Touch typing finger chart: home row keys and which finger presses each key

The home row keys

The eight home keys are A, S, D and F for the left hand and J, K, L and ; for the right. Your fingers sit there between words and return there after every reach.

G and H aren't home keys because no finger rests on them; the index fingers slide over and come back.

Hand position matters as much as the letters. Fingers curve slightly so the pads touch the keys, wrists stay straight rather than bending up, and the thumbs hover over the space bar.

Why the F and J keys have bumps

Run a finger over F and J on almost any keyboard and you'll feel a small raised bar or dot. Those bumps let your index fingers find home without looking: settle the index fingers on the bumps and the other six fingers fall onto the right keys by themselves.

The origin is murkier than most articles suggest. You'll often read that June E. Botich invented the bumps, but her US patent (filed 2002, granted December 2003) describes something else: raised edges on the outer sides of the home-row groups, at A and at the semicolon. We couldn't find a primary source that credits anyone with the F and J markers.

If a keyboard you use has its markers somewhere unexpected, or none at all, check which letters your index fingers rest on before you start, because every other finger takes its position from those two.

Why the home row is ASDF JKL;

The home row is the middle row of letters, and on QWERTY it lands on A S D F and J K L ; because that's where the fingers fall when both hands sit at the middle of the keyboard with a gap for the G and H columns. It wasn't chosen because those are common letters. On QWERTY only a handful of the most frequent English letters live there, which is the whole complaint made by alternative layouts (our layouts article has the evidence).

The middle row is the right place to rest because every other letter row is one reach away. Home-row touch typing is old: Wikipedia credits Frank Edward McGurrin with reportedly inventing it in 1888.

The full finger chart for a US QWERTY keyboard

This is the standard assignment as taught. Each finger works a column that slants slightly to the left as it goes down, because the rows on a standard keyboard are staggered.

Number row

Top row

Home row

Bottom row

Thumbs and modifiers

The space bar takes either thumb. Alt, Option, Cmd and the Windows key go to the nearest thumb; Ctrl goes to the little finger on the same side.

Shift: always the opposite hand

To type a capital or a shifted symbol, hold Shift with the little finger of the hand that is not pressing the letter. A capital T is right Shift plus left index; a capital J is left Shift plus right index; ! is right Shift plus left little finger on 1; ( is left Shift plus right ring finger on 9.

Self-taught typists break this rule more than any other. Hold left Shift for everything and your left little finger has to press Shift and A, Q or 1 at the same moment.

Is the standard chart the only correct one?

No. It's a convention inherited from typewriters, and a few parts of it make less sense on a modern keyboard.

The staggered rows are the clearest example. On a typewriter, rows were offset from each other (by three-eighths, three-sixteenths and three-eighths of an inch on the early Sholes design) to make room for the levers underneath each key. Computer keyboards have no levers, but kept the stagger, and the slanted finger columns come from it. On a split or ortholinear keyboard, where the keys sit in straight columns, the chart becomes simpler: each finger takes its column, full stop.

The number row has more than one tradition. The chart above is the most common modern version. Wikipedia describes an older method taught since the 1960s and possibly earlier, in which the left little finger takes 1 and 2, the ring finger 3, the middle finger 4 and the left index 5 and 6, while on the right the index takes 7 and 8, the middle finger 9, the ring finger 0 and the little finger everything further right. A third style mixes the two. Those charts probably reflect early typewriters that had no 0 or 1 key, not anything about hands.

Research on everyday typists supports a relaxed view. In a 2016 Aalto University study that tracked the hands and eyes of 30 typists, what set the fast ones apart was consistency: they pressed each letter with the same finger every time and kept their hands still. The number of fingers they used didn't predict their speed. That doesn't make the chart pointless. It's the easiest route to a consistent mapping, because someone has already made every decision for you.

Sensible variations

These deviations are common among good typists and cost little or nothing:

• The 6 key with the right index finger. Many charts give it to either hand. Pick one and stay with it.
• B with the right index finger. B sits roughly between the two index fingers, and words like "bring" or "number" can flow better this way. Again, choose once.
• The space bar with one thumb only. Alternating thumbs is what most charts show, but it isn't required, and a single thumb is a perfectly consistent mapping.
• Enter with the right ring finger or little finger, whichever reaches without moving the hand.
• The far-right keys ([ ] \ and Backspace) with a small hand movement instead of a stretch.

These variations cause real trouble:

• Pressing C with the index finger. The left index already owns four keys on the bottom and top rows plus F and G. Giving it C as well means it's often in the wrong place.
• Pressing P or the number keys with whichever finger is closest at the time, a mapping that changes with context.
• Using one Shift key for everything, as above.

How to tell if a variation is hurting you: take a 1-minute test and look at the most-missed keys on the results screen. A key that keeps showing up there is usually a key you haven't settled on a finger for.

A note on ISO keyboards

The chart above is for a US (ANSI) keyboard. Most UK and European keyboards follow the ISO physical layout, which has one more key: 105 instead of 104 on boards with Windows keys. The differences that change your fingering:

• There's an extra key between left Shift and Z. On a UK layout it holds \ and |. Left Shift is shorter, so your left little finger reaches less far for it, and it's easy to hit the extra key by mistake when you first switch.
• Enter is a tall key spanning two rows, and a # ~ key sits beside it on the UK layout. Both belong to the right little finger.
• On a UK layout, @ and " swap places (" on Shift+2, @ on Shift+'), and £ is on Shift+3.

Letter assignments don't change between ANSI and ISO. Only keys under the little fingers move, which is why switching between the two causes pinky errors at first.

How to use the chart

Our beginner's guide to touch typing has a two-week plan built around this chart. If you already type with a mix of fingers, our post on touch typing vs hunt and peck helps you decide whether to relearn.

Once the letters are automatic, the number row and symbols are a separate project. The numbers test shows how solid your top row is in a minute, and the practice page builds drills from the keys you actually miss. Programmers will want our post on symbols and touch typing.

Frequently asked questions

What are the 8 home row keys?

A, S, D and F for the left hand and J, K, L and the semicolon for the right hand. The thumbs rest on the space bar, which isn't counted as a home key.

Why is it important to use the home row?

It gives every finger a fixed starting point one reach away from its other keys, so you can find any letter by feel instead of by sight. Coming back to it after each reach is what keeps the mapping consistent.

Which finger should press the space bar?

Either thumb. Some typists alternate, using the thumb of the hand that didn't type the last letter; others use the same thumb every time. Both work if you're consistent.

How should my hands be positioned for typing?

Fingers curved and resting lightly on the home keys, index fingers on the F and J bumps, wrists straight and not bent upward, and thumbs over the space bar.