Dvorak

DVORAK most commonly refers to the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard, a keyboard layout designed to increase typing speed and reduce finger movement. The layout places the most frequently used letters on the home row and assigns vowels to the left hand and common consonants to the right, with the aim of minimizing finger travel and alternating hands.

Developed in the 1930s by Dr. August Dvorak and his colleague William Dealey, it was patented in 1936 as an alternative to the dominant QWERTY layout. The design concentrates high-frequency letters on the home row and uses the top and bottom rows to place less common letters, with the goal of greater efficiency and reduced fatigue for touch typists.

Adoption has been limited relative to QWERTY, and while some users report faster typing after retraining, practical gains vary. DVORAK is available in most modern operating systems and can be used with standard keyboards; there are variants for programming and for other languages.

The name DVORAK can also refer to the Czech-born composer Antonín Dvořák. The keyboard layout and the composer are unrelated beyond sharing the surname.