Keyboard Sizes & Layouts

Mar 6

The days of standard keyboards are long behind us, with the mechanical keyboard community introducing and producing a wide spectrum of form factors to fit our every personal need.

People have different preferences for what board size and layout they like. It's not an exact science—there is no ‘best’ or ‘worst’ board. There are simply boards that you like because of their aesthetics or their functionality. Whether you use a numpad, how much desk space you have, what keys you use regularly, and so on can help inform what keyboard you should get. This course takes you through the differences in keyboard sizes so you can find what case and form factor are right for you.

Before we begin

Anatomy of a Keyboard

*A standard ANSI keyboard layout, with keys labeled by category.*

Keyboard Size

Keyboard size refers to the physical size of the keyboard, which is proportional to how many keys it has. In general, the more physical keys it has, the bigger the keyboard—with some variation in how layouts compact them closer together and vice versa.

Sizes are often referred to in percentages—100%, 75%, 40%, and so on—which use a typical full-size layout as the reference point.

Common Keyboard Sizes — Full-size, TKL, and 60%

**Full-size / 100%**
Full-size keyboards come with the traditional modifiers, arrow keys, and numpad.

**Tenkeyless (TKL)**
Like a full-size board, but without the numpad. This form factor is fairly standardized without much variation with the directional keys.

**Compact / 60%**
A 60% keyboard is a common “compact” layout. It omits the numpad, arrow keys, and function row.

Keyboards are a lot more varied than just those three common sizes though. The keyboard community has produced several mainstay formats that further meet the specific needs of typists, each with its own character and layout.

**75%**
75% boards compact the keys tightly together, fitting nearly as many keys as a TKL.
AKA: a 65% with a function row
*Godspeed75* *with* *Infinikey BoW Keycaps* *(Black on White)*

**65%**
A 65% has alphas, modifiers, and an extra right column to accommodate arrow keys.
AKA: a 75% without the function row or a 60% with arrow keys.
Portico with *DSA Magic Girl keycaps*

**40%**
40% boards contain alphas—with no number row—and some modifiers. They rely on programmed layers for functionality.
*MiniVan* *with* *Infinikey Græn Keycaps*

**1800 Layout**
This full-size layout is a bit more compact than its standard counterpart—the navigation cluster has moved to sit above the numpad, allowing the clusters to shift a bit closer together.
TKC1800 *with* *ePBT Doubleshot ABS Olivetti*

Compact Keyboards

Keyboards that are 60% or smaller are considered compact keyboards. At this size, physical keys are stripped away to leave only what’s necessary.

***The*** ***MiniVan*** *— a 40% keyboard featuring a split spacebar. One spacebar acts as a function layer toggle, while the other spacebar acts as usual.*
*Mats are* *SA Rocket*.

*Fn + WASD = arrow keys on a 60% keyboard*

Function Layers

What about functionality? Compact keyboards use a feature called function layers to access keys that are otherwise missing.

A function layer works by toggling programmable “layers” on the keyboard. You might be familiar with this from your laptop keyboard, for example, where you might hold down the function key (fn) to access volume controls or to adjust your screen brightness.

For example, a 60% board doesn’t have arrow keys. To access them, you might hold down the function key and use the WASD keys.

*CandyBar Premium* *— a 40% + numpad layout. Keyset is* *Infinikey Aether*.

Unconventional Keyboards

Unlike the previous layouts, these keyboards don’t fall as neatly into a sizing classification. These are non-standard layouts that typically, but not always, are available through Group Buys rather than retail sales.