Various other styles in between those two exist-for example, using a search-and-peck method, but with an increased number of fingers typing without looking at the keyboard, but using fewer than the eight fingers that the home row method uses (commonly, the omission of the little finger as the weakest finger that many will find difficult to hit keys with due to either less strength, less dexterity, or both) moving their entire hand to reach for the desired key or only moving when a key needs to be pressed instead of always returning to home row after every keystroke. This method is considered inferior as not only is it slower than touch typing, the typist would have to have their fingers travel a greater distance. Instead of relying on the memorized position of keys, the typist finds each key by sight and moves their finger over to press it, usually the index finger of their dominant hand. Touch typing is contrasted to search and peck, also known as hunt-and-peck or two-fingered typing. Keep the hands as nearly as possible in one position over the key-board.

To learn to write by touch, that is, with only an occasional glance at the key-board, sit directly in front of the machine. In 1890, Lovisa Ellen Bullard Barnes defined the words 'write by touch' in her book as follows: In 1889, Bates Torrey coined the words 'writing by touch' in his article. Speeds attained by other typists in other typing competitions at the time suggest that they must have been using similar systems. Whether McGurrin was actually the first person to touch type or simply the first to be popularly noticed, is disputed. McGurrin won US$500 (equivalent to $13,304 in 2019 USD) and popularized the new typing method. The results were displayed on the front pages of many newspapers. On July 25, 1888, an American man, Frank Edward McGurrin, who was reportedly the only person using touch typing at the time, won a decisive victory over Louis Traub (operating Caligraph with eight-finger method) in a typing contest held in Cincinnati. Though mechanical typewriters are now rarely used, moves to change the layout to increase speed have been largely ignored or resisted due to familiarity with the existing layout among touch typists. In English-speaking countries, for example, the first row is QWERTY, but in French-speaking countries it is AZERTY. The calculations for keyboard layout were based on the language being typed and this meant different keyboard layouts would be needed for each language. The view that the layout was intentionally redesigned to slow down the operator, to prevent jamming the mechanism, is widespread but not correct. Z and S are close to each other because the American Morse codes of Z and a common digram SE (both в–„В в–„В в–„ в–„В ) are near the same, so the telegraphist often needs to wait for more signals before understanding the content. Common letters were moved towards the center and into the upper row. Original layouts for the first few mechanical typewriters were in alphabetical order (ABCDE etc.) Changes were made, mostly responding to suggestions from telegraphists that were between the first users.

'I did at first,' she answered, 'but now I know where the letters are without looking.'ДЄrthur Conan Doyle, A Case of Identity (1891) 'Do you not find,' he said, 'that with your short sight it is a little tiring to do so much typewriting?' Most modern computer keyboards have a raised dot or bar on the home keys for the index fingers to help touch typists maintain and rediscover the correct positioning of the fingers on the keyboard keys. On a standard QWERTY keyboard for English speakers the home row keys are: 'ASDF' for the left hand and 'JKL ' for the right hand. (Under this usage, typists who do not look at the keyboard but do not use home row either are referred to as hybrid typists.) Both two-handed touch typing and one-handed touch typing are possible.ДЇrank Edward McGurrin, a court stenographer from Salt Lake City, Utah who taught typing classes, reportedly invented home row touch typing in 1888. Although the phrase refers to typing without using the sense of sight to find the keys-specifically, a touch typist will know their location on the keyboard through muscle memory-the term is often used to refer to a specific form of touch typing that involves placing the eight fingers in a horizontal row along the middle of the keyboard (the home row) and having them reach for specific other keys. Touch typing (also called blind typing, or touch keyboarding) is a style of typing. For the racehorse, see Dactylographer (horse).

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