QWERTY
![Keys are arranged on diagonal columns, to give space for the levers.](/Images/godic/202502/05/Continental_Standard_typewriter_keyboard_-_key_detail5841.jpg")
![Latham Sholes's 1878 QWERTY keyboard layout](/Images/godic/202502/05/QWERTY_18785841.png")
![The standard QWERTY keyboard layout used in the US. Some countries, such as the UK and Canada, use a slightly different QWERTY (the @ and](/Images/godic/202502/05/Qwerty.svg5841.png")
![The ACNOR keyboard](/Images/godic/202502/05/ACNOR_keyboard5841.jpg")
QWERTY is a keyboard layout for Latin script. The name comes from reading the first six keys appearing on the top left letter row of the keyboard (Q W E R T Y) from left to right. The QWERTY design is based on a layout created for the Sholes and Glidden typewriter and sold to Remington in 1873. It became popular with the success of the Remington No. 2 of 1878, and remains in use on electronic keyboards due to inertia, the difficulty of learning a layout that differs from the currently entrenched standard, the network effect of a standard layout, and the claim by some that alternatives fail to provide very significant advantages.