← All guides · Updated 14 October 2026
How to touch type: a step-by-step guide
Touch typing means typing with all ten fingers without looking at the keyboard. Here is how to learn it, step by step.
1. Find the home row
Your fingers always start from the same place: the home row. On a standard keyboard, the left hand rests on A S D F and the right hand on J K L and the semicolon. Your thumbs rest on the space bar.
Look at the F and J keys. Most keyboards have a small raised line or dot on both. These bumps let you find the home row by feel. Put your index fingers on the bumps, and the other fingers fall into place.
2. Learn which finger presses which key
Each finger is responsible for one column of keys, reaching up and down from its home key. The index fingers have the most work: each one covers two columns, because they also reach towards the middle of the keyboard (G and H, T and Y, B and N).
- Little fingers: A and Q, Z on the left. The semicolon, P and slash on the right, plus Shift and Enter.
- Ring fingers: S, W and X on the left. L, O and period on the right.
- Middle fingers: D, E and C on the left. K, I and comma on the right.
- Index fingers: F, G, R, T, V and B on the left. J, H, U, Y, N and M on the right.
- Thumbs: the space bar.
Our free typing course shows this on an on-screen keyboard, with each finger in its own colour.
3. Always return home
After each key, the finger goes back to its home key. This is the habit that makes touch typing work. If your fingers wander, you have to look down to find your place again.
4. Don't look at the keyboard
This is the hardest part. In the beginning you will be slower than your old way of typing, and looking will feel tempting. Resist it. Use the on-screen keyboard instead, and feel for the bumps on F and J when you get lost.
5. Accuracy before speed
Type slowly enough that you rarely make mistakes. Every error trains your fingers in the wrong movement and costs time to fix. Once the movements are correct, speed comes almost by itself.
6. Practise a little every day
Ten to fifteen minutes a day works better than one long session a week. Short, regular practice builds the muscle memory that touch typing depends on. Most people feel comfortable after a few weeks.
A note on research
A large study from Aalto University found that some self-taught typists who use fewer than ten fingers can type as fast as trained touch typists. What the fastest typists had in common was making few errors and keeping a smooth rhythm. Touch typing is still the most reliable way to get there, because it gives every key a fixed finger and lets you keep your eyes on the screen.
Where to start
Start with lesson 1 of our course, which teaches the left hand on the home row. When you have finished a few lessons, take a typing test to see your progress.