Does an Ortholinear Layout Really Reduce Finger Travel? Measuring Finger Travel Distance on a 75% Japanese Layout Keyboard

Most keyboards used in the world today feature a “row-staggered layout,” where the keys are offset horizontally.

This layout dates back to the typewriter era and has become the established “de facto standard” for key layouts that continues to this day.

However, key layouts have become much more flexible in the modern era.

The “ortholinear layout” (straight grid) was devised based on the idea that “maybe they don’t need to be offset.”

The grid-like, orderly layout is visually striking, and I’ve often heard it said that it allows for “more efficient typing.”

A common point raised regarding this “efficiency” is the reduction in finger travel distance.

On the other hand, many people who actually prefer ortholinear layouts cite sensory reasons, such as the lack of irregular horizontal offsets making it easier to locate keys and move fingers straight up and down.

In this article, I will focus on verifying one specific aspect that is easy to measure numerically: finger travel distance.

Let’s look at how the distance changes when a 75% Japanese layout is converted to an ortholinear one.

Result: Significant reduction in finger travel distance, except for a few keys

In this verification, the average finger travel distance for most fingers was shortened by switching to ortholinear.

However, only the travel distance for the right pinky finger slightly increased.

Specifically, the results showed that keys clustered in the upper right, such as Backspace, ¥, and ^, become “further away” compared to a row-staggered layout when starting from the right pinky’s home position.

However, since many of the symbol keys with increased distance are not typed frequently, I don’t believe this is a major disadvantage in practical typing.

The practical focus for layout design will likely be where to move the relatively high-frequency Backspace key.

Ortholinear layouts make it easier to move fingers straight

A characteristic of the ortholinear layout is that it’s easy to move between character keys in a vertical direction.

Please take a look at this diagram.

As you can see, in a standard row-staggered layout, typing involves shifting to the right relative to the home position.

It feels a bit strange when you think about it—even though the keyboard is centered with your body, your hands are constantly reciprocating from the top-left to the bottom-right.

With an ortholinear layout, however, you can type by moving your fingers “up and down” rather than diagonally.

You might start to feel a very clean sensation, as if your movements are aligned with your body’s axis.

This “straight up and down” aspect is a benefit distinct from mere distance reduction.

In row-staggered layouts, because each row is slightly offset, the relative coordinates from the home position become irregular, making it easy for fingers to subconsciously apply diagonal corrections.

Since ortholinear layouts eliminate this irregularity, it’s easier to get the sense that it’s “easier to locate keys.”

Verification Conditions

Now, let me present the verification conditions for this experiment.

Here is the 75% key layout used as the base.

It’s a generous 75% Japanese layout with independent arrow keys.

And here is the model converted to ortholinear.

Due to the nature of the key layout, not all keys are the same size.

I intentionally split the spacebar and followed the vertically long ISO Enter size typically used in Japanese layouts.

The verification conditions are as follows:

Item	Conditions
Pitch	1u = 19.05mm
Distance	Linear distance from keycap center to center
Home Keys	A, S, D, F, J, K, L, ;
Calculation	Equal weighting (pressing each assigned key once)
Excluded	F-row, Navigation, Win, Alt, Fn

Regarding the home position, I referred to the diagram below, and the finger coverage for each was based on touch-typing theory commonly used in Japan.

For example, the right index finger is responsible for 6, 7, Y, U, H, J, N, and M, with J as the home key.

The right pinky is responsible for everything to the right of the “0” column, with “+ ;” as the home key.

Verification Results

Here are the results obtained from the verification.

Reduction for most fingers; increase in average distance only for the right pinky

When averaging the assigned keys for each finger with equal weighting (based on the number of keys covered by each home position), the travel distance was shortened for most fingers, including the middle and ring fingers.

The only finger that saw an increase in average distance was the right pinky.

Assigned Finger	Lowe Staggered	authorolinear	Difference
Left Pinky	30.06mm	26.04mm	-4.03mm
Left Ring Finger	20.41mm	19.05mm	-1.36mm
Left Middle Finger	20.41mm	19.05mm	-1.36mm
Left Index Finger	24.65mm	23.97mm	-0.69mm
Right Index Finger	25.39mm	23.97mm	-1.42mm
Right Middle Finger	20.41mm	19.05mm	-1.36mm
Right Ring Finger	20.41mm	19.05mm	-1.36mm
Right Pinky	37.96mm	39.22mm	+1.26mm

The right pinky has a large number of assigned keys (16), giving it a wider range compared to the 4 keys each for the right middle and ring fingers.

It wasn’t Enter that got further away, but the keys in the top right

There were 9 keys that increased in distance due to the ortholinear conversion.

Six of those are assigned to the right pinky.

For the left index finger, 5 and T are further away, and for the right index finger, N is further away, but the average distance for those fingers as a whole has decreased.

Among the keys with increased travel distance, the “Backspace key” showed a particularly prominent increase.

Incredibly, it ended up more than 1cm further away.

Keys with increased distance for the right pinky

key	Lowe Staggered	authorolinear	Difference
Backspace	72.70mm	85.19mm	+12.50mm
¥	57.35mm	68.69mm	+11.34mm
^	44.93mm	53.88mm	+8.95mm
–	38.40mm	42.60mm	+4.20mm
[	38.40mm	42.60mm	+4.20mm
@	23.81mm	26.94mm	+3.13mm
Enter	59.15mm	57.94mm	-1.21mm

It was a surprising discovery that the distance to the Enter key actually decreased slightly.

Analysis Based on Results | The BS Key Should Be Moved

The increase in right pinky travel—specifically, that converting a 75% Japanese layout to ortholinear “increases the average center distance of keys assigned to the right pinky by 1.26mm*”—has been established as a fact.

*This does not indicate that actual fatigue or muscle load increases by the same proportion.

On the other hand, these results suggest that it may not be such a large disadvantage in practice.

While ¥ and ^ show a large increase in distance, they are not keys pressed frequently in general text entry.

Therefore, just because the average distance for the right pinky has increased, it doesn’t necessarily mean actual fatigue will increase by the same amount.

However, regarding the high-frequency “BS” key, which has become physically more than 1cm further away, I believe there is room to reconsider its physical placement given how often it is used.

Two ways to move the Backspace key away from the right pinky

This ortholinear layout features a split spacebar in the center, with 2u on each side.

By utilizing this structure, the Backspace can be repositioned without increasing the overall width.

Alternatively, another effective method would be to make the Enter key 1u in size and place the BS below it.

“Repositioning after alignment” is key in ortholinear conversion

From these results, it’s clear that while ortholinear conversion makes it easy to shorten finger travel for the character section, simply arranging an existing Japanese layout in a grid leaves challenges on the right pinky side.

What’s important isn’t just aligning the keys vertically and horizontally.

It seems crucial to redesign the “space” created by the alignment according to usage frequency and the load on the assigned fingers.

Moving the Backspace to the right split spacebar could be one answer to that.

What this verification doesn’t show

What I compared in this article is the geometric distance between key centers. It is not a direct measurement of actual fatigue or input efficiency. It does not take into account finger length, hand size, wrist angle, key weight, or actual finger trajectories.

Furthermore, the averages per finger are based on equal weighting for each assigned key. If we were to factor in the actual frequency of key usage in Japanese text, the effect of repositioning the Backspace might become even clearer.

Summary

So, we’ve looked at the changes in finger travel distance when a 75% Japanese layout is made ortholinear.

Based on the result that average distance is reduced for most fingers, ortholinear is advantageous if we limit the metric to distance.

However, this is strictly a matter of mechanical distance and does not reduce the “reason to be ortholinear” solely to distance reduction.

In terms of actual reasons for choosing it, sensory factors like “the lack of irregular offsets making it easier to find key coordinates” and “the ability to move consistently in a vertical direction” are likely just as significant as distance.

I hope you read this article as a verification focused specifically on distance.

That said, the fact that the high-frequency Backspace key becomes further away cannot be ignored, so repositioning after alignment remains important.

On the other hand, since this distance measurement doesn’t account for key usage frequency, it remains a purely mechanical conclusion.

Key usage frequency varies greatly depending on what your native language is for typing, or whether you’re using it for programming or text entry, so I didn’t verify that this time.

While ortholinear layouts are efficient, the reason they haven’t become widespread in the modern era is likely due to the high switching cost from row-staggered layouts.

However, it’s not like there are no commercial products available.

There are challenging products like the Keychron Q15 Max that force a reconsideration of the existing row-staggered layout.

Also, though it’s a small keyboard, the Chosfox Geonix Rev.2.5 exists as well.

If there are any brands out there that want to try making a Japanese layout ortholinear keyboard, I’d love to work on it together.

How do you feel about ortholinear layouts?

The layout model and finger travel distance calculations used in this article are Greenkeys’ own independent verification. This content is not based on advertising or sponsorship from specific products.
This article compared the distance between key centers. It did not compare input speed, fatigue, typos, or joint movement.

Click here for the full list of measurement data

あわせて読みたい

How to Choose a 40% Small Keyboard by Layout: Comparing 3 Layouts by Finger Travel Distance from Home Position

2026年8月16日

Chosfox Init40 specs partially revealed

2026年8月15日

NuPhy kicks off its Back to School Sale | Up to 42% off, plus up to $30 off depending on your order total

2026年8月14日