🔗 Why I Like Small Keyboards

Some people take this idea further, with 36 key keyboards that eschew the outer most column of keys to reduce the burden on the pinkies. There are tricks to get more utility out of the most accessable keys, like using home row modifiers. I haven’t tried going that far yet but it is interesting – I have found 42 keys to be a sweet spot giving both the benefits I’ve explained above, as well as being similar enough to a standard keyboard that it hasn’t impacted my ability to type on anything else. Source: Why I Like Small Keyboards 42 key is 10 keys less than my 52-key ZSA Voyager, which I’ve grown to love for its efficient size and the way that it can be tented to reduce pain when typing. I must admit that I do wish that the Voyager had 2 extra keys - both in the thumb cluster - it would allow me to not rely on the ‘Z’ key as “alt/option” and keep that within the thumb cluster for the Command+Alt (⌘+⎇) sequences that are often needed.