Colemak-DH keyboard layout

Colemak-DH (Mod-DH) key by key: why D and H moved, which version the chart shows, how to install it, and free lessons from the home row.

Start the Colemak-DH lessons

• Little
• Ring
• Middle
• Index
• Thumbs

The home row is A R S T G and M N E I O. D and H have moved from the middle of Colemak's home row down to the bottom row, onto the keys QWERTY calls V and M, so your index fingers curl down for them instead of stretching sideways. The chart shows the standard Mod-DH letters; on ordinary staggered keyboards, the angle-mod versions shift the bottom-left corner.

Colemak with D and H moved

Type “the” on Colemak and your right index finger stretches sideways for the H, in the middle column beside N. D does the same to your left hand. Both are common letters, ninth and eleventh in English letter frequency. Colemak Mod-DH, launched in October 2014 by a Colemak forum member known as SteveP, moves them and is named after them.

In the chart's version, D drops to the key QWERTY calls V and H to the key QWERTY calls M, so an index finger curls down for them instead of stretching sideways. G and M take over the middle of the home row, B moves up to the top row and V shifts one key right. The rest of Colemak stays put, including A R S T and N E I O under your resting fingers.

G and M are about half as common as H and D, so the sideways stretches still happen, just less often. If your index finger finds a curl down easier than a stretch into the middle, Mod-DH will feel better than plain Colemak.

Which version the chart shows

There is more than one Colemak-DH. The chart shows the standard Mod-DH letters, with Z X C D V and K H on the bottom row: the version for matrix keyboards, whose keys sit in straight columns, and for anyone using Colemak-DH without the angle mod.

For staggered keyboards, the kind on most laptops and desktops, the project's ANSI and ISO versions add the angle mod, which moves keys but not fingers. X, C, D and V each sit one key further left than on the chart. Z goes to the extra key beside left Shift on ISO keyboards, or to the key QWERTY calls B on ANSI ones, where the left index finger types it. The lessons and finger counts on CamelKeys still fit, but on the on-screen keyboard X, C, D and V appear one key to the right of the keys you press.

Shortcuts depend on the version too. On the chart's version Z, X and C keep their QWERTY keys and V moves one key right; with the angle mod, V keeps its key and Z, X and C move.

Older guides may show K in the middle of the home row and M below it. That was the recommended version for ordinary keyboards from 2017 to 2020; in October 2020 the project went back to M on the home row for every kind of keyboard.

Switching your computer to Colemak-DH

Fewer systems include Colemak-DH than plain Colemak.

The first weeks

From plain Colemak this is a small move: six letters, plus the bottom-left corner if you use the angle mod. From QWERTY it is a full switch, with about twenty letters on new keys; Tarmak, the Colemak community's step-by-step route, has a DH version. Either way, practise a little every day and give the curl to D and H extra attention, since “the”, “and” and “had” all need it.

Practising Colemak-DH on CamelKeys

CamelKeys does not remap keys, so install and select Colemak-DH on your computer first. Then choose Colemak-DH under Keyboard layout in Settings, or use the button on this page, which opens the lessons with it already chosen. The lessons, the keyboard drawn under each test and the finger counts in your results then follow Colemak-DH.

The lessons take the same 26 steps as on QWERTY: T and N, then S and E, R and I, A and O, and G and M to complete the home row. D and H arrive in lesson 11, when the index fingers first reach down, so for ten lessons you practise without “the”; words like “great”, “train” and “most” fill the gap. Tests are the normal ones in any language, such as the 1-minute test, and the layout changes only how your keys and fingers are counted.

Sources

• Colemak Mod-DH project, colemakmods.github.io/mod-dh: the ANSI, ISO and matrix layouts and the project's history.
• Colemak Mods, “Ergonomic keyboard mods”, on the Angle and Curl mods; “Ergonomic Key Remappings”, dreymar.colemak.org.
• Colemak forum, on the single recommended Colemak-DH agreed in October 2020.
• P. Norvig, “English Letter Frequency Counts: Mayzner Revisited”.
• xkeyboard-config, the Colemak-DH variants for Linux; the Homebrew cask colemak-dh; F-Droid, Colemak Mod-DH Keyboard.