Keyboard layout

Computers and other typing devices offer many different keyboard layouts for inputting data in different languages. The standard English keyboard layout is known as QWERTY. Various alternatives to the QWERTY layout have been suggested, many claiming advantages such as higher typing speeds. One of the most common alternatives is the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard.

A customized keyboard showing QWERTY, Simplified Dvorak, Russian, Korean, and Arabic layouts simultaneously.

Keyboard structure

Keys labelled with only a capital letter can type both small and capital letters. To type the symbol at the top left of a key, the shift key, often labelled "⇧", is used. To type the symbol at the bottom right of a key, the AltGr key is used. (Further symbols are available on the smaller keyboards of laptop computers, which require further keystroke combinations.)

The standard keyboard structure also includes the control and alternative keys. These keys are commonly known as modifier keys. There are also function keys, with actions set by the currently used program.

Dead key

A dead key produces no output when it is pressed, but modifies the output of the next key pressed after it.

Many languages include characters additional to the standard upper and lower case 26-letter alphabet, such as accented characters, that do not easily fit onto a standard English-language keyboard (UK, US or other varieties). Typing accented characters is made easier by using the dead key feature. When a dead key is pressed, nothing happens on the screen, but then pressing the character to be accented makes the desired accented character appear on the screen. For example, typing the acute accent dead key followed by the letter a gives á. To type a diacritical mark on its own, it needs to be followed by a space.

In the Mac OS US Roman Keyboard Layout, dead keys are accessed with the option (alt) key as follows:

´	option-e (á, é, í, ó, ú)
`	option-` (à, è, ì, ò, ù)
¨	option-u (ä, ë, ï, ö, ü, ÿ)
^	option-i (â, ê, î, ô, û)
~	option-n (ã, õ, ñ)

which is then followed by the letter the accent is intended for. For example, the keypresses option-e e results in the é character. In Mac OS X, pressing one of these key combinations creates the accent and highlights it, then produces the finalized character when a supported character is pressed, otherwise it leaves the accent remaining. Some accented vowels, such as ŵ (used in Welsh), cannot be accessed without first changing the keyboard layout. Some accented vowels are also unsupported. The US keyboard layout does not support other, less common diacritics, such as ˇ (caron), which are commonly used in many Eastern European languages.

Note on keyboard layouts

The following layouts assume that the physical locations of the keys are the same as on a US 102-key PC/AT keyboard. In practice, keyboards from other countries may have keys in different locations. However, on a US 102-key PC/AT keyboard with an operating system configured for a non-English language, the keys will be placed as follows. "Dead keys" (see above) appear in red. Characters accessed using the AltGr key appear at the bottom right of the corresponding key, or in some images in blue.

Another situation takes place with "national" layouts. Keyboards designed for typing in Spanish have some characters shifted, to release the space for Ñ ñ; similarly, those for French and other European languages may have a special key for the character Ç ç . Keyboards designed for Japanese, may have special keys to switch between Japanese typing and English and vice-versa; and the character ¥ instead of \. Using such keyboards for other languages leads to a conflict: the image on the key does not correspond to the character. In such cases, each new language may require an additional label on the keys, because the standard keyboard layouts do not share even similar characters of different languages (see the example in the figure above). However, in some special cases (For example, typing English at the English keyboard), the image at the physical key may correspond to the character it generates.

Apple keyboards have the Alt and AltGr keys replaced by the Command key, and has an Option key (which functions as AltGr) where the Win key is placed below. Thus it doesn't have an Alt key, and either the command or the option key has to be reprogrammed when running in a non-Macintosh environment.

Keyboard layouts for Roman script in Microsoft Windows

Although there are a large number of different keyboard layouts used for different languages written in Roman script, most of these layouts are quite similar. They can be divided into three main families according to where the Q, A, Z, M, and Y keys are placed on the keyboard. These are usually named after the first six letters.

While the core of the keyboard, the alphabetic section, remains fairly constant, and the numbers from 1-9 are almost invariably on the top row, keyboards differ vastly in:

• the placement of punctuation characters,
• which punctuation characters are included,
• whether numbers are accessible directly or in a shift-state,
• the presence and placement of accent deadkeys and accented characters.

QWERTY

Main article: QWERTY

By far the most widespread, the only one not confined to a particular geographical area. Keys like "enter" and "caps lock" have not been translated to the language of the keyboard in question.

Canadian French

linux configuration code: ca_enhanced

• In many versions, the guillemets key is moved to the other end of the character line, right of "É", making both shift keys the same size.

Canadian Multilingual Standard

United States keyboards are still more common in Canada.

Danish

Danish keyboard layout

Dutch (Netherlands)

• The Dutch keyboard layout is barely used; the majority of the Dutch uses the United States (International) layout instead.

Finnish/Swedish

Italian

Note:

• braces (right above square brackets and shown in purple) are given with both AltGr and Shift pressed.

Norwegian

Portuguese (Portugal)

Main article: Portuguese keyboard layout

Portuguese (Brazil)

Main article: Portuguese keyboard layout

Spanish (Spain)

Spanish (Latin America)

UK and Ireland

The United Kingdom and Ireland use an identical keyboard layout similar to the United States layout. Hong Kong uses US and Chinese (Traditional) keyboards rather than UK and Ireland ones. See the article British and American keyboards for details. See also Technical standards in colonial Hong Kong.

Note:

• One frequently encountered difference from US keyboard is that the quotation marks are on the 2 key while the @ sign takes the place the quotation marks have on US keyboards.
• The key to the immediate left of numeral 1 (backtick, `) gives (logical NOT, ¬) when shifted (instead of ~) and with AltGr either
  • vertical bar | (OS/2’s UK166 keyboard layout, Linux UK keyboard layout),
    or
  • broken vertical bar ¦ (Microsoft Windows’ UK/Ireland keyboard layout);
• the key to the immediate left of Z gives, when shifted, either
  • broken vertical bar ¦ (OS/2’s UK166 keyboard layout),
    or
  • vertical bar | (Microsoft Windows’ UK/Ireland keyboard layout and Linux UK/Ireland keyboard layout).

US

The US keyboard layout has a second Alt key instead of the AltGr key and does not use any dead keys, and thus offers no way of inputting any sort of diacritic or accent; this makes it unsuitable for all but a handful of languages. On the other hand, US keyboard layout is widely used by programmers worldwide.

U.S. keyboards are used not only in the United States, but also in most English-speaking countries, e.g. Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. In the United Kingdom, UK keyboards are used. See British and American keyboards for details.

US-International

The US keyboard layout can be configured to type accents efficiently. This is known as the US-International layout. Using the same layout as the US keyboard, accented characters can be typed by pressing the appropriate accent key, then the letter on the keyboard in its unaccented form. Accent keys share the same key as ', `, ", ^ and ~.

Accent keys are activated by pressing it (without holding it), and next pressing the letter that requires an accent. After the two strokes, the single accented character would appear on the screen. Note that only vowels can have accents in this way. If one wishes to use the normal single quotation mark, caret and so on, one would press the accent key followed by the spacebar. Accented characters can be typed with the following combinations:

• ' the letter (é)
• ` the letter (è)
• " the letter (ë)
• ^ the letter (ê)
• ~ the letter (ñ)

Thus, in this sense, the keys ', `, ", ^ and ~ are dead keys when first depressed, then become normal keys functioning in the same way as keys on the US keyboard if the spacebar is pressed.

There are also alternative US-International formats, whereby modifier keys such as shift and alt are used, and the placement of the accented characters are different from the placement of their unaccented counterparts.

• The US-International keyboards are used in The Netherlands.

QWERTZ

Main article: QWERTZ

The QWERTZ layout is fairly widely used in Germany and much of Central Europe. The main difference between it and QWERTY is that Y and Z are swapped, and most special characters such as brackets are replaced by German special characters.

Hungary

Germany and Austria (but not Switzerland)

Polish

Most typewriters use a QWERTY keyboard with Polish accentuated letters accessed directly, while practically all computers (except custom-made, e.g., in public sector and some Apple computers) use standard US layout (commonly called Polish programmers layout, in Polish: polski programisty) with Polish letters accessed through AltGr (AltGr-Z giving "Ż" and AltGr-X giving "Ź").

Romanian in Romania and Moldova

The above layout is not widespread — the American QWERTY layout is the most common in these two countries.

Slovene

The Slovene keyboard layout has five additional special characters Č, Ć, Ž, Š and Đ where Ć and Đ are not part of the Slovene alphabet.

Swiss German, Swiss French, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg

The Layout of the Swiss keyboard is designed to allow easy access to frequently used accents of the French and German languages. The difference between the two is that the German variety has the German umlauts (ä, ö, ü) accessible without shift, while the French version has the French accented characters (é, à, è) accessible without shift. The actual keyboards have the keys engraved for both variations, the difference is only in the driver setting. Furthermore, Swiss German does not include the ß used in Germany and Austria.

Luxembourg does not have a keyboard layout of its own. Public education uses the Swiss-French keyboard, while the banking sector prefers the Belgian layout. Other places use either, or the US layout.

AZERTY

Main article: AZERTY

The AZERTY layout is used in France, Belgium and some neighbouring countries. It differs from the QWERTY layout thus:

• A and Q are swapped
• Z and W are swapped
• M is moved from the right of N to the right of L [where colon/semicolon is on a US keyboard]
• The digits 0 to 9 are on the same keys, but to be typed the shift key must be pressed. The unshifted positions are used for accented characters.

The French AZERTY keyboard also has special characters used in the French language, such as ç, à é, è, and other characters such as &, " ,' ,§, , all located under the numbers.

Some French people use the Canadian Multilingual standard keyboard. The Portuguese (Portugal) keyboard layout may also be preferred, as it provides all French accents (acute, grave, tréma, tilde, circumflex, cedilla, and also quotation marks «») and its dead-letter option for all the accent keys allow for easy input of all the possibilities in French and most other languages (áàäãâéèëêíìïîóòöõôúùüû). Ç is, however, a separate key, as can be seen above.

French

Belgian

The Belgian AZERTY was developed from the French AZERTY but some adaptions were made in the 1980s. All letters remain the same as on the French keyboard, but some signs (? ! @ - _ + = §) are on different locations.

File:French (Belgian) keyboard.jpg

QZERTY

The QZERTY layout is used mostly, if not exclusively, in Italy, where it is very common on typewriters. Computer keyboards are usually QWERTY, although non-alphanumeric characters vary.

• Z and W are swapped
• M is moved from the right of N to the right of L, as in AZERTY

Dvorak and others

There are also keyboard layouts that do not resemble QWERTY/QWERTZ/AZERTY very closely, if at all. Best-known among these is the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard layout (named after its inventor, not the key order), which reduces finger movement and is claimed by some proponents to offer higher typing speed along with ergonomic benefits. There are also single-handed Dvorak layouts (one each for left-handed and right-handed typing), as well as adaptations for languages other than English.

Some languages use the Roman script but with non-QWERTY-based keyboard layouts, such as Latvian and Turkish (the majority of Turkish keyboards are QWERTY, though the "Turkish-F keyboard layout" is older and said to be better suited to the language).

Chorded Keyboards

A syllabic chord keyboard is a keyboard with three sets of keys that are used to type in a single syllable with one (combined) keystroke. Other chorded keyboards are also in use (often for specialized applications), such as the Stenotype.

Turkish

The Turkish language uses the Roman alphabet, and a dedicated keyboard layout was designed in 1955 by İhsan Yener. During its design, the Turkish Language Academy (TDK) investigated letter frequencies in Turkish and used this statistical basis to design the Turkish-F keyboard. It provides a balanced distribution of typing effort between the hands - 49% for the left hand and 51% for the right.

Besides the Turkish-F keyboard, the QWERTY keyboard is widely used on computers in Turkey.

QWERTY- and Dvorak-based

• Qwerak (2002)

Dvorak-based

• DAS, a Dvorak variant for writing in Finnish

Original

• Banks Keyboard
• Kiwi (custom layout evolver) (2006)
• Writer’s Keyboard Layout (2006)
• Michael Capewell’s evolved layout (2005)
• NEO layout Template:De icon [1] (2004)
• Plum [2] (2003)
• Arensito (2001)
• Peter Klausler’s evolved layout (2002)
• Maltron layout [3] (1977)
• HCESAR (1937)
• Roy E. Hoke’s layout (U.S. patent 1,506,426, 1924)
• Sidney W. Rowell’s layout (U.S. patent 943,466, 1909)
• DHIATENSOR layout (1893)
• The QWERF layout reduces finger movements 28% over regular QWERTY.
• JLG Extended Keyboard Layout for US A QWERTY layout with over than 1000 Unicode characters.

Keyboard layouts for non-Roman alphabetic scripts

Some keyboard layouts for non-Roman alphabetic scripts, most notably the Greek layout, are based on the QWERTY layout, in that glyphs are assigned as far as possible to keys that bear similar-sounding or appearing glyphs in QWERTY. This saves learning time for those familiar with QWERTY.

This is not a general rule, and many non-Roman keyboard layouts have been invented from scratch.

Most non-Roman keyboard layouts have the capacity to be used to input Roman letters as well as the script of the language, for example, when typing in URLs or names. This may be done through a special key on the keyboard devoted to this task, or through some special combination of keys, or through software programs that do not interact with the keyboard much.

Arabic

Armenian

Greek

Hebrew

Russian

People who do not have a Cyrillic keyboard sometimes use a phonetic (transliterated) layout where ‘А’ is obtained by pressing ‘A’, Russian ‘Б’ ‘D’, ‘О’ by pressing ‘O’ etc. Also there were some alternative (e.g. ‘ЯВЕРТЫ’, ‘ЧШЕРТЫ’) keyboard layouts extinct by now. See also Russian keyboard: standard and phonetic.

Bulgarian

The Bulgarian BDS layout. This new version of the standard was accepted on 5 December 2006.

The new Bulgarian Phonetic layout, accepted as Bulgarian National Standard (BDS) on 5 December 2006. Earlier versions of this layout were widespread because of its similarity to the QWERTY layout. It is a Phonetic not Transliteration layout, and produces Cyrillic symbols. layout

Both layouts are in widespread use. The new standard added the Euro sign and some other characters to both layouts.

Transliteration using Roman script is used only in informal electronic written communication, mainly because of a long history of compatibility issues with different encodings, history of lack of native OS support and user laziness.

Devanāgarī

Thai

Khmer

East Asian languages

Chinese, Japanese, and Korean require special input methods, often abbreviated to CJK IMEs, due to the thousands of possible characters in these languages. Various methods have been invented to fit all these possibilities into a normal QWERTY keyboard, so East Asian keyboards are essentially the same as those in other countries. However, their input methods are considerably more complex, without one-to-one mappings between keys and characters.

In general, first the range of possibilities is narrowed down (most often by entering the desired character’s pronunciation), then, if there remains more than one possibility, selecting the desired ideogram either by typing the number before the character, or using a graphical menu to select it. The computer assists the typist by using heuristics to guess which character is most likely desired. Although this may sound clumsy, East Asian input methods are today sufficiently sophisticated that, for both beginners and experts, typing in these languages is only slightly slower than typing English.

In Japanese, the QWERTY-based JIS keyboard layout is used, and the pronunciation of each character is entered using Hepburn romanization or Kunrei-shiki romanization. There are several kana-based typing methods. See also Japanese language and computers.

Chinese has the most complex and varied input methods. Characters can be entered by pronunciation (like Japanese and Korean) or by structure. Most of the structural methods are the most difficult to learn, but they are extremely fast for experienced typists, as they do away with the need for selecting characters from a menu. For a detailed treatment, see Chinese input methods for computers.

There exist a variety of other, slower ways a character may be entered. If the pronunciation of a character is not known, the selection can be narrowed down by giving its component shapes, radicals, and stroke count. Also, many input systems include a "drawing pad" permitting "handwriting" of a character using a mouse. Finally, if the computer does not have CJK software installed, it may be possible to enter a character directly through its encoding number (e.g. Unicode).

In contrast to Chinese and Japanese, Korean is typed the same way as Western languages. There are two major kinds of keyboard layouts: dubeolsik and sebeolsik. Dubeolsik, based on the QWERTY keyboard, is more commonly used. While Korean consonants and vowels (jamo) are grouped together into syllabic characters when written, the language itself is actually alphabetical, and therefore typing in Korean is quite simple for someone who understands the Korean alphabet Hangul. Each jamo is assigned to a single key. As the user types letters, the computer automatically groups them into syllabic characters. Given a sequence of jamo, there is only one unambiguous way letters can be validy grouped into syllables, so this grouping is done seamlessly by the computer, with the result that Korean can be typed in the same way as English or any other alphabetical language.

Chinese

Chinese (traditional)

Computers in the Republic of China (Taiwan) often use Zhuyin (bopomofo) style keyboards (US keyboards with bopomofo labels), many also with Cangjie method key labels, as Cangjie is the standard method for speed-typing in Traditional Chinese. The bopomofo style keyboards are in lexicographical order, top-to-bottom left-to-right.

The codes of three input methods are typically printed on the Chinese (traditional) keyboard: Zhuyin (upper right); Cangjie (lower left); and Dayi (lower right).

This is an example with Cangjie (blue) and Bopomofo/Zhuyin (red).

In Hong Kong, both Chinese (Traditional) and US keyboards are found. Japanese keyboards are occasionally found, but UK keyboards are rare.

See also British and American keyboards, Technical standards in colonial Hong Kong

A Chinese (Traditional) keyboard has a US layout with Chinese input method labels printed on the keys. These keyboards can be used for Roman characters, provided that US keyboard layout is selected in the operating system.

Chinese (simpified)

Keyboards used in the mainland of the People’s Republic of China typically use a US keyboard and input Chinese characters using Hanyu pinyin, which represents the sounds of Chinese characters using Latin letters.

See the section on Chinese languages above, and also Chinese input methods for computers.

Hangul (for Korean)

Dubeolsik

Dubeolsik (두벌식) is the most common Hangul keyboard layout in use in South Korea. Pressing the Ha/En(한/영) key once switches between Hangul as shown, and English. There is another key to the left of the space bar for Hanja input. If using a standard 104-key keyboard, the right Alt key will become the Ha/En key, and the right Ctrl key will become the Hanja key. Alternate keyboard styles exist, such as those used by IBM mainframes, but these are rarely used. Consonants occupy the left side of the layout, while vowels are on the right.

Sebeolsik 390

Sebeolsik 390 (세벌식 390) was released in 1990, hence its name. It is based on Dr. Kong’s earlier work. This layout is notable for its compatibility with the QWERTY layout; all QWERTY symbols are available in Hangul mode. Numbers are placed in three rows. Syllable-initial consonants are on the right (shown green in the picture), and syllable-final consonants and consonant clusters are on the left (shown red). Some consonant clusters are not printed on the keyboard; the user has to press multiple consonant keys to input some consonant clusters, unlike Sebeolsik Final. It is more ergonomic than the dubeolsik, but is not in wide use.

Sebeolsik Final

Sebeolsik Final (세벌식 최종) is another Hangul keyboard layout in use in South Korea. Numbers are placed on two rows. Syllable-initial consonants are on the right, and syllable-final consonants and consonant clusters are on the left. Vowels are in the middle. All consonant clusters are available on the keyboard, unlike the Sebeolsik 390 which does not include all of them. It is more ergonomic than the dubeolsik, but is not in wide use.

Sebeolsik Noshift

Sebeolsik Noshift is a variant of sebeolsik which can be used without pressing the shift key.

Japanese

Usually the JIS keyboard is used. Some people type Hiragana directly, but most people prefer typing Latin alphabets, which are automatically converted to Hiragana. In both cases, the Alt+Zen/Han key combination is used to switch on input method editor. Some people prefer the US layout, in which case Alt+` does the role, or Cmd-Space for Macs.

See the section on East Asian languages above, also Japanese language and computers and Japanese input methods.

See also

• FITALY Layout
• Language code
• Chinese input methods for computers
• Japanese language and computers
• Technical standards in colonial Hong Kong
• British and American keyboards
• Unicode
• Urdu keyboard
• QWERTY and accents

External links

• Allows to redefine virtually any key (free Windows software)
• On-Screen Windows Keyboard.
• IBM’s database of keyboard layouts
• IBM site about keyboard layouts
• Learn2Type.com has free online typing lessons
• JLG Extended Microsoft Keyboard Layout for US keyboard it allows characters with accent.
• Multilingual Windows keyboards in both QWERTY and Dvorak layouts
• Variant Windows keyboards, U.S. and non-U.S.
• Virtual Online Russian Keyboard (free)
• Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator (free)
• Ukelele a Mac OS X Keyboard Layout Editor (free)
• Creating custom keyboard layouts in Linux/UNIX
• PowerTyping - Flash-based Online Typing Tutor for Qwerty and Dvorak
• Gate2Home.com - Onscreen Virtual Keyboard with Multilingual layouts
• JavaScript Virtual Keyboard - Lightweight, yet powerful, zero-configuration script for use on the web (JavaScript, open-source)
• Virtual Keyboard for Web applications - Compherensive javascript virtual keyboard solution. Demo page. Russian article.
• Esperanto keyboard
• Apple Powerbook Keyboard Layout
• Diktor Keyboard Layout Template:Ru icon
• 2006 Bulgarian Phonetic Keyboard The new layout developed by Dimitar Skordev, Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, Sofia University, and Dimitar Dobrev, Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
• Tavultesoft Keyman - Shareware software package with dozens of custom keyboard layouts
• Arabic Online Keyboard based on QWERTY(ISLAM-91)