Enthium is a highly performant adaptation of the Engrammer
and Hands Down Promethium
keyboard layouts. It restores familiarity with Arno’s Engram 2.0
layout (YOU on the left hand) and the Dvorak layout (HTNS on the right hand)
while optimizing punctuation for programming in the spirit of Engrammer,
featuring HJKL and ,; for Vim, -= for zooming, and ./ for filesystem paths.
q y o u = x l d p z
b c i a e - k h t n s w
' , . / ; j m g f v
r
Rationale
Pinky load is stratified by frequency: heavy letters B (1.44%) and W (1.77%)
are close to home position on the lateral pinky keys (CapsLock, Apostrophe);
medium letters ' (0.47%) and V (1.09%) occupy the lower row pinky keys; and
light letters Q (0.10%) and Z (0.09%) sit on the upper row. This distribution
helps reduce strain for short pinky fingers or those weakened by convention.
Vertical same-finger bigrams such as UE (0.08%), OA (0.05%), and NF (0.04%)
can be raked down, mitigating their impact on typing flow and performance.
Similarly, horizontal ones can be slid over based on dexterity and comfort.
Apostrophe is on a different finger from vowels to avoid same-finger bigrams
when typing contractions in English: You’d, I’d, He’d, They’d, Quo’s, Via’s.
B/E/W, I/A, K/J, Ctrl-P/N, T/F, and ,; are directionally coherent for Vim.
Ctrl-B/I/U shortcuts for bold/italic/underline are all on the same hand.
- and = are clustered for intuitive zoom-in/out shortcuts with Ctrl.
. and / are clustered for relative ./ and ../ filesystem paths.
,./ are in the same sequence as QWERTY for easier adaptation, especially
for navigation and custom application shortcuts that rely on shifted <>.
',. are on the same fingers and hand (only the row changes) as Dvorak.
Performance
The keyboard layout community commonly recommends Pascal Getreuer’s
guide and ranking tables as a starting point for layout exploration,
and Enthium ranks among the top-performing layouts there as of 2025-12-22.
More importantly, Enthium is well-balanced in terms of ergonomic concerns
(same-finger avoidance, redirects, rolls, and pinky load) for sustained use.
2.91% pinky off โ third ๐ฅ place; after RSTHD, Nordrassil
Several same-finger bigrams (SFBs) in Enthium can be raked down vertically
across adjacent rows or slid over horizontally, based on your dexterity and
comfort. This allows the same finger to actuate both keys in one continuous
motion, thereby mitigating their impact on your typing flow and performance:
Intrigued by the Hands Down Promethium keyboard layout, which
enhances the Engram layout with a HJKL cluster for Vim as well as advanced layout
design and optimization heuristics pioneered by Alan Reiser’s Hands Down family
of layouts, I sought to improve upon its placement of punctuation, in
the spirit of the Engrammer layout, by moving apostrophe to a different finger
entirely from YOU and I so it can be typed without same-finger bigrams such as
you'd, I'd, they'd.
f p d l x ; u o y b z
s n t h k , a e i c q
\ v w g m j / . = - '
r
This change reduced same-finger bigrams from 0.58% to 0.55% in Cyanophage’s
analyzer, motivating me to continue customizing the layout and nuances further.
Notably, I mirrored the layout horizontally because I’d like to keep all vowels
on the left hand (just like Dvorak and Engram/mer), but I was unable to move the R
thumb key to the right hand in Cyanophage’s analyzer playground. Curiously, this
resulted in a lower Total Word Effort
than the canonical version — but why?
b y o u ; x l d p f
q c i e a , k h t n s z
' - = . / j m g w v
r
Training
Next, I began practicing this layout with a fresh training profile on KeyBr.
After nearly 7.5 hours of training, I finally unlocked all the alphabets at an
average speed of 42.6 WPM and an accuracy of 95.82%, using my Glove80
keyboard.
During the rigorous training, I wrote the following observations in my notebook:
The most apparent and enduring change is the swap of N and S on the right
hand’s home row. I had experienced the same thing before when switching to
Engram (HTSN) from BEAKL-15 (STNB) and Dvorak (HTNS), which both have -TN-.
N feels good to tap with the ring finger, which is stronger than the pinky.
NG, ND, SP scissors are shortened (clustered closer together) and powerful!
The layout is compact, with plenty of rolling and flowing around the center
of the right hand. I’m not impeded in my typing at all; it feels efficient.
W is taking a long time to clear, but its training helps strengthen N vs S.
Cleared W at 3 hours and 18 minutes after completing 356 lessons with speed 43.1 (average) to 59.2 (top) WPM, and accuracy 96.23%.
WN is a same-finger bigram — the only one I really noticed — but the
ring finger is dexterous enough to tap them quickly in succession as it ascends.
FF on pinky finger’s upper row feels weak… maybe I just need more practice?
I might consider using a BFh variant to bring B and F down to the home row.
Q took a long time too and it strained my hand to practice so many one-handed
QU drills in a short time but, in reality, Q ought to be infrequent.
Cleared Q at 6 hours and 45 minutes after completing 720 lessons with speed 42.5 (average) to 60.4 (top) WPM, and accuracy 95.96%.
Evaluation
I spent a day with the layout in the real world to evaluate its effectiveness in
the terminal and Vim (especially on my Linux laptop keyboard), and noticed that:
WN is a stair-step ascension same-finger bigram that I wished I could rake down instead
DW (2u skip) is not as convenient for Vim as it was in Engram (which puts them adjacent)
FG (2u skip) is not as convenient for shell background jobs (bg, fg) as it was in Engram
SW (half scissor) feels a little bit weaker curling inward than reaching up (as in Engram)
FF (e.g. “stuff”) is a little bit of a chore for the pinky finger to tap twice in the upper row
Refinement
PF and WV
I really didn’t want to deviate from the canonical Hands Down Promethium layout
(this “Enthium” derivative was just supposed to be a simple horizontal mirror,
plus some rearranged punctuation marks) so I reluctantly went to the keyboard
layout analyzer playgrounds to see how bad it would be to swap PF with WV…
and to my complete surprise, this change hardly affected the layout’s performance:
b y o u ; x l d w v
q c i e a , k h t n s z
' - = . / j m g p f
r
Oxey’s analyzer showed no changes at all in the stats!
KeySolve analyzer showed an increase in FSB from 0.14% to 0.37% but the other
stats improved: FSS reduced from 0.82% to 0.48%, HSB reduced from 6.05% to
5.64%, and HSS reduced from 5.97% to 5.50%; everything else was identical.
Cyanophage analyzer’s Total Word Effort increased from 730.9 to 735.9 but all
other stats remained the same!
I’m so glad this experiment worked out because it makes the layout a lot more
comfortable for me in practice and it would also further reduce the barrier to
entry for others seeking to switch over to Enthium from the Engrammer layout. :)
Q and Z
After the first month of real-world use, I also swapped Q with Z to be like Engram (with Q typed by the right pinky finger) in order to avoid
one-handed QU sequences (in favor of hand alternation) which overwork the left
pinky finger during KeyBr training (see the last observation above) and in real usage.
b y o u ; x l d w v
z c i e a , k h t n s q
' - = . / j m g p f
r
This deviation incurred a modest increase in Oxey’s analyzer’s Total Redirects
from 0.350% to 3.389%, along with a decrease in Onehands from 2.206% to 2.091%,
and a significant increase in the Total Rolls score from 43.816% up to 44.055%.
Similarly, Cyanophage’s Total Word Effort score decreased from 735.9 to 735.1,
along with a negligible increase in the Effort score from 398.34 up to 398.38,
and with similarly modest differences in the Trigram Stats score distribution.
In contrast, there was no change at all in the KeySolve analyzer’s statistics!
B and V
After the second month of real-world use, I reverted the previous Q and Z swap and
then rotated B and V out from the upper row to the home row lateral in order to
avoid reaching up with short pinky fingers or those weakened by convention.
q y o u ; x l d w z
b c i e a , k h t n s v
' - = . / j m g p f
r
In the Cyanophage analyzer, this change reduces Pinky/Ring Scissors from 0.49%
down to 0.35% (huge drop!) and Skip Bigrams (2u) from 0.30% down to 0.29%.
The other analyzers don’t fully comprehend the placement of lateral pinky keys,
as explained in the note at the top of each analyzer’s respective subheading,
but Oxey’s analyzer reports a notable reduction in SFBs from 0.829% to 0.818%.
O and U
O and U are swapped (changing the inward-rolling YOU into a redirecting YUO) to
distribute finger workload more evenly (especially for the middle finger) and
to avoid same-finger bigrams on AU (as in “author”) and EO (as in “people”).
q y u o / x l d w z
b c i e a , k h t n s v
' - = . ; j m g p f
r
This change was suggested by the creator of Cyanophage’s Analyzer himself ๐คฉ since it
reduced SFBs from 0.55% to 0.49% and LSBs from 0.23% to 0.20% in his analyzer.
Similarly, it reduces SFBs to 0.795% in Oxey’s analyzer, elevating this layout
to ๐ฅ first place in Pascal Getreuer’s performance rankings for SFBs and LSBs!
W and B
After releasing Enthium v9, I received some powerful performance improvement
suggestions from @jcbql in GitHub issue 6, which sparked a chain of further
evaluation of 16 different candidates! in search of the next Enthium v10 layout:
z y u o ; q l d p x
w c i e a , k h t n s f
' - = . / j m g b v
r
Metric
v10
v9
Change
SFBs
0.42%
0.48%
Improved โ
LSBs
0.15%
0.18%
Improved โ
Scissors
0.08%
0.08%
Same โ๏ธ
Skipgrams (2u)
0.32%
0.35%
Improved โ
Rolls
46.53%
45.30%
Improved โ
Redirects
2.18%
2.06%
Slight โ โ ๏ธ
Pinky/Ring Scissors
0.37%
0.35%
Slight โ โ ๏ธ
PinkyOff
3.31%
3.51%
Improved โ
A and E
After releasing Enthium v10, I received
suggestions from @Valarauka on Reddit for restoring YOU as an inward roll, which sparked further experimentation and evaluation of 9 different candidates! in search of the next Enthium v11 layout:
z y o u = q l d p x
w c i a e ; k h t n s f
' - , . / j m g b v
r
Restores YOU from Engram and ,./; from QWERTY.
Preserves apostrophe independence from vowels.
Maintains logical association of -= and ,; and ./
Allows downward raking for many SFBs (0.21% effective)
Allows triple-key rake/slide for ue. endings. ๐
Improves rolling in Cyanophage’s Same Hand Strings:
ECAU โ redirect + inward-up roll โ๏ธ
ECIA โ redirect + contiguous roll ๐ผ
OCIA โ redirect + contiguous roll ๐๏ธ
ICIA โ redirect + contiguous roll ๐งป
ECEI โ index/pinky E ping โ C pong โ E pang ๐
P and W
Nearly every day since releasing Enthium v12, I have experienced a moment of missing P on the upper row (its previous placement in Enthium v11) for its comfortable SP, PL, PH, XP rolls. ๐ However, swapping P and W (creating a PNW column) would break the vertical rakeability of the WN same-finger bigram! โ๏ธ So each day, I went back to the drawing board, thinking up new and interesting ways to solve this conundrum… ๐ค only to retreat to Enthium v12, defeated… ๐ฅผ That is, until now! ๐คโจ
Enthium v13 improves pinky comfort along with frequent rolls and punctuation:
q y o u = x l d p z
b c i a e - k h t n s w
' , . / ; j m g f v
r
This is a clockwise rotation of PWF and a swap of /; compared to Enthium v12.
It took me about 8 minutes to unlock all v13 letters ๐ on a fresh KeyBr profile.
Special thanks to ~PK and the Glove80 community for testing v13 candidates. ๐
Rationale:
Restores P on upper row for comfortable SP, PL, PH, and XP rolls.
Moves W to home row pinky lateral, converting WN into an inward roll.
Moves F to lower row ring finger, reducing Pinky Off score to 2.91%!
Swaps /; based on frequency data (bonus: QWERTY ,./ sequence):
B and W are diametrically opposite (by luck!) on the keyboard for Vim.
Performance:
AKL Right Pinky SFB reduced by 30%
AKL Long Row Jumps reduced by 15.5%
Cyanophage Pinky Off reduced by 9.63%
Category
Metric
Enthium v12
Enthium v13
Change / Impact
Effort
Total Word Effort (Cyanophage)
736.7
724.5
-1.65% (Higher efficiency)
ย
Base Effort (Cyanophage)
420.83
416.42
-1.05% (Lower strain)
Movement
Long Row Jumps (AKL โฅ 2u ฮy)
0.58%
0.49%
-15.5% (Smoother verticality)
ย
Discordant Row Changes (AKL 1u ฮy)
2.39%
2.24%
-6.2% (Better flow)
ย
Redirects (Cyanophage)
1.49%
1.48%
Minimal improvement
Finger Stats
Pinky Off (Cyanophage)
3.22%
2.91%
-9.63% (Less lateral movement)
ย
Right Pinky SFB (AKL)
0.30%
0.21%
-30% (Relief for weakest finger)
ย
Same Finger Bigrams (Cyanophage)
0.54%
0.55%
Stable (Elite efficiency)
ย
Lateral Stretches (AKL)
1.98%
2.22%
+12% (Strategic trade-off)
Rhythm
2-Finger Roll In (AKL)
27.66%
27.74%
+0.08% (More fluid)
ย
Alternation (Cyanophage)
38.04%
38.09%
Stable
Strategic Design Wins (analyzed by Google Gemini):
The transition from v12 to v13 (finalized as candidate v13f) represents a shift from raw speed to refined ergonomic stability. Here are the primary strategic improvements:
Elite Vertical Stability:
The headline achievement in v13 is the 15.5% reduction in long-distance row jumps (ฮy โฅ 2). By virtually eliminating instances where a finger must leap over the home row to reach the opposite bank, the layout feels significantly more “grounded” and less frantic than v12.
Targeted Pinky Relief:
Recognizing that the pinky is the most vulnerable finger to fatigue, v13 reduces the Right Pinky Same Finger Bigram (SFB) rate by 30%. This move directly improves long-term sustainability for high-volume typists without compromising the layoutโs overall efficiency.
The Horizontal Trade-off:
v13 makes a conscious ergonomic choice: it accepts a 12% increase in lateral stretches in exchange for a cleaner vertical path. Moving the finger sideways is generally considered less taxing than the vertical “scissor” motion, and this shift is what allowed for the massive reduction in jarring row jumps.
Refined Effort Efficiency:
Despite the focus on comfort, v13 is mathematically more efficient. It shaves off over 12 points of Total Word Effort (Cyanophage) compared to v12. This proves that the layout isn’t just more comfortableโit actually requires less total work from your hands to produce the same amount of text.
Preservation of “The Flow”:
While many things changed under the hood, the core “feel” of Enthium remains intact. Alternation and 2-Finger Roll-In rates have stayed stable or slightly improved, ensuring that the signature fluid rhythm of the layout is preserved even with the new column-stacking logic.
Conclusion
The differences between Engram/mer and Enthium are so minimal that one
might switch to it completely with about 6 hours1 of practice, spread over 2-3
days (start Friday and use weekend), to unlock all letters in KeyBr training. Enjoy!
I’m giving a shorter estimate than my own elapsed time since I trained with
Promethium before swapping PF with WV; see my observation on clearing W. ↩
