# Ghost Keys: Rebuild the Keyboard

by [kirupa](https://www.kirupa.com/me/index.htm) | filed under [kirupaLab](https://www.kirupa.com/lab/index.htm)

Play the live experiment (drag and drop, works with a mouse, touch, pen, or keyboard): https://www.kirupa.com/lab/ghostkeys.htm

You've pressed these keys millions of times, but could you put them back where they belong?

Nearly every key has drifted off a 3D keyboard, from the letters and symbols to shift, tab, and the spacebar. Only backspace and the left ctrl key stayed behind.

Drag each loose key onto its spot, then press Check to see how you did. No typing allowed: your fingers know the way, but do your eyes?

## How to play

- Pick a level: **Home row** (10 keys), **Letters** (26 keys), **Numbers & symbols** (22 keys, including the spacebar), or **Everything** (58 keys, every key except backspace and the left ctrl, and the default).
- Drag a loose key onto the keyboard with a mouse, finger, or pen. You can also tap or click a loose key and then tap where it goes.
- Keys stay wherever you put them, right or wrong. Drag a placed key to another spot (two keys swap places) or back to the loose keys.
- With a keyboard, press Enter to pick up a key, use the arrow keys to pick a spot, and press Enter again. Delete sends a placed key back.
- Press **Check** at any time. Correct keys lock in, and wrong ones turn red until you move them. You win once every key is correct. **Hint** highlights where a key goes, **Shuffle** starts over, and **3D view** switches between a tilted and a flat keyboard.
- **Shift** switches the keys between lowercase letters and uppercase letters with shifted symbols.

## What's going on here?

Most of us type without looking, which means the layout lives in our fingers rather than in our eyes. Ghost Keys flips that around. The keyboard is a standard US QWERTY layout with Mac-style modifier keys, the kind most laptops ship with. Backspace and the left ctrl key are the only landmarks left, so you'll need to find your bearings from there. Keys that come in pairs, like the two shift keys, fit either of their spots.

**Everything** is the default: 58 keys go missing: every letter, number, and symbol, the spacebar, and all of the modifier keys except backspace and the left ctrl. If that feels like a lot, warm up with the home row or just the letters. Put keys wherever you think they go and move them around as much as you like, since nothing is judged until you press **Check**. The bracket and slash keys tend to be the ones that get people.

Letters start out lowercase. Turn on Shift to see uppercase letters and the shifted symbols (like ! @ { and ?) instead, if that's how you know them.

Each level remembers your best time on this device, and the whole thing follows the theme you've picked for kirupa.com.

Each style gets its own keyboard, too: chunky pixel keys by default, a holographic console in Sci-Fi, flat hairline keys in Minimal, washi keycaps on an indigo woodblock in Ukiyo-e, gold blocks on bricks in Platformer, and paper keys on a wooden board in Nature. Try switching styles, dark mode, or colors to see them all.

Hover over the keyboard with sound on (the speaker in the header) and every spot plays its own note, in an instrument that matches the style.

## Conclusion

Got a score to brag about or an idea for what the next experiment should be? Share it on the [forums](https://forum.kirupa.com)!