There seem to be all sorts of variations on the traditional keyboard design these days, from melting ergonomic models to big and bold mechanical gaming keyboards. Now with ortholinear keyboards, you still have a decision to make about your next keyboard.
Good in theory, bad in practice – A brief history of ortholinear keyboards
Most keyboards, probably the ones you use every day, have a staggered layout. Look at the top row of a standard QWERTY keyboard and you'll see that the second row of keys, starting with "ASD", is placed to the right of the QWERTY line, as is the next row of keys below it.
Ortholinear keyboards don’t have this stacked design. Instead, each key is perfectly square with the keys around it, giving ortholinear keyboards their characteristic grid-pattern layout. If your regular keyboard has a numeric keypad, you already know what this looks like, because numeric keypads are ortholinear.
Ortholinear keyboards have been around for almost 25 years, but they have only really become popular in the past few years. While not a requirement, most modern ortholinear keyboards are mechanical and often offer interchangeable keys. However, any keyboard with an ortholinear layout counts, regardless of its other features.
