from Hacker News

Ask HN: Ergonomic Keyboard for Small Hands

by cloudedcordial on 2/12/23, 4:56 PM with 2 comments

Are there any ergonomic keyboards for smaller hands?

There's no shortage of ergonomic keyboard recommendations from Hacker News or elsewhere on the internet. Those hardware are usually build for folks with larger hands (such as men).

I am a woman with smaller hands. My handspan from the tips of my thumb to the pinky is about 19cm. Most ergonomic keyboards are large: I could not just rest my hands and tap all keys without reaching. I've tried Microsoft's ergonomic keyboard and keyboards (<75%) ortholinear layout. From the off-the-shelf solutions, ortholinear layout works the best so far. Microsoft ergonomic keyboard is huge and I dislike it.

Someone told me to stay away from ergodox and kinesis especially for smaller-than-average hands.

  • by brianjking on 2/13/23, 1:32 AM

    Are you looking for only prebuilts? What about layout?

    Honestly, I think the HHKB is highly ergonomic in terms of the home row/split backspace/control location. However, it's not ergo in the sense of the ergodox or kinesis.

    If you're open to customs there's infinite possibilities tbh.

  • by trynewideas on 2/12/23, 5:29 PM

    A company called Perixx makes ergonomic-layout keyboards in a variety of sizes: https://perixx.com/collections/keyboards