In today’s episode of Everyday Explained, we’re looking at something you probably use every day but may never have questioned: your computer keyboard. The first six letters on the top row spell QWERTY, not ABCDEF. So, why are the keys arranged this way? The answer dates back to 19th-century typewriters, long before computers existed. (Also read: Everyday explained: Why are manhole covers always round and not square or rectangular? )
It started with the typewriter
According to Smithsonian Magazine, American inventor Christopher Latham Sholes began developing an early typewriter in the 1860s with Carlos Glidden and Samuel Soule. The earliest versions did not have the QWERTY layout. One of Sholes’ initial designs had letters arranged much more like an alphabetical keyboard.
However, mechanical typewriters had an important limitation. Each key was connected to a metal typebar. Pressing a key caused the typebar to swing up and strike the paper. If certain keys were pressed quickly one after another, the typebars could collide and become stuck.
This mechanical problem influenced the development of the keyboard layout. The Smithsonian National Museum of American History explains that the QWERTY arrangement helped reduce clashes between the typebars, making the machine more practical to use.
The real reason behind QWERTY is debated
While preventing typewriter jams is one of the most common explanations for QWERTY, the story is not quite that simple. Research highlighted by Smithsonian Magazine suggests that telegraph operators may also have influenced the layout. These operators had to quickly transcribe messages received in Morse code and found that certain arrangements of letters could make the process easier. Their feedback may have contributed to the positioning of letters on the keyboard.
{{/usCountry}}While preventing typewriter jams is one of the most common explanations for QWERTY, the story is not quite that simple. Research highlighted by Smithsonian Magazine suggests that telegraph operators may also have influenced the layout. These operators had to quickly transcribe messages received in Morse code and found that certain arrangements of letters could make the process easier. Their feedback may have contributed to the positioning of letters on the keyboard.
{{/usCountry}}This means there may not be one single reason why every letter ended up where it is today. Mechanical limitations, typing requirements and practical considerations all appear to have played a role.
How QWERTY became the standard
The layout gained popularity when E. Remington & Sons began manufacturing Sholes’ typewriter. According to the Smithsonian Institution, the Sholes and Glidden typewriter was introduced commercially in 1874 and helped establish the QWERTY arrangement among professional typists.
As more people learned to type on QWERTY keyboards, the layout became increasingly difficult to replace. Typing schools taught it, businesses adopted it and manufacturers continued producing machines with the same arrangement. By the time computers became widely available, QWERTY was already familiar to millions of users.
Why didn't computers change the layout?
Modern computers do not have metal typebars, so they no longer face the mechanical problem that influenced early typewriter designs. Technically, computer keyboards could have been designed with the letters in alphabetical order. But changing the layout would have created a new problem: people would have had to relearn how to type.
QWERTY had already become deeply embedded in education, workplaces and everyday life. Users had developed typing speed and muscle memory around it, making a completely new arrangement inconvenient even if it offered certain advantages.
Alternative layouts have been created. The Dvorak Simplified Keyboard, developed by August Dvorak in the 1930s, was designed to place frequently used letters in positions intended to reduce finger movement and improve typing efficiency. However, it never achieved the widespread adoption of QWERTY.
So, the reason your computer keyboard is not arranged alphabetically is less about what is best for modern computers and more about history and familiarity. A layout developed for mechanical typewriters more than a century ago became so widely adopted that it eventually followed us into the digital age.