Copyright and terms

The plain-language essentials: who owns what, and the terms for using Smartypes.

Smartypes is a free tool. There is no fee, no paid version, and nothing to buy. Contributions on the Support page are voluntary gifts to the person who builds it. They are not payment for Smartypes, they are not a subscription, and they unlock nothing: everyone gets the same Smartypes whether or not they contribute.

Effective September 26, 2026. On September 28, 2026 the privacy notice moved to its own page and the accessibility statement to the Help page, with their wording unchanged.

Copyright

Smartypes claims copyright only in what copyright law protects in its practice materials: the owner's own wording and edits, the selection and arrangement of the sentences, passages and word lists, and the compilation of the practice content as a whole. Individual short word list entries and brief definitions, taken on their own, may not be protected by copyright however they were produced. What is protected is the particular selection, arrangement, and wording Smartypes has assembled. Material an AI generated without enough human creative control may not be protected by copyright either.

The drill formats, exercise structures, and practice methods Smartypes uses are not claimed as protected expression. They may be used, adapted, or referenced freely. What may not be copied without permission is Smartypes' own text and code.

You are welcome to practice with Smartypes and to use it in classrooms, free of charge. Please do not republish, redistribute, or reproduce Smartypes' own content or code elsewhere, or collect it by automated means, without written permission. This request does not cover material that belongs to others and is included under its own licence, such as the Atkinson Hyperlegible typeface (SIL Open Font License 1.1, described under Content and sources below); you may use that material under the terms of its own licence. Linking to Smartypes is always welcome.

Smartypes™ and the Smartypes logo are unregistered trademarks of Steven Quinn Singleton. Smartypes is an independent project and is not affiliated with any company, school, or organization mentioned on this site. Keyboard layout names (QWERTY, AZERTY, Dvorak, Colemak) are used only to describe the layouts Smartypes supports.

Content and sources

Practice text is written for Smartypes. Every passage, sentence, word list, definition, and example sentence was drafted with the help of Claude, an AI assistant made by Anthropic, and approved for use through a review process that includes human review; the Science page explains how. Human review means each item is read for accuracy, appropriateness, and quality, and may be revised, rejected, or rewritten before it is used. It does not mean every word began with a human author. Smartypes does not claim its content is more protectable than the law allows for AI-assisted work, and claims nothing beyond the human contribution: the selection, editing, arrangement, and final approval of the material. Practice text was drafted for Smartypes, not collected from books, articles, songs, or websites. Smartypes does not claim that any single sentence is unique: short sentences about common facts can match wording found elsewhere by coincidence. If you find one that repeats a published work, please report it and it will be replaced. The Coach chooses among these sentences and does not write new ones; for the first keys it also makes short practice drills of letter groups.
Word lists and definitions. The word lists were assembled for Smartypes. Vocabulary definitions and example sentences were written for Smartypes, not copied from any dictionary or published word list. Some vocabulary words were chosen with the help of the New General Service List and the New Academic Word List by Browne, C., Culligan, B., and Phillips, J. (newgeneralservicelist.com), which are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International. Those lists were used only to choose which words to include; none of their definitions or wording appears in Smartypes. The authors have not endorsed Smartypes.
Research. The Science page summarizes published research in its own words and cites each source with a link to the publisher. Summaries and short citations are used for commentary and education; the original works belong to their authors and publishers.
No third-party code or trackers, and one typeface. Smartypes uses no outside software libraries, analytics, advertising, or social media plugins, and loads nothing from another server. Its typeface is Atkinson Hyperlegible, designed by the Braille Institute of America to be easy to read. It is served from Smartypes itself under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 (copyright 2020 Braille Institute of America, Inc.; the licence is fonts/OFL.txt). The Braille Institute has not endorsed Smartypes. Typing and code practice use your device's own monospace font.

Reporting a copyright concern

If you believe something on Smartypes infringes your copyright, please use the feedback page and choose "A copyright concern". Please include (1) a description of the work you believe is infringed, (2) where it appears on Smartypes, and (3) how to reach you. Concerns are reviewed promptly, and material found to infringe will be removed or corrected.

Smartypes does not accept, host, or display content submitted by other people, so everything on the site comes from the operator. If that ever changes, this page will be updated before it does, with a fuller takedown process.

Terms of use

Free to use, in Preview. Smartypes is provided free of charge, as is and as available. It is in Preview and still under development, so features, content, and wording may change, and it may change, pause, or end at any time. There is no guarantee that it will be uninterrupted, error free, or free of defects.
No guaranteed results. Typing improves at different rates for different people, depending on how often they practice, where they start, and many other factors. Smartypes is a practice tool, not a promise of any particular speed or timeline. Progress reports show what your own practice is producing.
Take care of yourself. Sit comfortably, take breaks, and stop if typing causes pain or discomfort. Nothing on Smartypes is medical advice; if pain continues, consult a health professional.
No warranties. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Smartypes and its operator disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. Some places do not allow certain warranties to be excluded, so some of this may not apply to you.
Limit of liability. To the fullest extent permitted by law, the operator's total liability arising out of or relating to your use of Smartypes will not exceed the amount you have paid to use it in the past twelve months. Smartypes is free and contributions are gifts, not payment for use, so that amount is zero. The operator is not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages, or for loss of practice data stored in your browser. Nothing here excludes liability that the law does not allow to be excluded.
Respectful use. Please use Smartypes and its feedback page as intended. Do not interfere with or try to disrupt the site, send spam or harmful material through the feedback page, or use Smartypes for any unlawful purpose. Access may be suspended or restricted for anyone who misuses the service.
Changes. These terms may be updated from time to time. When they change in a way that matters, the date at the top of this page will change. Using Smartypes after a change means you accept the updated terms.
Governing law. These terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, United States, without regard to conflict of laws principles. Any dispute that cannot be settled informally will be brought in the state or federal courts located in or serving Merced County, California, and you and the operator consent to those courts, except where the mandatory law of the place you live gives you the right to bring or defend a claim there. Netlify's own terms are an agreement between Netlify and the operator; they do not govern your use of Smartypes.

Contributions

Smartypes is free. Contributions are not payment for it. Smartypes is an independent project of Steven Quinn Singleton, an individual, not a company or a registered charity. A contribution is a voluntary gift to support the project's development and hosting. It is not a fee, a purchase, or a subscription; it does not buy any goods, services, features, or priority support; and it is not required or expected to use anything on Smartypes. Contributions are not tax-deductible. Card payments are processed by the payment provider under its own terms. Contributions in cryptocurrency go straight to an address the operator controls, with no provider in between; crypto transfers cannot be reversed, so check the address and the network before you send.

Contact

Questions about these terms, privacy, copyright, or accessibility, and requests to see or delete a message you sent, can be made through the feedback page. Smartypes is operated by Steven Quinn Singleton, Merced County, California, United States.