Learning to Type: We Try Out Four Typing Educational Programs

By Garrett Martin | August 28, 2025 | 2:30pm

Typing photos from Unsplash, Monkeytype logo from Monkeytype

Tech Features typing

Learning to Type: We Try Out Four Typing Educational Programs

So this year I (re)learned how to type.

It all started because I wanted a cute keyboard with cute keycaps. I had lugged around a cheap, hand-me-up Kensington for years. Considering how much I work and play on my computer, I wanted something that would be practical, long-lasting, and easier on my hands. I settled on the Ergodox EZ from keyboard manufacturer ZSA. It’s a tried and true model, originally kickstarted back in 2015 and still getting updates. But exploring ergonomics turned me into the kind of freak that uses an alternative keyboard layout (Graphite in my case).

I could regale you with QWERTY’s inefficiencies or the pleasures of re-learning to type, but the fact is that it is not for the faint of heart. It can be agonizing to suddenly lose a skill that you use every single day. When I started learning Graphite, my WPM dropped from 57 to 13. Within a week or two of dedicated practice, I got up to around 30 WPM. After two months, I was about where I had been before. All told, this is not that much time. But the skill drop-off is so steep, it can feel overwhelming. If you already know how to touch type than you have some of the basic skills. I type everyday for hours, a few weeks of slowness and confusion seemed to be a worthy tradeoff. But I am also a stubborn creature, (sometimes) determined to wade through experience that might seem overwhelming or confusing. I’ve beaten Pathologic 2 twice.

But the thing that made this process bearable was the wide range of typing tools and teaching aids that helped me relearn. Learning a new layout made me appreciate ~educational software~. A computer is something that can teach you how to use it. That is a relatively unique thing in terms of technology (a term we now associate with computers almost entirely). A book or a wheel can’t do that. But the PC is a marvelous device where a program like Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing can show you how to work it. There is a kind of magic in that, a flicker of tech utopianism which the world simultaneously instills in and beats out of me.

Most Popular

So if you’re interested in learning a new layout or just want to practice a skill which you might have taken for granted, here are some of the tools I used to relearn to type.

keybr

This was what I used the most in my early days of relearning. The serious advantage of keybr is that it trains one letter at a time. When you are learning a new layout and everything is alien, it is helpful to build a rigorous understanding of home row. With a layout like Graphite, this can have some novelty. It routinely astounds me how little I have to leave home row as I type. Writing entire sets of words with just one row of your keyboard injects a nerdy thrill. However, the longer I trained the more keybr’s usefulness waned. The fact is, unless you are trying to reach truly massive speeds, you don’t need to train z or q very much. You won’t use them often! Additionally, part of typing is the cadence. Long words are often followed by shorter ones. Longer sentences are punctuated with brief stabs at meaning. The premise of keybr means what you’ll often type long words, all with at least one instance of the same letter. That doesn’t really reflect what you will actually be typing in your work or hobbies, even if you are a writer who drops five dollar words causally.

The main reason I dropped keybr, however, was that I found it compulsive. When you start using keybr, you set a target speed that you must hit with a specific letter before you unlock the next one. Getting fractions of WPM closer to unlocking a new letter gave keybr a “one more turn” type compulsion. Furthermore, unlike the other typing tools I’ll discuss in this list, keybr doesn’t exit to a results screen once you finish a drill. This means it is easy to just keep typing. This might be a function of my unusual brain. I sometimes need an off-ramp (or just a good stopping place) out of a program or game. The total lack of one was difficult to resist.

Long story short, I would use keybr to learn home row and then drop it. But your experience might vary from mine.

Entertrained

Though there are more practical tools, this is my favorite way to learn how to type. With Entertrained, you type public domain novels (though you can also upload your own epubs to type). The entertainment value of this is obvious; it certainly beats writing random strings of words. But I also find it is where I type the fastest, because typing prose is a lot closer to what I type for work or my hobbies. This comes back to the “cadence” I mentioned earlier. In Entertrained, you’ll capitalize the beginnings of sentences, drop commas in their proper place, and alternate large and small words. A classic novel may have ornate language, but it is still closer to the things we write than strings of random words.

But Entertained really sings because it’s a pleasure to use. You can customize every part of it from fonts to typing sounds to line width. When you break one of your own records, a crown flashes next to the paragraph where you did it. The craft of the website is sharp and easy to engage with. It’s a more adult pleasure than the typing games I played in the computer lab as a child, but I look forward to it in much the same way.

Typ.ing

This is the tool which ZSA, the company which made my keyboard, constructed. It is ideal for regular, day-to-day practice. You can train common words, type its escalating daily challenges, and practice ngrams–i.e. sets of two, three, or four letters. Practicing ngrams can be a huge boon to your typing speed. Each and every word is made by stringing pairs of letters in sequence. Once you train your fingers to make every possible combination in English, your typing speed will increase exponentially. You’ll still need to develop muscle memory for longer words, but once you have the building blocks that connective issue will develop faster. I try and check in on Typ.ing everyday.

Monkeytype

This is perhaps the best all-round tool. Built around a “typing test” format, monkeytype lets you train in time-based reps. You can use it for quick check-ins, benchmark test, or just type from the app’s library of quotes for some easy-going practice. However, Monkeytype has a tech company ick factor than none of these other tools do. The site has a merch store where users can submit designs for no payment. Instead the website states, “If we decide to add your design to our store, we’ll send you a shirt for free!” Ugh.

Parallel to relearning to type, I’ve been getting more into handwriting. I’ve tried to slow down while drawing the letter forms, which I have written hurriedly all my life. On a good day, I spend most of it writing and reading and thinking. But in doing so, I have often disregarded the sensations of my body. These are things that I do everyday, yet, for much of my life, the experience of writing was characterized by things I found ugly or at least took no pleasure in. All learning can be a deepening of intention. It is easy to think “I should do something” and not do it, because that process it rooted in shame. If I intend not only to write but to take pleasure in writing, then writing can be freeing. The best part is that you don’t need a fancy pen or keyboard to start this process. Free tools, cheap pens, scraps of notebook paper are all mighty tools. You can use any of the software I listed above if you have an internet connection. Tools like Left or Leaflets can make your writing feel pretty and distraction-free. If you care more about the product than the process, then I would suggest finding ways to make the process feel good. That goes for everything from learning or improving a skill like typing to building habits to finding friendships.

I’ve meandered a little, but I think that is the marvel of good software (and the terror of bad). Like the weight of a hammer in your hand or the flutter of pen on page, software can make a hard thing easy. The difference is whether it steals your time or deepens it.

Grace Benfell is a queer woman, critic, and aspiring fan fiction author. She writes on her blog Grace in the Machine and can be found @gracemachine on BlueSky.