Keyboard Builders' Digest / Keyboard Spotting
TypeMatrix
This TypeMatrix may be the first keyboard using the term "ortholinear". (Not the first ortho one ofc.)
Published March 9, 2022
In the thread on the Planck debate, Jack Humbert references the TypeMatrix as the first keyboard using the term "ortholinear":
We had both previously used keyboards by TypeMatrix, who had began using the term “ortho-linear” to describe the layout no later than 2003 - I haven’t been able to find any earlier uses, but if anyone knows of any, please let me know – jackhumbert.
The study titled An evaluation of the TypeMatrix ergonomic keyboard, archived in 2003, mentions the removal of the staggered column layout found on the standard keyboard, a design inherited from the mechanical typewriter:
The TypeMatrix keyboard has accomplished this with the ortho-linear (matrix) design.
While I still don't get how most nonsplit ortho boards can be considered ergonomic, the TypeMatrix at least has larger inner keys and a small gap between the halves, slightly alleviating at least ulnar deviation.
So is this really the first ortho actually called as such? Don't hesitate to contact me if you find earlier references – especially in languages other than English.
(I'm talking about the term "ortholinear", not about layouts we would call ortho nowadays, of course they existed decades earlier. Actually, my very first post in KBD#1 was an ortholinear typewriter from 1915. Those days, KBD was a mere link collection published as Reddit posts, but I'll try to dig up that link. Here you go.)
Published on Wed 9th Mar 2022. Featured in KBD #69 (source).
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