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“Ortholinear” is a made up word for “put all the keys in a fixed grid because hey it’s easy” (“orthos” was the Greek word for “straight”, “linea” was Latin for “line”).

“Vertical stagger” means that the keys are arranged in columns instead of rows, but the columns are staggered to match the resting position of the various fingers.

Ortholinear is no stagger in either direction.

Column stagger is what you see on the Ergodox or Atreus or Mitosis or Iris or any of the recently vast proliferation of ergo designs.

Thanks for the references! I see that all three of the above favor split-hand design alongside with vertical staggering.

I'm not completely sure, I think with ortholinear is used to indicate "array" layout keyboard like the Plank (first Google image link: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/440508407294189587/ )