Hi. What keyboard layout is the best for writing in Japanese? I've been using the "12 keys" layout but I don't find it very convenient, specially for differentiating つ/っ etc. Are there better options? TIA
I use a regular keyboard layout with letters that get transferred in hiragana etc... and there are certain key combinations for writing special hiragana. I like it far better than 12 keys, you can write very quickly and effortlessly on it. If you use gboard with Japanese you can choose between 12 keys and a normal keyboard.
It friends on the keyboard. There's the virtual keyboard option for most desktop/laptops. Personally, I have programmablw keyboards that have software that allow me to set up different keyboard layers, so I have a JP layer with sowcific buttons for things like っ/ッ.
On mobile, a lot of Japanese use 12 key. I believe it's faster than qwerty and if you're good at it you make less mistakes since the keys are bigger.
I'm in the habit of using regular qwerty romaji input through gboard.
On PC/desktop, the preinstalled Microsoft IME is pretty good but I vastly prefer Mac OS's Japanese input but haven't found anything like it for Windows yet.
The best keyboard is just the one that's most convenient for you to use, but I'll throw my hat in for 12-key / kana flick for typing on mobile. As a learner I think it's especially valuable to use, since typing in romaji can reinforce the bad habit of thinking about Japanese sounds as romaji, whereas having only Japanese characters on the keyboard forces you to get comfortable and familiar with thinking in kana. Also as an unintended consequence, using 12-key made the proper gojuuon order second nature to me without ever needing to study it.
Differentiating つ/っ and such on 12-key is mostly a muscle-memory thing, like pressing Shift to get a capital letter on a QWERTY keyboard, but there are different 12-key keyboards out there that allow you to type them in more intuitive (maybe) ways. I used to use the アルテ keyboard (Android) for a while, which lets you type small kana or dakuten by combining different flicks instead of using the modifier key (e.g. flick up on た to get つ, and then flick right to get っ or left to get づ).
12-key / kana flick is based on the kana table. Each of the buttons represents a column of the table, and you flick left, right, up, or down on the button to type the other characters in each column. e.g. Flicking the あ button gives you access to いうえお, flicking the か button gives you access to きくけこ, etc.
The direction you flick determines the vowel row, and the vowel order goes clockwise in gojuuon order starting with left: あ-row kana are just tapping the button, then to flick for the い-row is left, う-row is up, え-row is right, and お-row is down. The わ key works slightly differently so you can have access to special characters outside the table: を is left, ん is up, ー (chouonpu) is right, and ~ is down.
The button on the bottom left (on your image it has a ^_^ face, but most other keyboards show ゛゜and/or 大小) will cycle through any variations of the previously-typed character. e.g. Pressing it after typing あいうえ or お will give you ぁぃぅぇ or ぉ, and pressing it after かきくけ or こ will give you がぎぐげ or ご.
There are probably plenty of training apps out there to practice with, but the fun one I know is FlicKuma!. It seems to have been taken down from the Android play store, but here it is for iOS.
