Editing Touch typing (section)

== History ==
[[File:Unterricht im Blindschreiben.jpg|thumb|left|A 1910 promotional photograph touting touch typing instruction in a typing school. [[Mülheim]], Germany]]
{{quote box|width = 30% |quote = "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a little tiring to do so much typewriting?"<br />
"I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters are without looking."|source=[[Arthur Conan Doyle]], ''[[A Case of Identity]]'' (1891)}}
Original layouts for the first few mechanical typewriters were in [[alphabetical]] order (ABCDE etc.) Changes were made, mostly responding to suggestions from telegraphists who were among the first users.<ref name="zinbun">Koichi Yasuoka∗ and Motoko Yasuoka (2011) On the Prehistory of QWERTY. ZINBUN (2011), 42: 161-174 [https://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2433/139379/1/42_161.pdf]</ref> Common letters were moved towards the center and into the upper row. The view that the layout was intentionally redesigned to slow down the operator, to prevent jamming the mechanism, is widespread but not correct.<ref name='zinbun'/>

The calculations for keyboard layout were based on the language being typed and this meant different keyboard layouts would be needed for each language. In English-speaking countries, for example, the first row is QWERTY, but in French-speaking countries it is [[AZERTY]]. Though mechanical typewriters are now rarely used, moves to change the layout to increase speed have been largely ignored or resisted due to familiarity with the existing layout among touch typists.

On July 25, 1888, an American man, Frank Edward McGurrin, who was reportedly 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 displayed on the front pages of many newspapers.<ref name="Frank Edward McGurrin">[http://www.kanji.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~yasuoka/QWERTY/ Frank Edward McGurrin] ''(Very big text, search for "Contest for a Prize of $500")''</ref> McGurrin won US$500 (equivalent to $13,304 in 2019 USD) 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.<ref>{{Citation
 | last1 = Liebowitzs
 | first1 = Stn
 | last2 = Margolis
 | first2 = Stephen E.
 | url = http://reason.com/archives/1996/06/01/typing-errors/
 | title = Typing Errors
 | magazine = [[Reason (magazine)|Reason]]
 |date=Jun 1996
 | access-date = 2007-02-14}}</ref>

In 1889, Bates Torrey coined the words "writing by touch" in his article.<ref>Bates Torrey: Scientific Typewriting, The Writer, Vol. 3, No. 7, pp.152-154, 1889.</ref> In 1890, Lovisa Ellen Bullard Barnes defined the words "write by touch" in her book as follows:<ref>Mrs. Arthur J. Barnes: How to Become Expert in Typewriting: A Complete Instructor Designed Especially for the Remington, Rather J. Barnes, St. Louis, 1890.</ref><ref>Mrs. Arthur J. Barnes: Complete Caligraph instructor or How to Become Expert in Typewriting, Rather J. Barnes, St. Louis, 1890.</ref>
{{quote|To learn to '''write by touch''', that is, with only an occasional glance at the key-board, sit directly in front of the machine. Keep the hands as nearly as possible in one position over the key-board.}}

In 1985, [[Touch Typist Typing Tutor]], developed and released by Sector Software is an early example of typing tutor software.<ref>{{Cite web|title=History {{!}} Sector Software|date=23 September 2010 |url=http://sectorsoftware.co.uk/history/|access-date=2021-06-06|language=en}}</ref>

Touch typing is contrasted to ''search and peck'', also known as ''hunt-and-peck'' or ''two-fingered typing''. Instead of relying on the memorized position of keys, the typist finds each key by sight and moves their finger over to press it, usually the index finger of their dominant hand. This method is considered inferior as not only is it slower than touch typing, the typist would have to have their fingers travel a greater distance.

Various other styles in between those two exist—for example, using a ''search-and-peck'' method, but with an increased number of fingers; typing without looking at the keyboard, but using fewer than the eight fingers that the home row method uses (commonly, the omission of the little finger as the weakest finger that many will find difficult to hit keys with due to either less strength, less dexterity, or both); moving their entire hand to reach for the desired key; or only moving when a key needs to be pressed instead of always returning to home row after every keystroke.

[[File:QWERTY-home-keys-position.svg|thumb|right|Start position with fingers on the home row]]
[[File:FingerHandPosUSA.gif|thumb|right|Standard finger placement on a QWERTY keyboard]]