If you’ve been hanging out in the corners of the internet related to mechanical keyboards , chances are you’ve seen some weird-looking layouts – little rectangular boards with square keys in perfectly straight rows and columns. It is a type of keyboard called ortolinear , an interesting trend among enthusiasts and that in this article we are going to define and tell you what they are used for.
There are many, many types of PC keyboards, and even if we put aside the different layouts (such as es_ES or en_US for example) and variations (QWERTY, AZERTY, etc.), we will find many different models as far as design is concerned. In recent times, the ortolinear keyboard is very fashionable among enthusiasts, but why is it so? We are going to start at the beginning and then we get down to business.
What is an ortholinear keyboard and why is it called that?
The word “Ortho” or “Ortho” is a Greek word that means straight or rigid . It is the same word that we use as the basis for orthodontics, the medical practice of straightening people’s teeth. Now combine it with “linear” which obviously means in line and you have ortholinear: an adjective that means that something has a lot of straight lines.
And what is the point of a keyboard that looks so strange, or at least atypical for what we are used to? To answer this you must first ask yourself why a normal keyboard is, well, normal. The practice of toggling keys started with old mechanical typewriters , because each key was connected to a bar that literally hit an ink ribbon that printed the letter on the paper. To accommodate multiple rows of keys, the keys were alternated with each other.
This design decision held up long after those physical bars were replaced by electrical signals, as the keys on electric and electronic typewriters adopted the same layout as these early antiquated models. This, in turn, was carried over to most PC keyboard designs; Because there is no obvious downside to using stepped keys once you develop muscle memory for typing, there is no reason to tweak the layout and more so when people were already used to it.
It’s a lot like how the “Save” button is still represented by a floppy disk even decades after it was completely discontinued. Designs made more than a century ago still include the way we interact with everyday objects, and this needs to be taken into account when making small and seemingly inconsequential decisions.
What has a linear ortho keyboard better than the others?
An ortho linear keyboard does not use a different key layout than standard keyboards, like the difference between QWERTY and DVORAK for example. No, they have the same key mapping that you are used to, just perfectly straight and linear. To do this, the side special keys such as Control, ENTER, Shift, etc. are generally reduced in size. (or sometimes they are duplicated to maintain uniformity).
So is an ortho linear keyboard better? Honestly, that depends on the user. Some users say that switching to a straightforward layout makes them faster typists because “it all makes more sense .” But, of course, if you’ve been typing your whole life on a keyboard considered “standard” and they put an ortho-linear keyboard in front of you, not only will you type very slow but you will make mistakes much more, and this is because your brain already has settled a muscle memory of where the keys are. If you want to use one of these keyboards, you will have to learn how to do it.
This learning period does not have to be particularly long by any means, since the layout of the keys is the same after all. It appears to be roughly the same as how long it takes to adapt to a split ergonomic keyboard like Microsoft‘s, but of course the process will be different for each user. The fact is, many also claim that an ortho-linear keyboard is more ergonomic than a standard one.
In a similar way, you do not know the benefit that using one of these keyboards will bring to you as a user until you try it and learn to use it, and in the end it may not have benefits for you because as we said before, it depends on each user .
These keyboards, by the way, are not a new invention even if it is now that they have become fashionable: there are examples that go back to the early days of computing. But the newer designs seem to be based on the fact that you can make smaller designs precisely because of the space that the keys occupy. It’s worth considering if you’re looking for a small keyboard.
Where can you buy one?
If you are eager to try an ortho linear keyboard, you are not alone, but you are not in a company so abundant as to be able to find these keyboards in any computer store, and in fact it is quite difficult to find them.
Because this is a trend that started in the mechanical keyboard community, the vast majority of ortho-linear keyboards are in fact homemade: users buy a circuit board, a compatible case, the switches, and assemble it themselves with a soldering iron. . Then they have to plug in the keyboard and program or adjust the key layout to their liking.
However, there are also commercial versions. For example, the Planck EZ design you can see above is generally the starting point; It is a 40% keyboard that has all the letter keys but lacks a number row or function keys. You have to use virtual layers to use the numbers, pressing the Fn button and the top row. This keyboard comes pre-assembled but is very expensive: it costs $ 230 .
Drop.com (formerly Massdrop) also sells a version of this design but it requires some assembly. You will need to find your own compatible mechanical switches (which is not difficult, all said) and assemble them yourself. The kit costs $ 110 and the switches will cost you about $ 30 more.
There is a much easier option to find, and it is the one you can see in the image above. This is Koolertron, a company that sells single-handed keyboards also known as “Macro Pad” in ortho-linear designs. Combine two of them and program them for both sides of the keyboard and voila, you will have a functional ortho-linear keyboard and also with an “ergonomic” central division.