QWERF

Finger	1	2	3	4	7	8	9	10
Usage	6.55% (P56)	6.96% (P10)	14.38% (P90)	17.61% (P94)	16.24% (P91)	10.42% (P15)	7.89% (P14)	2.71% (P5)

	Same Finger	Full Scissor	Half Scissor	Lat. Stretch
Bigram	3.96% (P93)	0.20% (P76)	1.18% (P29)	1.55% (P87)
Skipgram	7.59% (P98)	0.49% (P84)	1.63% (P7)	1.53% (P80)

	No Thumbs	Left Space	Right Space
Weak-ish Redirs.	0.92% (P68)	1.02% (P67)	0.57% (P25)
Weak Redirects	0.51% (P63)	0.24% (P64)	0.24% (P64)
Other Same Finger	31.42% (P94)	20.96% (P96)	20.97% (P96)
Rolls : Alts	2.15 (P83)	2.86 (P90)	1.64 (P63)
2-Roll In : Out	1.14 (P55)	1.06 (P52)	1.06 (P43)
3-Roll In : Out	1.22 (P56)	1.00 (P39)	1.02 (P53)

Author: Michael Capewell
Year: 2007
Finger Map: Traditional

Official Website

Finger	1	2	3	4	7	8	9	10
Usage	6.55% (P56)	6.96% (P10)	14.38% (P90)	17.61% (P94)	16.24% (P91)	7.39% (P2)	10.92% (P66)	2.71% (P5)

	Same Finger	Full Scissor	Half Scissor	Lat. Stretch
Bigram	3.97% (P95)	0.21% (P81)	1.35% (P41)	1.61% (P90)
Skipgram	7.55% (P96)	0.55% (P94)	1.75% (P11)	1.86% (P92)

	No Thumbs	Left Space	Right Space
Weak-ish Redirs.	1.34% (P83)	1.22% (P80)	0.97% (P69)
Weak Redirects	0.43% (P57)	0.21% (P59)	0.21% (P59)
Other Same Finger	31.44% (P95)	20.90% (P95)	20.90% (P95)
Rolls : Alts	2.15 (P82)	2.85 (P89)	1.63 (P61)
2-Roll In : Out	1.14 (P54)	1.08 (P54)	1.06 (P42)
3-Roll In : Out	0.99 (P44)	0.95 (P33)	1.08 (P55)

Finger	1	2	3	4	7	8	9	10
Usage	6.55% (P56)	6.96% (P10)	14.38% (P90)	17.61% (P94)	16.24% (P91)	7.59% (P6)	10.92% (P66)	2.52% (P2)

	Same Finger	Full Scissor	Half Scissor	Lat. Stretch
Bigram	3.85% (P92)	0.16% (P70)	1.36% (P43)	1.58% (P90)
Skipgram	7.43% (P94)	0.47% (P80)	1.80% (P13)	1.82% (P90)

	No Thumbs	Left Space	Right Space
Weak-ish Redirs.	1.20% (P80)	1.15% (P73)	0.77% (P46)
Weak Redirects	0.65% (P68)	0.31% (P71)	0.31% (P71)
Other Same Finger	30.84% (P93)	20.50% (P93)	20.50% (P93)
Rolls : Alts	2.16 (P84)	2.84 (P88)	1.64 (P64)
2-Roll In : Out	1.07 (P47)	1.04 (P49)	1.03 (P35)
3-Roll In : Out	0.92 (P39)	0.93 (P31)	0.95 (P49)

QWERF aims to reduce finger movement while maintaining some similarity to QWERTY. Like other QWERTY mods of the era, it moves the most common letters to the home row and places frequently used keys under the strongest fingers. However, its improvements over QWERTY are much more modest than the other QWERTY-inspired layouts of the time, including Colemak and Asset.

Install

There are two downloads available for macOS:

Method	Admin Required	Notes
Native	Optional	Does not require 3rd party key remapping software. Admin is required to install for all users and use on first login.
Karabiner-Elements	Yes	Requires 3rd party key remapping software, including the installation of a Driver Extension. Allows for remapping of only specific keyboards.

Native
Karabiner-Elements

Download the keylayout file for the desired version of QWERF:

QWERF (QWERF 2007)

QWERF (QWERF 2006)

QWERF (Original)
Extract the downloaded zip file.
Install the .keylayout file:
- Install Script
- Manual
Run one of the install scripts from the extracted folder:
- install-user.sh to install for a single user
- install-system.sh to install for all users
- qwerf_X.keylayout the layout to install
To install for a single user: Copy the .keylayout file from the extracted folder to ~/Library/Keyboard Layouts. Create the folder if it doesn’t exist.

To install for all users: Copy the .keylayout file from the extracted folder to /Library/Keyboard Layouts.

By default, macOS hides the “Library” folder. To navigate to it in Finder, open the Go to Folder dialog (Go → Go to Folder… in the menubar, or Command-Shift-G) and type in the path shown above.
Restart macOS.
Open System Settings.
Go to Keyboard → Text Input → Input Sources → Edit… and add your new QWERF layout.
Press the “+” button at the bottom left.
Search for “QWERF,” select your new layout, and press Add.