Touch screen

This article requires photographic illustration

This article is a stub. You can help Deskthority by expanding it.
A touch screen is a display screen with a touch-sensitive surface.

Touch screen keyboards

Many devices with touch screens offer a on-screen virtual keyboard, instead of, or as an alternative to an external keyboard with physical keys.

On many devices, the space is limited, and the keyboards are cramped. Almost all keyboards are in QWERTY, but it is unfortunately very common that rows are somewhat transposed so that keys are not laid out in the correct columns.

Unlike on physical keyboards, virtual keyboards have software-defined layout and legends. This means that there can be more layers available. There are also several third-party software keyboards for e.g. Android and iOS.

Windows 7

Keys are not full size, but the key spacing follows the QWERTY standard.

Windows 8

There is an optional split keyboard intended to be typed with both thumbs. The keys are small like on a phone.

Apple iOS

The keyboard on the Apple iPhone is more cramped. The keyboard on the Apple iPad has non-standard columns, but there is a split option. The split keyboard divides the keys on screen correctly in keys for the left and right hand, but it also senses key presses for keys such as T and B on the opposite hand's side without displaying them.

Third-party keyboards

Shena'Fu's Ergonomic Layouts

Main article: Shena'Fu's touch keyboard layouts

Shena'Fu designed a bunch of alternative layouts for the open-source Anysoftkeyboard app for Android.

The main philosophy behind these layouts is to put the most common letters in the best positions. Each layout may be best used for different usage style, such as 1-finger or stylus typing, 2-thumb typing, swiping, twyping (combination of typing and swiping), etc.

Touch screen gestures

Basic one-finger gestures

Gesture	Apple iOS	Blackberry	Palm WebOS	Microsoft
				Windows 7 phone	Windows 7	Windows 8 (Metro)
Tap	Invoke, Select, Position cursor	Invoke	Invoke, Position cursor	Invoke, Stop list from scrolling	Select, Position cursor	Invoke
Double tap	Toogle magnification		Toggle magnification	Toggle magnification	Invoke
Tap and hold	Information bubble	Options	Enter "reorder mode"	Show context menu	Right click	Information bubble
Swipe (list direction)	Scroll	Scroll	Scroll	Scroll	Scroll	Scroll
Swipe (orthogonal to list)	Scroll	Scroll	Delete item	Scroll	Scroll	Select/unselect item
Drag (list orientation)	Pan	Pan	Pan	Pan	Pan	Pan
Drag (orthogonal to list)	Pan	Pan	Delete item	Pan	Pan	Move item

Basic two-finger gestures

Gesture	iOS	Blackberry	WebOS	Windows 7 phone	Windows 7	Windows 8 (Metro)
Tap (simultaneous)					Toggles magnification
Tap (one finger after the other)					Right click
Swipe	Pan
Spread	Zoom in	Zoom in	Zoom in	Zoom in	Zoom in	Zoom in, visually or semantically
Pinch	Zoom out	Zoom out	Zoom out	Zoom out	Zoom out	Zoom out, visually or semantically
Rotate		Rotate	Rotate	Rotate		Rotate

One-finger swipe, outside-in across border

Gesture	iOS	Blackberry	WebOS	Windows 7 phone	Windows 7	Windows 8 (Metro)
From top edge		App settings				Show/hide more controls
From bottom edge		Home screen (unlock)	App switcher			Show/hide more controls
From left edge		Switch to app on the left	Switch to app on the left			Cycle to next app. Short swipe to flip between apps, drag into screen to use.
From right edge		Switch to app on the right	Switch to app on the right			Show "Charms" bar
From top left corner		Show status bar
From top right corner		Show status bar
From bottom left corner		Show keyboard
From bottom right corner		(app-specific)

One-finger swipe, inside-out across border

Gesture	iOS	Blackberry	WebOS	Windows 7 phone	Windows 7	Windows 8 (Metro)
To top edge		Quit application	Quit application

Sources

• LukeW | Touch Gesture Reference Guide Viewed 2011-12-11
• Microsoft BUILD 2011: Designing Metro style apps that are touch-optimized Viewed 2011-12-11

.. and various videos on Youtube of the HP TouchPad (WebOS) and Blackberry Playbook