Mind Your Layout: QWERTY, QWERTZ, AZERTY, and QZERTY Explained
When you first start hunting for a vintage typewriter, it is easy to get swept up in the visuals: the glossy paint, the gleaming chrome, and the striking mid century silhouettes. But before you fall head over heels for a machine, there is one crucial detail you need to inspect closely: the keyboard itself.
While modern laptops can easily remap their software settings to switch between languages, vintage typewriters are strictly mechanical: what is physically built into the iron and typebars is set in stone (more or less). Depending on where your machine spent its early days, you might find yourself staring at a layout that feels completely foreign. As an English QWERTY typist myself, let's break down the four most common layouts I encounter in the workshop, along with my personal adaptability rating for each, so you can choose the one that best fits your writing style.
Vintage Keyboard Quirks
Before diving into specific layouts, it is helpful to understand a few clever space saving design quirks commonly seen in typewriter keyboards:
- Missing 1s and 0s: To save physical space on the segment, many typewriters omitted a dedicated "1" and "0" key. Typists used the lowercase l for the number one and the uppercase O for zero.
- Dead Keys (Accent Keys): Many European keyboards feature "dead keys." When you press one, the key strikes the paper, but the carriage does not move forward. To type an â, you press the circumflex (^) key first, and then the letter a directly over it.
- The Missing Exclamation Mark: Missing an exclamation point? It is not because people were less excited back then! To create an !, you simply typed an apostrophe ('), hit backspace, and typed a period (.) right underneath it.
- Dual Purpose Apostrophes: On certain keyboards without a dedicated apostrophe key, the acute accent key (´) doubled as one. Because it was a dead key, you simply had to press the spacebar after typing it to advance the carriage.
1. QWERTY: The Global Standard
Designed by Christopher Latham Sholes in the 1870s, QWERTY was engineered to separate commonly used letter pairs to prevent physical typebars from jamming during rapid typing. Fun fact: to help early salesmen give effortless product demonstrations, Sholes arranged the keys so the word "TYPEWRITER" could be spelled out using only the very top row of letters!
English QWERTY: Standard English machines generally lack accent keys but feature the @ symbol, which was used in commercial invoicing long before the invention of emails.
Spanish QWERTY: Features dedicated keys for ñ and ç, along with four versatile accent marks (acute ´, grave `, diaeresis ¨, and circumflex ^), allowing you to type characters like á, è, ü, and â.
Adaptability Rating: Level 1 (Very Easy)
Dutch QWERTY: Includes the standard four accent marks (acute ´, grave `, diaeresis ¨, and circumflex ^) alongside a unique, dedicated ij ligature key designed specifically for Dutch vocabulary.
Adaptability Rating: Level 1 (Very Easy)
2. QWERTZ: The Central European Workhorse
Glance at the top row of a German or Swiss typewriter, and you will immediately spot that the Z and Y have swapped places. Because the letter "Z" is far more frequent in the German language than "Y," it was moved to a prominent central position on the home row.
Swiss QWERTZ: Designed for multilingual Switzerland, this layout includes dedicated keys for German umlauts (ü, ö, ä) as well as French characters (é, ç, à), plus grave (`) and circumflex (^) dead keys.
Adaptability Rating: Level 3 (Moderate)
German QWERTZ: Features upper and lowercase umlauts (Ü, Ö, Ä), the sharp S (ß), and acute and grave accent keys to easily produce letters like á and è.
Adaptability Rating: Level 3 (Moderate)
3. AZERTY: The French Innovation
Mainly utilized throughout France and Belgium, the AZERTY layout completely shuffles the classic deck. The A and Q swap places, the Z and W swap places, and the M is moved to the middle row right next to the L.
French AZERTY: Heavily optimized for the French language, offering direct access to è, é, ç, à, and ù, along with dead keys for diaeresis (¨) and circumflex (^) to create characters like ü and â.
Adaptability Rating: Level 5 (Challenging)
4. QZERTY: The Italian Classic
If you stumble upon an early made in Italy Olivetti Lettera 22 or 32, there is a strong chance it features the traditional Italian layout: QZERTY. On these keyboards, the Z and W swap places, and the M is pushed to the right side of the home row.
Italian QZERTY: Features direct, dedicated keys for accented Italian vowels including è, é, ç, à, ù, ì, and ò. Because Italian accented characters each have their own assigned key, traditional QZERTY layouts generally do not feature separate dead accent keys.
Adaptability Rating: Level 2 (Easy)
Which One Should You Choose?
If you plan to type exclusively in English, sticking to a standard QWERTY layout will give you the most seamless, familiar experience out of the box. However, you should not let a non QWERTY layout scare you away from an otherwise gorgeous vintage machine!
Here are a few quick takeaways to keep in mind while shopping:
- Check for special characters: If you regularly need symbols like the @ sign, inspect the keys closely; what is available on the keyboard is what is available to print.
- Embrace the learning curve: I often use my own QWERTZ and QZERTY machines. Writing on a non standard keyboard can be a fun, tactile way to slow down your thoughts and focus intentionally on every single keystroke.
- Consider your workflow: If you write poetry, essays, or letters in multiple languages, hunting down a European layout with dedicated accent marks will make your writing process much smoother.
At the end of the day, a typewriter's layout is just one part of its unique history. Whether you choose a traditional standard or a vintage European keyset, the magic remains exactly the same: rolling in a fresh sheet of paper, hearing the definitive snap of the typebar, and creating something meaningful at the pace of your own.