What is touch typing? Definition and a five-minute tutorial

Touch typing means typing without looking at the keyboard. Each key belongs to one fixed finger, both hands return to the home row between keystrokes, and your eyes stay on the screen or on the text you copy. The name comes from finding the keys by touch instead of by sight. You may also see it called ten-finger typing or blind typing.

The home row and the finger for each key

On a US or UK QWERTY keyboard, your fingers rest on the middle row of letters. This is the starting position for every keystroke:

• left pinky on A, left ring finger on S, left middle finger on D, left index finger on F
• right index finger on J, right middle finger on K, right ring finger on L, right pinky on the semicolon
• both thumbs on the space bar

From there, each finger reaches the keys directly above and below its home key. The index fingers do the most work, because each one also covers the column next to it toward the middle: T, G and B for the left hand, Y, H and N for the right. The small bumps on F and J let you find the home row without looking. The full map of all keys is in The home row: where every finger belongs.

Why it is worth learning

Speed alone is not the strongest argument. Feit, Weir and Oulasvirta watched people type in everyday use. The touch typists in their study averaged 57.8 words per minute (WPM), the self-taught typists 58.9 WPM. So fast self-taught typists exist. What the fast typists had in common was that they used the same finger for the same key and kept their hand movements small.

Touch typing builds exactly those habits from the first lesson. It also frees your eyes. You no longer glance down to search for a key, so your attention stays on what you write. Whether switching pays off for you depends on how you type today, and Is touch typing worth it? walks you through that decision.

A five-minute tutorial

You can try the method right now, with any text editor open:

1. Put your fingers on the home row as listed above, thumbs on the space bar. Feel the bumps on F and J.
2. Type slowly: fff jjj fjf jfj, then ddd kkk, sss lll and aaa followed by a few semicolons. Say each letter in your head.
3. Keep your eyes on the screen. If you lose your place, find F and J again by touch.
4. Type short words made of home row letters only: sad, lad, ask, flask, dad, fall.
5. Stop after five minutes. That is enough for today.

Short sessions are not a shortcut but a good choice. In a classic study, Baddeley and Longman compared postal workers who learned to type on different schedules. The group with one hour a day learned faster than the group with two long sessions a day. For your own practice, that points to short daily sessions of 10 to 20 minutes rather than a few long ones.

How to keep going

Accuracy comes first. In typando, a lesson counts as passed at 97% accuracy, and speed follows later, with a goal based on your own recent results. Expect to type more slowly than before for the first weeks. That is normal while the new movements replace the old ones.

The free touch typing course takes you from the home row to real texts in four phases, with an on-screen keyboard for US, UK and other layouts.