Homing indicators
Provided by the ASK Keyboard Dictionary
Also known as: homing bumps, homing bars, homing dots, homing dishes
Homing indicators are a method to help touch typists orientate their hands on a keyboard's home row, providing some sort of tactile feel to the keys where one's index fingers should rest. For a QWERTY PC-style keyboard, the "F" and "J" keys typically have these indicators, but for some older Apple/Apple-style keyboards, they may be on the "D" and "K" keys instead. Numeric keypads may also have a homing indicator on their "5" key to help guide one's middle finger to roughly its centre. There are three types of indicators:
- Homing bars: Such keycaps have long, thin raised indicators aligned towards the bottom of their top-face. For IBM and family, this style became common thanks to the Model M Enhanced Keyboard, and is found on many subsequent Model M variants.
- Homing dots: Such keycaps have circular raised indicators aligned towards the middle of their top-face.
- Homing dishes: Such keycaps have top-faces that are simply deeper than usual, rather than having anything raised. This style may be found on Model B keyboards and Cherry G80-series keyboards.
