Out of curiosity, why did you go with Colemak over colemak-dh or other layouts?
I totally see people not choosing the lessor used layouts just for convenience sake, but DH is quite common, well supported, and fixes some fundamental issues.
this post was submitted on 03 May 2025
78 points (98.8% liked)
Dullsters
582 readers
47 users here now
Inspired by the Dull Men’s Club.
1. Relevant commentary on your own dull life. Posts should be about your own dull, lived experience. This is our most important rule. Direct questions, random thoughts, comment baiting, advice seeking, many uses of “discuss” rarely comply with this rule.
2. Original, Fresh, Meaningful Content.
3. Avoid repetitive topics.
4. This isn't an advice forum
Use a search engine, a tradesperson, Reddit, friends, a specialist Facebook group, apps, Wikipedia, an AI chat, a reverse image search etc. to answer simple questions or identify objects. Also see rule 1, “comment baiting”.
There are a number of content specific communities with subject matter experts who can help you.
Some other communities to consider before posting:
5. Keep it dull. If it puts us to sleep, it’s on the right track. Examples of likely not dull: jokes, gross stuff (including toes), politics, religion, royalty, illness or injury, killing things for fun, or promotional content. Feel free to post these elsewhere.
6. No hate speech, sexism, or bullying No sexism, hate speech, degrading or excessively foul language, or other harmful language. No othering or dehumanizing of anyone or negativity towards any gender identity.
7. Proofread before posting. Use good grammar and punctuation. Avoid useless phrases. Some examples: - starting a post with “So” - starting a post with pointless phrases, like “I hope this is allowed” or “this is my first post” Only share good quality, cropped images. Do not share screenshots of images; share the original image.
founded 2 months ago
MODERATORS
idk why I skipped colemak-dh long ago when I found out about it. and idk if I want to change now after more than a decade using colemak lol
It makes sense to stick with something that’s good. I think the small gain going from Colemak to Colemak-DH wouldn’t be worth the struggle.
I use Engram and don’t plan on changing even though I suspect better layouts do exist. The effort is too high for a 1% gain. Lol.
Not familiar, please explain
The DH mod addresses the d and h issues that Colemak has. Long story short, if you type primarily in English the DH mod means you will need to stretch your fingers to hit those keys way less often. More information is here.
https://colemakmods.github.io/mod-dh/#colemak-problems
As for other layouts, the advice that has treated me well is to focus on post covid layouts. Due to a sudden availability of free time a lot of research was done during COVID on keyboard layouts. Resultantly, post Covid layouts tend to be substantially better than pre COVID. I am a fan of Engram, Graphire, and The Hands Down Family personally.
This all being said these are harder to learn because they completely separate themselves from qwerty/qwertz.
Where does one acquire the computerized brain implants that are clearly neccssary for Engram, Graphire, and The Hands Down Family?
It’s slow to install but I strongly recommend the services of keybr.com They have modes that install those specific layouts.
There are half a dozen of us!
Is that a second upside down "F"?
I didn't have a second B from this set 🫠
Another Colemak user!
Well. Aspiring user, anyway.
We all have to start somewhere. My first attempt lasted four months, when I was at uni. My second attempt was after I obtained employment, and then dedicated Colemak to my home machines so as to retain my 120 WPM with QWERTY when at work. And I've been going since.
I did try to use Colemak on mobile, but with Swype-style input, the accuracy rate drops to almost nothing. Funny how Colemak being so efficient with the home row means that predictive text can't be as effective.
Which mobile keyboard do you use?
Just the plain Google Keyboard on Android.
Keychron alice?
Indeed. Q13 Pro
long tidepod for a wrist rest, i like it
Don’t let its tasty appearance fool you; it’s crap. I’ll get around to replacing it at some point.
Yo, I have the same wrist support and mousepad.
You have great taste! Unsurprisingly, I love your keyboard too.
I cannot find any faults with your argument here
Yay for Colemak!
Why Colemak? What about it makes it learning a new layout worth it?
It puts the most used letters closer to where your fingers are more often. It already feels more intuitive, and I’ve barely begun. It’s still stupidly difficult retraining my brain, but I found some great courses online
Like Dvorak?
Yes, but supposedly easier to learn
Cool, thanks!
What keycaps are the alphas? I see plenty of Keychron (KSA?) elsewhere.
Signature Plastics UnAlice. I’m planning to get the rest of the set soon.
That layout looks comfy as hell
Kinda cool, gives me real IMSAI 8080 vibes with all the colours