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Touch typing is typing without using the sense of sight to find the keys. Specifically, a touch typist will know their location through muscle memory. Touch typing usually places the eight fingers in a horizontal row along the middle of the keyboard (the home row) and has them reach for other keys. Most computer keyboards have a raised dot or bar on either the F/J keys or the D/K keys (or the keys in the same position, for non-QWERTY keyboards) so that touch-typists can feel them when their fingertips are over the correct home row.

Typing zones on a QWERTY keyboard for each finger taken from KTouch

Touch typing was reputedly invented by Frank Edward McGurrin, a court stenographer from Salt Lake City who taught typing classes.

On July 25, 1888, McGurrin, who was purportedly the only person using touch typing at the time, won a decisive victory over Louis Traub (operating Caligraph with eight-finger method) in a typing contest held in Cincinnati. The results were splashed on the front pages of many newspapers. McGurrin won $500 ($10,820 in 2006) and popularized the new typing method.

Whether McGurrin was actually the first person to touch type, or simply the first to be popularly noticed, is disputed. Speeds attained by other typists in other typing competitions at the time suggest that they must have been using similar systems^[1].

The most common other form of typing is "hunt and peck" (or two-fingered typing) which is slower than touch typing because, instead of relying on the memorized position of keys, the typist is required to find each key by sight and move fingers a greater distance. Many idiosyncratic styles in between those two exist – for example many people will type blindly, but using only two to five fingers and not always in a systematic way.

Some of the suggested ways of improving typing speeds in touch typing are:

• Ensuring a correct posture
• Exerting only the correct amount of force required ie. not to bang on the keys
• Taking frequent breaks to relax and improve accuracy
• Using an optimized keyboard layout such as the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard.

The most important thing in learning to touch type is to remember where the keys are. Typing classes have traditionally had blank keyboards, with a large chart on the wall so those learning to touch type knew where their fingers were supposed to be. This used to force learners to feel the keys and not look at them. However, for a beginner, finger placement and accuracy are more important than not looking at the keys.

The first rule is to know where the home row is, and where one's fingers are supposed to be placed.

The next step is to find a piece of paper with words on it and start typing it. After every key stroke one's fingers must return to the home row.

At first one will type at a slow speed; however, it won't take long to learn where the keys are, and it is then not required to spend as much attention on the keys as the text. At first, attention is split between the original copy and the keyboard; looking at the copy becomes more frequent. As practice and experience continue, one will discover that it is not necessary to look at the keys too much. Typing speed will have increased because each finger types its own key on the keyboard, rather than many fingers for the same key.

In some countries a slightly different system is taught. The left little finger is used for the keys ´ 1 2, the ring finger for 3, the middle - 4, the left index finger is responsible for 5 and 6. On the right side of the keyboard: index - 7 and 8, middle - 9, ring - 0 and the little - all other keys on the right side of the upper row. This modification is important in connection with the ergonomic keyboard, which is split into two parts.

Some specialized high-end computer keyboards are designed for touch typists. For example, Das Keyboard provides blank mechanical keyboards.[1] A trained touch typist should not mind using a blank keyboard. This kind of keyboard may force hunt and peck users to type without looking.

• Dvorak Simplified Keyboard, an alternative English keyboard layout, optimised for speed
• Keyboard layouts
• Muscle memory
• The Typing of the Dead (a unique horror game based on typing)
• typespeed (a multi-player typing game)

1. ^ Liebowitz, Stan & Margolis, Stephen E. (1996-06), "Typing Errors", Reason, <http://www.reason.com/news/show/29944.html>. Retrieved on 2007-02-14

• Free Touch Typing Tutor with Tree Touch 'Typing Speed Test' available
• A list of free touch typing tutors.
• Free online typing course
• Tips on touchtyping and relaxation exercises
• Free typing tutor, including detailed result analysis and effective educational concept
• Online typing tutor with supports for different languages and keyboard layouts, including Dvorak Simplified layout
• GNU Typist - open source touch typing tutor program
• 10-fast-fingers.com - free and online touch typing tutor and speedtest'