So what's a 40% keyboard?

You might have heard this before. There are keyboards out there that don't even have function keys, let alone a numpad, arrow keys, control keys, or number row.

These keyboards are often called "40% keyboards" because they only have around 40 physical keys. But really, that's just a fancy way of saying they're small and missing a bunch of keys.

You might be thinking this way right now: So, how do you type numbers, symbols, and arrows on a 40% keyboard?

Let me start by summarizing my main points before we explore them further.

In this article, we will design a 40% keyboard like the following.

And here are some quick FAQs about this layout.

How do you type arrows on this keyboard?

Hold the left spacebar with "Layer 2" written on it, then press W, A, S, or D.