1. How many keys in a keyboard?

In fact, there is no clear and unified regulation on how many keys a keyboard should have, but most organizations or individuals use full-size keyboards with 104 keys. This is also a full-size keyboard in the ANSI layout (the US default keyboard layout). So are there other keyboards with other key counts? The answer is yes. Currently, there are 3 most popular size layouts for keyboards.

What are the 3 types of keyboards?

The keyboard standards produced by different manufacturers are often different, but the most widely accepted keyboard sizes are 3 size types, namely 60%, 80% and 100% layout, which have 61 buttons, 87 button and 104 buttons.

In fact, the earliest keyboard appeared was not a keyboard with the above-mentioned 3 keys, but a keyboard with 87 keys. In 1868, American typesetter Christopher Latham Sholes patented a typewriter model and obtained the right to operate it. A few years later he devised the keyboard layout that is common to this day, the “QWERTY” keyboard. The basic principle of this kind of keyboard is to drive a long rod through the keys, with a hammer on the long rod, and the hammer hits the paper through the color tape, thereby leaving a dark letter print, like a cover on the paper the same chapter.

Why is the keyboard not in alphabetical order?

In the beginning, Shoals installed the keyboard alphabetic keys in alphabetical order, that is, the alphabetical order in the upper left corner of the keyboard was “ABCDEF”. But he soon discovered that when the typist was typing a little faster, the long rod and the hammer of two adjacent letters would get stuck together due to the slow recovery of the keystroke, resulting in a “stuck key” failure. It is said that to solve the problem, Shoals asked his brother-in-law, a mathematician and school teacher, to help. The mathematician suggested that he avoid glitches by separating the most commonly linked letters of the English alphabet on the keyboard, slowing the typist’s typing speed. Shoals happily adopted his brother-in-law’s solution, scrambled the letters to create the “QWERTY” layout we see now. Sholes told the public that this arrangement of letters on a typewriter keyboard was the most scientific way to speed up typing, but it wasn’t.

60% keybaord VS 80% TKL keyboard VS 100% full size keyboard

60% keyboard

The 60% keyboard is relative to the normal 104/108-key standard layout keyboard, which only occupies 60% of its key layout. The most common number of keys on the 60% keyboard is 61, and there are other keyboards with 64 and 67 keys. Compared with the 100% full-size keyboard, the 60% keyboard lacks the function key area and number key area on the right. Why is there a 60% keyboard? Because all the functions of the numeric key area of a full-size keyboard are contained in the other two areas, leaving them out does not result in incomplete functionality. The keys in the function key area are rarely used by most people, and deletion has little effect. In addition, the full-size keyboard occupies a large space and is heavy, and it is inconvenient to carry out. Especially the appearance of the mechanical keyboard has almost doubled the weight of the keyboard of the same size, making it more difficult to carry. Therefore, , 60% keyboard came into being.

80% keyboard

Compared with the normal 104/108-key standard layout keyboard, the 80% keyboard only occupies 80% of its key layout. 80% keyboard is a keyboard without the numpad, so it is also called TKL(TenKeyLess keyboard: keyboard that does not have a 10-key numeric keypad on the right side) keyboard.
How many keys are on a keyboard without a numpad? The most common number of keys on 80% keyboards is 87, and there are other keyboards designed with 84, 86, and 88 keys.

100% keyboard

The 100% keyboard is currently used by most organizations or individuals, and it is also the most comprehensive keyboard.
How many keys are there on a full size keyboard? A full size keyboard usually has 104 keys, and some full size keyboards have a total of 108 keys. 108-key keyboards are usually multi-function keyboards or gaming keyboards, with 3 multimedia keys and a volume adjustment key in the upper right corner.

Keyboard key categories and divisions

Key categories can be divided into number keys, function keys, letter keys, special keys for characters, space bar, enter key, control key, Alt key, window key, Esc key, caps lock, shift key, delete key, direction key , the navigation buttons.

Taking a 104-key keyboard as an example, the keys of the keyboard can be divided into 4 areas. Function key area, main keyboard area, control key area, numeric key area.

Function key area: 13 keys in total

ESC: Cancel the line where the cursor is located
F1: System default help information
F2: Rename selected files and folders
F3: Search file function under resource management
F4: Display ‘My Computer (win xp)’ or ‘Computer (win7)’ or ‘This PC (win10)’ and the ‘Address’ bar, browser address bar in ‘Windows Explorer’
F5: refresh key
F6: Cycle through screen elements on a window or desktop.
F7: Dedicated function under DoS
F8: computer starts, BIOS startup item settings
F9: Calculation formula in Excel
F10: Activate the menu bar (when available)
F11: full screen mode
F12: Bring up the debug window under the browser, Word save as a document

Main keyboard area: a total of 61 keys

Tab: Jump function
Backspace (left arrow on some keyboards): backspace or delete key
CapsLock: Switch upper and lower case letters
Shift: Hold down the Shift key to select files continuously
Ctrl: Hold down the Ctrl key, you can select multiple non-consecutive files when selecting files
Alt: close the current menu
Enter: Enter key, line feed
Windows: Show or hide the start menu with a single press
The right side of the space bar (between the Windows key and the Ctrl key) is the key with a diagonal arrow on the page: the same as the right mouse button

Control keypad: a total of 13 keys

Num Lock indicator: Numerical lock on the keypad, lights up to indicate numeric input status
Caps Lock indicator: Caps lock, lights up to indicate capital input
Scoll Lock indicator: scroll lock indicator, on to indicate page scrolling status
PriScSyRp: Screen copy key (screen capture key)
Scoll Lock: scroll lock, when you need to turn the page, press it to see, it works wonders
PauseBreak: Pause button
Insert: Insert character key
Home: the first key of the line, the cursor moves to the beginning of the line
PageUp: page up keyboard
Delele: character delete key, the character behind the current cursor is deleted
End: end of line key, the cursor moves to the end of the line
PageDn: page down keyboard
Four arrow keys: move the cursor up, down, left and right

Numeric keypad: 17 keys in total

NumLocK: Lock the numeric keypad
Del: character delete key, delete the character behind the current cursor
Enter: Enter key
Home: the first key of the line, the cursor moves to the beginning of the line
End: end of line key, the cursor moves to the end of the line
PgUp: page up keyboard
PgDn: page down keyboard
Insert: Insert character key

2. What is keyboard ghosting?

If you’re a gamer or a professional typist, you’ve probably encountered a situation where you press keyboard keys at the same time and some keys don’t respond. Keys pressed after pressing multiple keys at the same time do not respond is keyboard ghosting.
In this case you may think that your keyboard is faulty and want to replace it with a random keyboard. But you don’t have to, because it’s actually a very normal thing. Why is this so? This is because most users currently use cheap membrane keyboards, and membrane keyboards rarely have more than 6 keys without punching due to hardware limitations. The users who use the membrane keyboard are usually corporate employees or Internet surfers. They rarely press more than 3 keys at the same time, and the membrane keyboard will not affect their use. But for gamers or some professional typists, they may press many keys at the same time to achieve a series of operations, and then key ghosting occurs. For example, you cannot press the three letter keys A, S, K at the same time. To test whether your keyboard is ghosting, you can click the following Microsoft keyboard ghosting test URL to test: https://www.microsoft.com/applied-sciences/projects/anti-ghosting-demo

Why is there keyboard ghosting?

Keyboard ghosting is actually a problem based on the working principle of the keyboard, and it is also an inevitable problem.

In order to solve the problem of the transmission bandwidth of the keyboard interface, IBM designed the keyboard circuit into two layers, one layer of printed circuits is arranged horizontally, and the circuits on the other layer are arranged vertically. So modern membrane keyboards have two layers of membrane for any key. Among them, the keyboard line is selected in series, and each line will be connected to multiple key contacts at the same time, so the number of wires on the keyboard is far less than the number of keys on the keyboard. And each wire will be connected to multiple button contacts at the same time, any two layers of wires on the upper layer and the lower layer only have an intersection on one button contact, that is to say, the No. 1 wire on the upper layer may pass through Q, W, E, 1, etc. Buttons, the No. 1 wire on the lower layer may pass through buttons 1, 2, 3, 4, etc., and the two wires only overlap on button 1.

Through the principle that the upper and lower wires pass through the button contacts, a set of tables can be listed, and the result of the intersection between different wires corresponds to a button. In the interface control circuit of the membrane contact keyboard, such a table is stored. When a button is pressed, the common contact of the upper and lower wires is turned on, which is reflected in the interface circuit and can be displayed on the screen. The corresponding results are displayed above.

The output of the membrane keyboard key is identified according to the intersection of the upper and lower wires of the membrane. When we press a key, the keyboard can be recognized very well. When we press two keys, even if a wire overlaps, it can be displayed, and even three keys can be recognized. When there are too many wires, the keyboard may choose to output a fixed code according to a fixed output key, thereby ignoring the input of one of the keys, resulting in a key conflict.

Why can mechanical keyboards be anti-ghosting?

Why some mechanical keyboards can achieve full keyboard without punching? This is because of the wonderful semiconductors of diodes. Since the current in the diode can only flow from positive to negative, there is no cross-current interference when multiple buttons are pressed at the same time. So why only mechanical keyboards can install diodes to pull anti-ghosting? This is because the internal components of the mechanical keyboard are fixed by the circuit board, which facilitates the installation of diodes. The inside of the ordinary membrane keyboard is a membrane printed circuit, and the diode is difficult to fix. Even if it is fixed by a special method, the manufacturing cost will rise significantly, and the price advantage of the membrane keyboard to survive is lost.

How to fix keyboard ghosting?

If you’re looking for a way to fix keyboard ghosting, unfortunately, there aren’t any hard and fast keyboard ghosting solutions available. Because keyboard ghosting is a hardware-based problem, there is no way to solve it using software. If you’re bothered by it, then you can buy an anti-ghosting keyboard.

Anti-ghosting keyboard

Keyboard manufacturers have also considered the problem of keyboard ghosting for some players, so they have developed keyboards that can prevent ghosting of more keys or all keys. These anti-ghosting keyboards are usually mechanical keyboards. Due to the special process and materials of mechanical keyboards, the cost is relatively high, which also leads to the price of mechanical keyboards being relatively expensive. If you’re just a regular user, you don’t have to buy an anti-ghosting mechanical keyboard. If you are troubled by keyboard ghosting, or want to experience the unique touch and cool lighting of a mechanical keyboard, then you can buy a mechanical keyboard and try it out. But it should be noted that some merchants will sell membrane keyboards under the gimmick of mechanical keyboards, but they are actually selling ordinary membrane keyboards. If you don’t know how to differentiate a mechanical keyboard from a membrane keyboard, check out our article: What Is A Mechanical Keyboard?

Then, I’ll recommend two good mechanical keyboards below.

1.Bluetooth Wireless Rgb 60 Percent Mini Pink/Blue Gaming Mechanical Keyboard In Deals ($28.8)

60% mini mechanical keyboard, supports USB wired and Bluetooth wireless connection, rich RGB lighting effects and supports full-key anti-ghosting, the best choice for home travel.In the Bluetooth connection mode, 3 connected devices can be stored at the same time, and the connected devices can be switched by pressing the “FN” + “QWE” button for 3 seconds.

2.Bluetooth Wireless USB Wired Rechargeable 3 Mode RGB Gamer Gaming Mechanical Keyboard with Palm Rest($38.5)

Wireless 3-mode Bluetooth keyboard, supports Bluetooth, 2.4G and USB 3 connection methods. There are 3 sizes of 60%, 80%, 100% and four colors of black, white, blue and pink to choose from. All three keyboard sizes support full-key anti-ghosting, and pressing any key at the same time will not conflict. Green shaft mechanical shaft, unique typing experience.

3.84 keys Wireless 3 mode Connection Mechanical Keyboard With Macro Programmable For Phone Computer

84-key 80% TKL mechanical keyboard, supports Bluetooth, 2.4G, USB 3 connection methods, and supports full-key anti-ghosting. The keyboard axis body is a mechanical axis body, black axis, green axis, and red axis can be selected. Rich RGB lighting, easy and yellow keyboard backlight color.

4.Black/White Retro Typewriter Punk Full Size Light Up Mechanical Keyboard Game For Computer PC($21.79)

Wired full-size mechanical keyboard, the shaft is a green shaft, and supports 26-key anti-ghosting. Unique brushed metal panel and retro typewriter punk two-color injection keycaps, key characters have good light transmittance. Rainbow RGB backlight, a variety of lighting modes to choose from.

5.Wireless Charging 108 Keys Rgb Light Gaming Mechanical Keyboard Black/White/Pink/Blue

108-key full-size wired gaming mechanical keyboard, with optional black, blue, brown, and red shafts, and supports 26-key anti-ghosting. The keys adopt an ergonomic stepped key layout, which is more in line with the user’s typing habits. The keyboard is equipped with a 5W drawer-type wireless charging pad and a large 4000mA battery, which can also charge the phone without connecting to the power supply.