People only just realising UK and US keyboards are different

The QWERTY configuration was developed to prevent mechanical jamming problems on early American typewriters and became the “universal layout” following Remington’s merger with four other leading US typewriter companies. This prompted one baffled Reddit user to ask: “Explain like I’m five: Why do the US and the UK have different keyboard layouts when they both speak English?” Another asked: “Do you prefer the UK or US layout and why?”

They added: “I live in the US, and to try something different, I decided to go with a UK keyboard, along with changing the applicable setting in my OS (operating system). I used to use the US-International setting with a regular US keyboard before this. Do those of you in one country/region prefer another layout?

“Is one better than another, or is it only whatever one’s used to? I don’t do traditional touch-typing, but I noticed that if I did, the Enter/Return key on the UK layout is too far to the right for my small finger to hit it with the rest of my fingers on the home row.”

“My old US keyboard has this key in a horizontal orientation as opposed to a vertical one. Is there a reason for the differences in symbol key locations like @ ” ¬ # ~ |? Was it just a matter of when these layouts were developed?”

When modifying the original design, Britons chose to enlarge the ‘Enter’ key, making it double the size of the American equivalent. This alteration created space for the ‘~ and #’ key to squeeze in beside the ‘Enter’ key but required the ‘| and ‘ key to be relocated elsewhere.

To address this problem, Britons reduced the ‘Shift’ key on the bottom left of the keyboard so the ‘| and ‘ key could comfortably sit next to it.

Responding to the Reddit posts, one user said: “Honestly, I hate UK keyboards. The short left Shift and vertical, thin Enter are very uncomfortable, especially Shift for gaming and Enter for typing. And as I live in the UK, it is very, very annoying because it is so hard to find a nice gaming laptop with a normal gaming keyboard.”

Another user commented: “I prefer the UK one because I use my keyboard for gaming and normal use like chatting. I don’t program, and I prefer that the Shift is smaller due to another button being there that I can bind for gaming.”

A third user said: “The # key is a direct key in the UK layout, but in the US layout it is indirect; it requires the Shift+3 keys, so # is easier to type in the UK layout.”

A final user added: “I’m a programmer. My journey, so far, has been: ISO French -> ANSI US -> ISO US -> ISO UK -> ISO US.

“Unlike the other comments I don’t really mind the ANSI vs ISO Enter key. However, I found that the placement of some keys in the US layout is slightly better than the UK layout for programming: