Layouts / latin · ANSI
Colemak-DH
A 2014 community refinement of Colemak that pulls D and H down into the easier-to-reach bottom-row inner columns.
Is Colemak-DH worth learning?
There's no reliable evidence that switching to Colemak-DH makes you type faster. The honest reason to learn it is hand comfort, not a speed edge. People already sold on Colemak's philosophy who want its most-requested ergonomic fix, especially if they're also considering a split or columnar keyboard down the line.
How long does Colemak-DH take to learn?
Real alternative-layout timelines converge on roughly 8 WPM by day 1, 53 WPM by day 30, and parity with your old speed by around day 90 of consistent daily practice. For Colemak-DH specifically: Similar to Colemak: a few weeks to comfortable proficiency. If migrating from base Colemak rather than QWERTY, expect a shorter adjustment since only three letters move.
History
Developed from 2014 onward by the ColemakMods community (credited to forum member SteveP's original "Mod-DH" proposal) as a fix for the most common complaint about original Colemak: that D and H, both fairly frequent letters, sit in the home row's stretch columns. Mod-DH pulls them down into the bottom row's inner columns instead, closer to where fingers naturally curl.
Strengths
- Addresses Colemak's most-cited weak point (D/H home-row stretch) while keeping the rest of the letter layout identical
- Same shortcut-preserving philosophy as Colemak: Z/X/C/V stay in place
- Popular enough in the mechanical-keyboard and QMK/ZMK firmware community that it's a first-class option almost anywhere Colemak is
Honest tradeoffs
- One more layer of "which Colemak is this" confusion for newcomers, since DH, the original, and split-board "wide" variants all coexist
- The ergonomic case for moving D/H is strongest on split/ergo keyboards with an angle mod; on a straight ANSI board the benefit is smaller
- Even less mainstream OS/software support than base Colemak