How to type angle brackets (<)
Also called less than sign, greater than sign, chevrons.
Hold Shift with your right little finger and press the comma key with your left middle finger for <, or the full stop key with your left ring finger for >.
Which finger types <
- Finger
- Right middle
- Resting position
- K on the home row
- Shift
- Required, held by the other hand
- Hand
- right
No website can detect which finger you actually used — a browser reports the character, not the hand that produced it. The finger above is the one the standard touch typing layout assigns, and it is the one the lessons here train.
What < is used for
- Open and close every HTML and XML tag.
- Mean less than and greater than in comparisons.
- Enclose a type parameter in TypeScript, Java, C# and Rust.
- Redirect input and output in a shell.
Where it comes from
Thomas Harriot introduced < and > in a manuscript published in 1631, a decade after his death, and explained the design in one line: the wider end faces the larger quantity. It is one of the few mathematical symbols whose shape still explains its meaning.
The mistake people make
Forgetting Shift and getting a comma or a full stop. In HTML this produces a tag that silently does not open, and the page renders the tag name as visible text — one of the most common causes of stray markup appearing on a live page.
If the key is missing or gives the wrong character
- In HTML, write < and > to display them as text rather than open a tag.
- Windows: Alt+60 and Alt+62 on the numeric keypad.
Practise it properly
Knowing which finger owns a key is not the same as using it without thinking. The Typometer course blocks on the wrong key and names the finger for every one, so the habit forms rather than the knowledge.
Other keys
Related guides
Free, and no account needed.
- Start at level 1: the home rowFind F and J without looking, one key at a time.
- How to learn touch typingWhat actually works, what to ignore, and how long it takes.
- The full typing course415 levels from the home row to code and professional documents.
- Untimed typing practicePractise without a clock and focus on the keys you keep missing.