards have keys which are arranged in offset rows, which originated from mechanical typewriters. Virtually everyone learns to type on these.
Ortholinear keyboard
These keyboards offer a grid-like layout with keys aligned in straight rows and columns. It definitely comes with a learning curve. Advocates claim that these are better ergonomically, but there is little to no peer-reviewed research to prove or disprove this yet.
Split Keyboard Variations
Unibody split keyboard (aka Alice keyboards):
Dual body split keyboard
Wrists and Posture
- Pronation: Rotating your forearm to turn your palm downward. A flat keyboard asks for full pronation and then holds you there all day. Shake your hands out and let them fall naturally and you will notice your palms face inward, not down. That gap is what tenting tries to close.
- Ulnar deviation: Your wrists bending outward, away from your thumbs. It happens because a conventional keyboard is narrower than most people's shoulders, so the elbows come out and the hands angle in to reach straight rows of keys. This is the single thing split and Alice keyboards exist to fix.
- Wrist extension: Your wrists bending upward, back toward your forearm. Thick keyboards cause it. So do the little flip-out feet on the underside, which tilt the back up and are almost always the wrong direction.
- Negative tilt: The front of the keyboard sitting higher than the back, so the surface slopes gently away from you. It is the fix for wrist extension, and it is rarer than it should be. The Sculpt's built-in riser is the best known example.
- Tenting: Raising the inner edges of the two halves so your hands sit at a shallow angle, like a low roof. This is the fix for pronation. Dual body boards let you set it yourself. Unibody boards decide it for you.
- Row stagger and column stagger: Nearly every keyboard, Alice boards included, uses row stagger - the offset rows inherited from typewriters. Column stagger instead offsets each finger's column vertically, to match how far each finger actually reaches. It is a much harder adjustment, which is why it stays a niche.
- Palm rest, not wrist rest: The pad should take the heel of your palm. If it is taking the underside of your wrist it is pressing on the soft part and holding you in extension, this is not good.
Keyboard sizes
Keyboard sizes refers to how many keys on the keyboard you keep - the fewer the keys, the smaller the keyboard. These are often referred to in percentages.
Layers
Smaller keyboards do not remove functions, they hide them. A layer is a second set of assignments for keys you already have, reached by holding a modifier (usually marked Fn) in the same way Shift gives you a second set of characters. On a 65% board the arrow keys are physical but the function row is not, so Fn plus the number row gives you F1 to F12.
The smaller the keyboard, the more it leans on layers, and the more you have to remember. That is the real trade in everything below, not the desk space.
Full size (100%)
Most of us would be familiar with the full sized keyboard, which is the baseline for all other keyboards on this list. It contains the alphanumeric keys, function row, arrow keys, a number pad, modifier keys (e.g., Shift, etc), and other keys such as page up, home, and so on.
Tenkeyless (TKL, 80%)
This variation simply removes the number pad.
75%
The 75% keyboard is similar to the tenkeyless (TKL) keyboard, but it rearranges the keys so they fit into a more compact space, while still omitting the number pad. An example of this is the Incase/Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Keyboard, and the SpiderIsland Split Ergonomic Keyboard.
65%
The 65% keeps the key basics, providing arrow keys, but omitting the function row. Keyboards like this include the Keychron K11 Pro/Max.
Compact (60%)
The 60% layout removes everything except the alphanumeric keys, modifier keys, and a single row of function/nav access via layers. There are no dedicated arrow keys, no function row, and no navigation cluster. It is among the most minimal viable keyboard layouts, and accessing secondary functions requires either memorising layer shortcuts or dedicating a key to layer-switching.
The appeal is desk space and portability: a 60% keyboard is significantly smaller and lighter than a TKL. For writers and programmers who have internalised their shortcuts, the reduction in hand travel can also be an efficiency gain. For anyone who frequently uses arrow keys, function keys, or the number row for navigation, this may prove to be difficult to adapt to.
40%
One of the smallest keyboards possible, the 40% keyboard contains only alphanumeric keys. Accessing any other functions relies on layers, or the use of multiple buttons. This layout is the most difficult to adjust to.
Keyboard Switches
Keycap
The removable plastic cap you actually touch, sitting on top of the switch. Worth naming separately because "the key" usually means the whole assembly, and the two are separate parts. Legends wear off keycaps long before a switch stops working.
Membrane switches (rubber dome)
The mechanism in most keyboards ever sold, including nearly every keyboard that came free with a computer. A sheet of rubber domes sits over a printed circuit, and pressing a key collapses a dome to complete the circuit. It is quiet and cheap to make. It also feels mushy, because the dome resists and then gives way all at once, with no clear point at which the press registers. If a keyboard's specifications do not say what switches it uses, it is more than likely they are membrane switches.
Mechanical Switches
- Linear (or red switch): Offers a smooth press, with no tactile bump or click. Some people like this because it is quiet, but others don't because it offers little feedback when you press the key.
- Tactile (or brown switch): Has a noticeable bump mid-press, with a mild click. This is a compromise between the linear and clicky switches, offering physical feedback without significant noise.
- Clicky (or blue switch): Provides a tactile bump and loud click. People love these for the feedback it offers, but it is also louder than the other options which may make you public enemy number one in a quiet, but crowded space.
Actuation force and travel
Two numbers manufacturers publish and most people ignore. Actuation force is how hard you have to press, in grams. Around 45g is the common middle, below 40g is light, above 60g is heavy. Travel is how far the key moves before it bottoms out, usually 4mm on a full size mechanical switch and 2 to 3mm on a low profile one. Light and short suits fast typists and quiet offices. Heavy and long suits anyone who rests their fingers on the keys or bottoms out hard.
Scissor Switches
Low profile
Describes height, not mechanism. A low profile keyboard uses shorter switches and flatter keycaps, so travel is around 2 to 3mm rather than 4mm and the board itself is thinner. Laptop keyboards are the reference point. A thinner board keeps your wrists flatter, which is why low profile and ergonomic often appear in the same sentence.
Optical switches
Mechanically the same idea as a mechanical switch, except the press is registered by breaking a beam of light rather than closing two metal contacts. Nothing touches, so there is less to wear out and no contact bounce to filter. For typing they feel like the linear and tactile switches they imitate, and you would struggle to tell the difference blind.
Magnetic switches (Hall effect)
These track the position of a magnet in the stem continuously, rather than registering a single on-off point. Because the keyboard knows how far down the key is at any moment, the actuation point becomes adjustable in software, and one key can trigger two different things at two different depths. That is genuinely useful for gaming. For typing it mostly means you can tune how sensitive the keys feel, which is a nice-to-have rather than a reason to switch.
Connectivity
- Wired (USB): One cable, no battery, no pairing, lowest latency. Still the most reliable option and the only one that cannot run flat mid-sentence.
- Bluetooth: No receiver to lose, and most Bluetooth keyboards hold two or three devices at once with a switch key, which is the real argument for it if you move between a laptop and a tablet. The costs are a short wake-up delay after the board has been idle, and the occasional pairing issue.
- 2.4GHz dongle: A small USB receiver, usually faster and steadier than Bluetooth. The catch is the dongle itself. It occupies a port, and if it is factory-paired rather than replaceable, losing it can end the keyboard.
ANSI vs ISO keyboards
Updates
- [tab]
- 2026
- 21 Jan 2026: Added mechanical and scissor switch diagrams
- 21 March 2026: Added more details on 60% keyboards
- 4 September 2026: Updated content
- 2025
- 9 Oct 2025 First published
- 14 Oct 2025: Added narrative on switches
- 16 Oct 2025: Added keyboard diagram, ISO vs ANSI
Image source: https://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com
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