Shift Happens tells the story of keyboards like no book ever before,
covering 150 years from the early typewriters to the pixellated keyboards in our pockets.
It’s a book about typists competing during the Shift
Wars of the 1880s; Nobel-prize winner Arthur Schawlow using a laser to build the best typo eraser;
August Dvorak – and many others – trying to dethrone QWERTY;
Margaret Longley and Lenore Fenton perfecting touch typing;
Soviet agents listening to American keystrokes; women pouring
into offices, eager to do more than typing and re-typing; people aspiring to make
the best mechanical keyboard today by blending the past and the future.
This is the only book that connects the world of typewriters to the universe of computers.
Whether you’re into vintage typewriters, classic clicky IBM keyboards, or modern
mechanical wonders, it will have something for you. None of the above?
Get ready to become a keyboard nerd anyway, and look at an everyday
boring QWERTY slab with newfound respect.
You’ve never seen a book on technology like this.
Shift Happens is full of stories – some never before told –
interleaved with 1,000+ beautiful full-color photos across two
volumes.
This edition features an extra volume of additional illustrations and
“making of” material, and everything comes wrapped in a slipcase.
It’s a great gift for keyboard or typewriter aficionados, but also
suits everyone who cares about design, the stories of everyday objects, or tech history.
I started working on this book in 2016, inspired by the reception
of my Medium posts about typewriters. Since then,
I spent many hours interviewing, writing, photographing,
typesetting, and… many other, sometimes rather unexpected things!
In the chapter about shortcuts, I wanted to include a photo of
IBM 2915, an older terminal with one of the early rows of what we
would today call “function keys.”
Early on in my writing, I established a rule the book would be full of photos –
not illustrations, not patent drawings, but full-color photos. This would show
all of these keyboards as they existed, and make it easier to see and imagine
them as objects rather than ideas or notions.
The problem with IBM 2915 is that the few photos that I could find were
black and white, of low quality, and focused on elements that weren’t relevant to the book.
Can you arrange a keyboard from memory?
Chapter 30 talks about many interesting layouts. Can
you arrange a keyboard from memory, quickly and without mistakes?
Cover your keyboard with a cloth so you can’t cheat, and then give it a shot!
Keys placed64/64
Time
Accuracy1.00
Drag me onto the keyboard!
Congratulations on finishing!
~`
!1
@2
#3
$4
%5
^6
&7
*8
(9
)0
_-
+=
Delete
Tab
Q
W
E
R
T
Y
U
I
O
P
{[
}]
|\
Caps Lock
A
S
D
F
G
H
J
K
L
:;
"'
Return
Left Shift
Z
X
C
V
B
N
M
<,
>.
?/
Right Shift
Fn
Ctrl
Lft Opt
Left Cmd
Right Cmd
Rt Opt
←
↑
↓
→
Master the Permutation Typograph
Chapter 36 covers chording keyboards. The first one ever?
1857’s Permutation Typograph, a pocket-sized typewriter with a unique mode of operation –
six “finger-pieces” (today: “keys”) meant to be pressed simultaneously,
and a simplified alphabet to match them.
Pocketability was one of the selling points. You could, in the words of one
newspaper, “write without using one’s eye – in the dark, in
the [train] cars, standing in a dense of and jostling crowd, and without
attracting notice.”
The same article claimed “a single day is ample time for
one of ordinary tact to master the art […] Some of the letters vary in
their form from those in common use; but the variations are so slight that,
with a very little practice, the writing is read with the greatest ease.”
Let’s see if you agree in this Permutation Typograph simulator!
Type using your keyboard as you normally do, and get to know the Permutation
Typographer’s unique alphabet.
Type by pressing a segment key one at a time –
U, I, O
and J, K, L
– then press Enter to move on to the next letter!
Type by pressing all the matching segment keys together, like you
would on the actual device.
Note: This requires a keyboard that supports multiple key presses
(“N-key rollover”). You can test this by pressing UIOJKL at the same time,
and seeing whether ▔▁▏▕v^ appears.
Type by pressing all the matching segment keys together, like you
would on the actual device, without any hints or preview!
Note: This requires a keyboard that supports multiple key presses
(“N-key rollover”). You can test this by pressing UIOJKL at the same time,
and seeing whether ▔▁▏▕v^ appears.
▔▁▏▕v^▔
▔▁▏▕v^v
▔▁▏▕v^▁
▔▁▏▕v^▏
▔▁▏▕v^^
▔▁▏▕v^▕
A
A
K
B
B
O
J
K
C
C
I
O
J
D
D
O
K
L
E
E
U
O
J
F
F
U
J
G
G
U
J
K
H
H
J
K
I
I
J
J
J
O
L
K
K
I
J
K
L
L
O
J
M
M
I
J
L
N
N
U
J
L
O
O
U
O
J
L
P
P
U
I
J
Q
Q
U
I
L
R
R
I
J
S
S
U
K
L
T
T
U
K
U
U
O
J
L
V
V
I
W
W
J
K
L
X
X
I
K
Y
Y
I
O
Z
Z
U
O
L
Make your own Dvorak hands
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
Fifty years ago, in a 1972 issue of Computers And Automation, Robert Parkinson created
a striking visual
representing the imbalance on typing of QWERTY as compared to the Dvorak layout.
In chapter 6, I talk about the myths and truths behind QWERTY and Dvorak.
But before you get a chance to read it, you can make your own hand visuals by typing,
and simulate how different layouts influence your finger load.
Type or paste here…
Try creative writing, typing code, words like “sweaterdresses” or
“aftercataracts,” or .
I’m typing using the default layout.
Pretend I’m typing using .
Press the right key!
See if you can guess all ten keys (or key combinations)!
Just press the keys you think are the right answers to the
following questions:
This key is commonly associated with shouting and otherwise known as “cruise control for cool.”
The disappeareance of this key from the Touch Bar in 2016 caused a small internet meltdown.
This is a classic two-finger interruption in MS-DOS, Unix, and Linux.
And this is a classic two-finger interruption on older Macs.
This was the original combination considered for the infamous CtrlAltDel salute.
This key used to invoke a menu for VisiCalc, Lotus 1-2-3, and other early spreadsheets.
This Photoshop shortcut was so common and yet so tortuous, someone once created a Tumblr showing how the hands of people pressing it become “claws.”
This key has at least two names, not to mention colorful nicknames such as “big-ass” or “Montana.”
Before WASD became a common combination, a game called System Shock used a different four-key variant. (You have to press these four keys in whatever sequence you want.)
This key migrated from one row to another during the last formative years of QWERTY, but not before the French keyboard layout grabbed it and kept it in the original position.
If you want to give up – or if you don’t have a keyboard attached –
just click or tap on any of them 10 times to reveal the answer!
Catch up on the newsletter
I started a newsletter
documenting the book-writing process, and sharing more keyboard stories.
You might like it. Please subscribe
or read the best issues:
I brought Glenn Fleishman onboard as the editor and the manager of the print production,
crowdfunding, and fulfillment. Glenn managed several successfully fulfilled Kickstarter
projects, including the Tiny Type Museum & Time Capsule and four books. He has also
consulted as a friend, colleague, and paid adviser at early and late stages on dozens
of crowdfunding projects that have collectively raised many millions of dollars. Glenn also
has extensive experience in offset printing and technology writing.
Read Glenn’s detailed bio
or visit his website.
Scout Festa, a veteran editor and proofreader, has served as a proofreader on the book,
and helped develop its style guide.
I also wanted to say thank you to Jacob Alexander, Erica Fischer, Martin Howard, Jake Knapp,
Robin Rendle, Mike Sall, Robin Sloan, Dag Spicer, Jesse Vincent, Peter Weil, and many more
for their time and support.
