Alternatives

There is no such thing as a perfect layout, period. Every layout has its own pros and cons - Night among them. Thus, it's a good idea to take a look around and see if there're any alternatives that might suit you better.

I will provide my own opinions on each of the layouts - you can identify them by the italicized text.

WIP! (Work In Progress!)

This page is still under construction!

Stats are given relative to Night. The more green, the better. The more red, the worse.

All stats are analyzed through the Monkeyracer corpus using cmini.

Stat-Chasers

Layouts that focus on highest efficiency.

Dusk

+0.11% SFB* -0.20% SFS

Pros:

  • Higher rolls (if using right thumb R).
  • Lower index usage.

    • Cons:

  • Worse SFBs.
  • Lower index usage.

    • Perhaps the most well known "modern" stat-chasing layout, Dusk is by far the most comparable to Night, and was partially the inspiration for it.

    The choice between Night and Dusk essentially comes down to how much index usage is preferred. More, Night, less, Dusk.

    *Majority of the additional SFBs are caused by ' alone, and thus is slightly less significant.

    Racket

    -0.06% SFB +0.17% SFS

    Pros:

  • About the lowest SFBs you can get.
  • Better finger usage distribution.

    • Cons:

  • Rather poor right index-utilization.
  • Very heavy left middle finger load.

    • Among the first thumb R layouts, Racket is around the local minimum for SFBs with a reasonable design and SFS consideration.

    Pick this if you dislike index utilization, particularly on the central columns.

    Comfy-Choices

    Layouts that focus a bit extra on comfort at the cost of some efficiency.

    Bunya

    +0.09% SFB +0.06% SFS

    Pros:

  • Low corner and central column usage.
  • Very good finger usage distribution.

    • Cons:

  • Low right index utilization.
  • Repeat heavy thumb S.

    • Designed by the author of Graphite and Gallium, Bunya is the fully uncompromised design of the formers realized.

    This is a fantastic pick for any Graphite or Gallium users.

    North

    +0.11% SFB -0.50% SFS

    Pros:

  • Very low corner and central column usage.
  • Very good finger usage distribution.

    • Cons:

  • Low-ish right index utilization.
  • Repeat heavy thumb S.

    • This is essentially a re-tuned version of Bunya. It performs better statistically at the cost of less similarity to Graphite and Gallium.

    A good pick if you like Graphite and Gallium but want it slightly more stats-tuned.

    Inrollin'

    Layouts that optimize for a lot of inrolls.

    APTMAK

    +0.60% SFB +1.47% SFS

    Pros:

  • Very low corner and central column usage.
  • Very good finger usage distribution.
  • Good amount of inrolls.

    • Cons:

  • High SFB and SFS.
  • Very repeat heavy thumb E.

    • Historically popular and created by the author of APT, APTMAK is a thumb alpha variant of APT.

    It has a fantastic finger usage distribution, and is a perfect conversion for existing APT users.

    RSTHD

    +0.48% SFB +1.82% SFS

    Pros:

  • Very good finger usage distribution.
  • Good amount of inrolls.

    • Cons:

  • High SFB and SFS.
  • Very repeat heavy thumb E.

    • Historically popular and created by the author of APT, APTMAK is a thumb alpha variant of APT.

    It has a fantastic finger usage distribution, and is a perfect conversion for existing APT users.

    Birdie

    Based off of kuntem.