Touch typing is faster than true hunt and peck, where you search for each key and press it with one or two fingers. But most people who don't touch type aren't really hunting and pecking. They use a self-taught mix of fingers, and the best of them type as fast as trained typists. The real difference between the two styles is where your eyes are, and that's what should decide whether you relearn.
What the research says about speed
| Classic hunt and peck | Self-taught, several fingers | Touch typing | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fingers | One or two | Around six on average | All eight, plus thumbs |
| Eyes | Mostly on the keys | On the keys about 40% of the time | On the keys about 20% of the time |
| Typical speed | About 27 WPM copying text | Similar to touch typists in one lab study | Similar to self-taught in the same study |
The first column comes from a 1988 interface design guide quoted by Wikipedia, which puts two-finger typists at about 27 WPM when copying and 37 WPM for memorized text, with bursts of 60 to 70.
The other two columns come from a 2016 Aalto University study that filmed 30 people typing. Self-taught typists averaged 58.9 WPM and touch typists 57.8, a gap the researchers found was not significant, and some people using one or two fingers per hand passed 70 WPM. The study has been criticised for only including typists up to about 75 WPM, so it says little about very fast ones.
The large online picture is similar. In the 2018 Aalto and Cambridge study of 168,960 volunteers, people who had taken a typing course averaged 54.35 WPM and those who hadn't averaged 49.00, a difference of about 5 WPM. Our post on average typing speed puts those numbers in context.
Where touch typing really wins
Eyes. A self-taught typist who looks down 40% of the time can't read what they're typing, so errors run on for a word or two before they notice. They also lose their place when copying from a document or following a conversation on screen. In the 2016 study, the fast typists in both groups shared two habits: each letter always went to the same finger, and the hands stayed still. Touch typing gives you both by design.
Self-taught typists can build that consistency by accident. Touch typing builds it on purpose: the finger chart is a set of decisions about which finger takes each key, already made for you.
What switching costs
Several weeks of being slower. In a 2003 study at the Technion, students typed 18.4 WPM by looking and only 8.1 WPM without looking before training. After an 8-hour course their touch typing reached 21.1 WPM, and after 6 more hours of real use it was 28.7. That's a good result, and also a reminder that the first fortnight is slower than what you started with.
The bigger risk is reverting. The same study found that finishing a course doesn't guarantee people keep touch typing day to day, because the old method stays quicker for a while.
How to decide
Relearn if any of these is true:
- You look at the keyboard for most keys.
- You type under about 35 WPM on a 1-minute test.
- You copy from documents or type while reading, and keep losing your place.
Don't bother relearning, and instead fix your two or three inconsistent keys, if you already type above about 60 WPM and seldom look down.
If you do switch, our beginner's guide to touch typing has a two-week plan, and how long it takes to learn touch typing sets out what to expect after that.
Frequently asked questions
Is 70 WPM with 2 fingers good?
Yes. It's well above the 51.56 WPM average in the 2018 study. If you can do it without looking down much, you have little reason to relearn.
Is hunt and peck bad?
It's slow for most people and keeps your eyes off the screen. If you type little, it does the job.
Can hunt and peck typists be fast?
Some are. People using one or two fingers per hand passed 70 WPM in the 2016 Aalto study, though most fast typists use more fingers with a fixed key for each.
What is the difference between touch typing and hunt and peck?
Touch typists find keys by feel from the home row with a fixed finger for each key. Hunt-and-peck typists find each key by sight.
Sources
- Typing (Wikipedia), hunt and peck speeds citing Brown 1988
- Feit, Weir and Oulasvirta (2016), How We Type, CHI '16
- Touch typing (Wikipedia), criticism of the 2016 sample
- Dhakal, Feit, Kristensson and Oulasvirta (2018), Observations on Typing from 136 Million Keystrokes, CHI '18
- Yechiam, Erev, Yehene and Gopher (2003), Melioration and the Transition from Touch-Typing Training to Everyday Use