There are a large number ofQWERTY keyboard layouts used for languages written in theLatin script. Many of these keyboards include some additional symbols of other languages, but there also exist layouts that were designed with the goal to be usable for multiple languages (seeMultilingual variants). This list gives general descriptions of QWERTY keyboard variants along with details specific to certain operating systems, with emphasis onMicrosoft Windows.
English-speaking Canadians have traditionally used the same keyboard layout as in the United States, unless they are in a position where they have to write French on a regular basis. French-speaking Canadians respectively have favoured the Canadian French (CFR) and the Canadian French ACNOR (CFA) keyboard layouts (seebelow).
TheUnited Kingdom andIreland[nb 1] use a keyboard layout based on the 48-key version defined in the (now withdrawn)British Standard BS 4822.[1] It is very similar to that of the United States, but has an AltGr key and a larger Enter key, includes £ and € signs and some rarely usedEBCDIC symbols (¬, ¦), and uses different positions for the characters @, ", #, ~, \, and |.
The BS 4822:1994 standard did not make any use of the AltGr key and lacked support for any non-ASCII characters other than ¬ and £. It also assigned a key for the non-ASCII character broken bar (¦), but lacks one for the far more commonly used ASCII character vertical bar (|). It also lacked support for various diacritics used in theWelsh alphabet, and theScottish Gaelic alphabet; and also is missing the letteryogh, ȝ, used very rarely in theScots language. Therefore, various manufacturers have modified or extended the BS 4822 standard:
Support for the diacritics needed for Scots Gaelic and Welsh was added to Windows and ChromeOS using a "UK-extended" setting (seebelow); Linux and X-Windows systems have an explicit or redesignatedcompose key for this purpose.
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The British version of theApple Keyboard does not use the standard UK layout. Instead, some older versions have the US layout (see below) with a few differences: the£ sign is reached by⇧ Shift+3 and the§ sign by⌥ Option+3, the opposite to the US layout. The€ is also present and is typed with⌥ Option+2. Umlauts are reached by typing⌥ Option+U and then the vowel, and ß is reached by typing⌥ Option+S.
Newer Apple "British" keyboards use a layout that is relatively unlike either the US or traditional UK keyboard. It uses an elongated return key, a shortened left⇧ Shift with` and~ in the newly created position, and in the upper left of the keyboard are§ and± instead of the traditional EBCDIC codes. The middle-row key that fits inside thereturn key has\ andPipe symbol.
The arrangement of the character input keys and theShift keys contained in this layout is specified in theUS national standardANSI-INCITS 154-1988 (R1999) (formerly ANSI X3.154-1988 (R1999)),[2] where this layout is called "ASCII keyboard". The complete US keyboard layout, as it is usually found, also contains the usual function keys in accordance with the international standardISO/IEC 9995-2, although this is not explicitly required by the US American national standard.
US keyboards are used not only in the United States, but also in many other English-speaking jurisdictions (except the UK and Ireland) such asCanada,Australia, theCaribbean nations,Hong Kong,Malaysia,India,Pakistan,Bangladesh,Singapore,New Zealand, andSouth Africa. Local spelling in these regions sometimes conforms more closely toBritish English usage, creating the undesirable side effect of also setting the language to US English rather than the localorthography. This conflict would be fixed inWindows 8 and later versions when Microsoft separated the keyboard and language settings. US keyboards also see use in Indonesia and the Philippines, the former of whichuses the same 26-letter alphabet as English.
The US keyboard layout has a secondAlt key instead of theAltGr key and does not use anydead keys; this makes it inefficient for all but a handful of languages. On the other hand, the US keyboard layout (or the similar UK layout) is occasionally used byprogrammers in countries where the keys for []{} are located in less convenient positions on the locally customary layout.[3]
On some keyboards theenter key is bigger than traditionally and takes up also a part of the line above, more or less the area of the traditional location of thebackslash key (\). In these cases the backslash is located in alternative places.[4] It can be situated one line above the default location, on the right of theequals sign key (=).[5][6] Sometimes it is placed one line below its traditional situation, on the right of theapostrophe key (') (in these cases the enter key is narrower than usual on the line of its default location).[7] It may also be two lines below its default situation on the right of a narrower than traditionally rightshift key.[8]
A variant of this layout is used in Arabic-speaking countries.
This variant has the | \ key to the left of Z, ~ ` key where the | \ key is in the usual layout, and the > < key where the ~ ` key is in the usual layout.[9]
The typewriter came to theCzech-speaking area in the late 19th century, when it was part ofAustria-Hungary where German was the dominant language of administration. Therefore, Czech typewriters have theQWERTZ layout.
However, with the introduction of imported computers, especially since the 1990s, the QWERTY keyboard layout is frequently used for computer keyboards. The Czech QWERTY layout differs from QWERTZ in that the characters (e.g. @$& and others) missing from the Czech keyboard are accessible with AltGr on the same keys where they are located on anAmerican keyboard. In Czech QWERTZ keyboards the positions of these characters accessed through AltGr differs.
Both the Danish andNorwegian keyboards include dedicated keys for the lettersÅ/å,Æ/æ andØ/ø, but the placement is a little different, as theÆ andØ keys are swapped on the Norwegian layout. (TheFinnish–Swedish keyboard is also largely similar to the Norwegian layout, but theØ andÆ are replaced withÖ andÄ. On some systems, the Danish keyboard may allow typing Ö/ö and Ä/ä by holding theAltGr or⌥Option key while strikingØ andÆ, respectively.) Computers with Windows are commonly sold with ÖØÆ and ÄÆØ printed on the two keys, allowing same computer hardware to be sold in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, with different operating system settings.
Though it is seldom used (most Dutch keyboards useUS International layout),[10] the Dutch layout uses QWERTY and adds the € sign, thediaeresis (◌̈), the Germaneszett (ß), thepilcrow (¶), the (US)cent sign (¢), the Greek letter μ (for themicro- sign), thebraces ({ }) and theguillemet quotation marks (« »), as well as having different locations for some other symbols. An older version contained a single-stroke key for the Dutch digraphij, which is usually typed by the combination ofI andJ. In the 1990s, there was a version with the now-obsoleteflorin sign (Dutch:guldenteken) for PCs.
See also§ US-International in the Netherlands below.
The keyboard layout used inEstonia is virtually the same as theSwedish layout. The main difference is that the Å and¨ keys (to the right ofP) are replaced withÜ andÕ respectively (the latter letter being the most distinguishing feature of theEstonian alphabet). Some special symbols anddead keys are also moved around.
The same as the Danish layout with addedĐ (Eth), since theFaroe Islands are a self-governed part of theKingdom of Denmark.
The Canadian French (CFR) keyboard layout is commonly used in Canada byFrench-speaking Canadians. It is the most common layout forlaptops and stand-alone keyboards aimed at theFrancophone market. Unlike the AZERTY layout used in France and Belgium, it is a QWERTY layout and as such is also relatively commonly used by English speakers in the US and Canada (accustomed to using US standard QWERTY keyboards) for easy access to the accented letters found in some Frenchloanwords. It can be used to type all accented French characters, as well as some from other languages, and serves all English functions as well. It is popular mainly because of its close similarity to the basic US keyboard commonly used by English-speaking Canadians and Americans, historical use of US-made typewriters by French-Canadians. The right Alt key is reconfigured as anAltGr key that gives easy access to a further range of characters (marked in blue and red on the keyboard image. Blue indicates an alternative character that will display as typed. Red indicates adead key: the diacritic will be applied to the next vowel typed.) The traditional Canadian French keyboard from IBM must use an ISO keyboard. The French guillemets located on the extra key are needed to type proper French, they are not optional. A dvorak version (traditional Canadian French layout) is also supported by Microsoft Windows.
In this keyboard, the key names are translated to French:
The "hybrid" keyboard layout, often referred incorrectly as "canadian multilingual" or "bilingual" is a mix between the US English and the Canadian French layout over an ISO keyboard. This layout has been developed by manufacturers as a cost saving strategy first for their low end laptops. They tend to be extended to the mid-range laptops in the recent years and sold wrongly as a "French" keyboard. Today, this layout seems to be criticized by both anglophones and francophones.[13][14] The anglophones accustomed to the ANSI keyboard complain about the small ISO shift on left and francophones can find these legends hard to read and messy. In this keyboard, the key names are translated in both French and English. This keyboard can be nevertheless useful for programming.
In 1988, the Quebec government has developed a new keyboard layout, using proper keys forÙ,Ç,É,È,À, standardized by the CSA Group and adopted also by the federal government.[15] This layout is known as Canadian French (Legacy) today on Windows and is considered to be the ancestor to the actual Canadian Multilingual Standard. The CMS on Windows and Linux is based on the CAN/CSA Z243.200-92 standard (launched in 1992 by the CSA Group, revised in 2021). Apple use a layout based mostly on the standardized CSA keyboard from 1992 too, called Canadian French ― CSA. The CMS is one of the few layouts allowing to type the ligatureœ/Œ, common in French. The integral version use pictograms based on theISO 9995-7 standard. Unlike the traditional Canadian French keyboard developed by IBM, the CSA Keyboard is also standardized on both ISO and ANSI keyboard. The French guillemets on the CSA keyboard are located on the level 3⇮AltGr with theZ andX keys. The Ù on the extra key can be replaced by a combination of⇮AltGr+` (dead key left fromÇ) thenu or⇧Shift+u. The ISO version still nevertheless needed by the Quebec government, following their higher standard named SGQRI-001.[16] The Quebec CSA keyboard is also named Canadian French ACNOR (CFA) or Canadian International Bilingual.
Germany, Austria, Switzerland, The Czech Republic, Liechtenstein, and Luxembourg useQWERTZ layouts, where the letter Z is to the right of T (and the Y is to the left of the X).
The Icelandic keyboard layout is different from the standard QWERTY keyboard because the Icelandic alphabet has some special letters, most of which it shares with the other Nordic countries:Þ/þ, Ð/ð, Æ/æ, and Ö/ö. (Æ/æ also occurs in Norwegian, Danish and Faroese, Ð/ð in Faroese, and Ö/ö in Swedish, Finnish and Estonian. In Norwegian Ö/ö could be substituted for Ø/ø which is the same sound/letter and is widely understood).
The letters Á/á, Ý/ý, Ú/ú, Í/í, Ó/ó and É/é are produced by first pressing the´dead key and then the corresponding letter. The Nordic letters Å/å and Ä/ä can be produced by first pressing°, located below theEsc key, and⇧ Shift+° (for ¨) which also works for the non-Nordic ÿ, Ü/ü, Ï/ï, and Ë/ë. These letters are not used natively in Icelandic, but may have been implemented for ease of communication in other Nordic languages.[citation needed] Additional diacritics may be found behind theAltGr key:AltGr++ for ˋ (grave accent) andAltGr+´ for ˆ (circumflex).
Windows includes an Irish layout which supports acute accents withAltGr for theIrish language and grave accents with the`dead key forScottish Gaelic. The otherInsular Celtic languages have their own layout. The UK or UK-Extended layout is also frequently used.
TheItalian keyboard layout is the keyboard layout commonly used on computers inItaly. It isQWERTY-based and follows theISO/IEC 9995 standard. Italian-speaking people in Switzerland on the contrary use the Swiss QWERTZ keyboard with Swiss Italian layout.
The Italian keyboard layout onMicrosoft Windows lacks the uppercase letters with accents that are used in Italian language: À, È, É, Ì, Ò, and Ù.[note 1] As such diacritics are normally used only on word-final vowels, this deficiency is usually overcome by using normal capital letters followed byapostrophe ('), e.g. E' instead of È, although this practice is disparaged by language purists. Anyhow, most of modernword processors and text editors includeautocorrection tools that change automatically the apostrophe into the correct accent when Italian language check is enabled.
On the contrary, this issue is not present underLinux, where the capital letters with accent are available by just enablingCaps Lock and pressing the corresponding lowercase accented letter.
Despite the lack of uppercase accented vowels, the Italian layout has nodead keys.
Some of the keys are usually labeled in Italian, although Italian keyboards with English labels are available as well. KeysAlt,Alt Gr,Ctrl,Ins andTab do not change, while the following labels are in Italian language:
| Italian label | English equivalent |
|---|---|
| ⇪ Bloc Maiusc | ⇪ Caps Lock |
| Bloc Num | Num Lock |
| Bloc Scorr | Scroll Lock |
| Canc | Delete |
| Fine | End |
| Inizio or⬉ | Home |
| ↵ Invio | ↵ Enter |
| ⇧ Maiusc | ⇧ Shift |
| Pag🠕 | Page Up |
| Pag🠗 | Page Down |
| Pausa | Pause |
| Stamp | Print Screen |
Italian keyboard layout on Windows also does not include allASCII characters, as it lacks thebacktick (`) andtilde (~). On Linux, they can be typed by pressingAltGr+⇧ Shift+' andAltGr+⇧ Shift+ì respectively.
Moreover, the layout includes the lowercase letter C with cedilla (ç) which is not used in the Italian language.
In the past, Italian typewriters and early personal computers used theQZERTY layout with some differences with respect to the current QWERTY layout:
Apple also supported QZERTY layout in its early Italian keyboards as well as in theiPod Touch.[17]
Although rarely used, a keyboard layout specifically designed for the Latvian language called ŪGJRMV exists. The Latvian QWERTY keyboard layout is most commonly used; its layout is the same as the United States one, but with a dead key, which allows entering special characters (āčēģīķļņōŗšūž). The most common dead key is the apostrophe ('), which is followed by Alt+Gr (Windows default for Latvian layout). Some prefer using the tick (`).
Where in standard QWERTY the number row is located, you find in Lithuanian QWERTY: Ą, Č, Ę, Ė, Į, Š, Ų, Ū, Ž, instead of their counterparts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, =. If you still want to use the numbers of the mentioned 'number row', you can create them in combination with theAltGr-key. Aside from these changes the keyboard is standard QWERTY. Besides QWERTY, theĄŽERTY layout without the adjustment of the number row is used.
TheMaltese language uses Unicode (UTF-8) to display the Maltese diacritics: ċ Ċ; ġ Ġ; ħ Ħ; ż Ż (together with à À; è È; ì Ì; ò Ò; ù Ù). There aretwo standard keyboard layouts for Maltese, according to "MSA 100:2002 Maltese Keyboard Standard"; one of 47 keys and one of 48 keys. The 48-key layout is the most popular.
TheNorwegian languages use the same letters asDanish, but the Norwegian keyboard differs from the Danish layout regarding the placement of theØ,Æ and\ (backslash) keys. On theDanish keyboard, theØ andÆ are swapped. TheSwedish keyboard is also similar to the Norwegian layout, butØ andÆ are replaced withÖ andÄ. On some systems, the Norwegian keyboard may allow typing Ö/ö and Ä/ä by holding theAltGr or⌥Option key while strikingØ andÆ, respectively.
There is also an alternative keyboard layout calledNorwegian with Sámi, which allows for easier input of the characters required to write variousSámi languages. All the Sámi characters are accessed through theAltGr key.
OnMacintosh computers, theNorwegian andNorwegian extended keyboard layouts have a slightly different placement for some of the symbols obtained with the help of the⇧Shift or⌥Option keys. Notably, the$ sign is accessed with⇧ Shift+4 and¢ with⇧ Shift+⌥ Option+4. Furthermore, the frequently used@ is placed betweenÆ andReturn.
Most typewriters use a QWERTZ keyboard withPolish letters (with diacritical marks) accessed directly (officially approved as "Typist's keyboard",Polish:klawiatura maszynistki, Polish Standard PN-87), which is mainly ignored in Poland as impractical (custom-made keyboards, e.g., those in the public sector as well as some Apple computers, present an exception to this paradigm); the "Polish programmer's" (Polish:polski programisty) layout has become thede facto standard, used on virtually all computers sold on the Polish market.
Most computer keyboards in Poland are laid out according to thestandard US visual and functional layout. Polish diacritics are accessed by using theAltGr key with a corresponding similar letter from the base Latin alphabet. Normal capitalization rules apply with respect toShift andCaps Lock keys. For example, to enter "Ź", one can typeShift+AltGr+X withCaps Lock off, or turn onCaps Lock and typeAltGr+X.
Both ANSI[19] and ISO[20] mechanical layouts are common sights, and even some non-standard[21] mechanical layouts are in use. ANSI is often preferred, as the additional key provides no additional function, at least inMicrosoft Windows where it duplicates the backslash key, while taking space from the Shift key. Many keyboards do not labelAltGr as such, leaving theAlt marking as in the US layout – the rightAlt key nevertheless functions asAltGr in this layout, causing possible confusion whenkeyboard shortcuts with theAlt key are required (these usually work only with the leftAlt) and causing the key to be commonly referred to asright Alt (Polish:prawy Alt).[22] However, keyboards withAltGr marking are available and it is also officially used by Microsoft when depicting the layout.[23]
| Caps Lock state | In combination with | Keystroke | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | C | E | L | N | O | S | Z | X | U | ||
| Off | rightAlt | ą | ć | ę | ł | ń | ó | ś | ż | ź | € |
| Shift & rightAlt | Ą | Ć | Ę | Ł | Ń | Ó | Ś | Ż | Ź | ||
| On | rightAlt | Ą | Ć | Ę | Ł | Ń | Ó | Ś | Ż | Ź | € |
| Shift & rightAlt | ą | ć | ę | ł | ń | ó | ś | ż | ź | ||
| Note: On Polish programmer keyboard, right Alt plays the role ofAltGr | |||||||||||
Also, onMS Windows, the tilde character "~" (Shift+`) acts as adead key to type Polish letters (with diacritical marks) thus, to obtain an "Ł", one may pressShift+` followed byL. The tilde character is obtained with (Shift+`) thenspace.
InX11 andWayland-based environments (commonly used onLinux-based operating systems), the euro symbol is typically mapped to Alt+5 instead of Alt+U, the tilde acts as a regular key, and several accented letters from other European languages are accessible through combinations with left Alt. Polish letters are also accessible by using thecompose key.
Software keyboards on touchscreen devices usually make the Polish diacritics available as one of the alternatives which show up after long-pressing the corresponding Latin letter.[24][25] However, modernpredictive text andautocorrection algorithms largely mitigate the need to type them directly on such devices.
The Brazilian computer keyboard layout is specified in theABNTNBR 10346 variant 2 (alphanumeric portion) and 10347 (numeric portion) standards.[26]
Essentially, the Brazilian keyboard contains dead keys for five variants of diacritics in use in the language; the letter Ç, the only application of thecedilha in Portuguese, has its own key. In some keyboard layouts theAltGr+C combination produces the ₢ character (Unicode 0x20A2), symbol for the old currencycruzeiro, a symbol that is not used in practice (the common abbreviation in the eighties and nineties used to be Cr$). Thecent sign ¢, is accessible viaAltGr+5, but is not commonly used for thecentavo, subunit of previous currencies as well as the currentreal, which itself is represented by R$. The Euro sign € is not standardized in this layout. The masculine and feminineordinals ª and º are accessible viaAltGr combinations. Thesection sign § (Unicode U+00A7), in Portuguese calledparágrafo, is nowadays practically only used to denote sections of laws.
Variant 2 of the Brazilian keyboard, the only which gained general acceptance (MS Windows treats both variants as the same layout),[27] has a uniquemechanical layout, combining some features of theISO 9995-3 and theJIS keyboards in order to fit 12 keys between the left and right Shift (compared to the American standard of 10 and the international of 11). Its modern,IBM PS/2-based variations, are thus known as 107-keys keyboards, and the original PS/2 variation was 104-key. Variant 1, never widely adopted, was based on the ISO 9995-2 keyboards. To make this layout usable with keyboards with only 11 keys in the last row, the rightmost key (/?°) has its functions replicated across theAltGr+Q,AltGr+W, andAltGr+E combinations.
Essentially, the Portuguese keyboard contains dead keys for five variants of diacritics; the letter Ç, the only application of thecedilha in Portuguese, has its own key, but there is also a dedicated key for theordinal indicators and a dedicated key forquotation marks.[28] TheAltGr+E combination for producing theeuro sign € (Unicode 0x20AC) has become standard.[29] On some QWERTY keyboards the key labels are translated, but the majority are labelled in English.
During the 20th century, a different keyboard layout,HCESAR, was in widespread use inPortugal.
The current Romanian National Standard SR 13392:2004 establishes two layouts forRomanian keyboards: a "primary"[30] one and a "secondary"[31] one.
The "primary" layout is intended for traditional users who have learned how to type with older, Microsoft-style implementations of the Romanian keyboard. The "secondary" layout is mainly used by programmers as it does not contradict the physical arrangement of keys on a US-style keyboard. The "secondary" arrangement is used as the default Romanian layout byLinux distributions, as defined in the "X Keyboard Configuration Database".[32]
There are fourRomanian-specific characters that are incorrectly implemented in versions ofMicrosoft Windows beforeVista:
The cedilla-versions of the characters do not exist in the Romanian language (they came to be used due to a historic bug).[33] The UCS now says that encoding this was a mistake because it messed up Romanian data and the letters with cedilla and the letters with comma are the same letter with a different style.[34]
Since Romanian hardware keyboards are not widely available, Cristian Secară has created a driver that allows Romanian characters to be generated with a US-style keyboard in all versions of Windows prior to Vista through the use of the AltGr key modifier.[35]
Windows Vista and newer versions include the correct diacritical signs in the default Romanian Keyboard layout.
This layout has the Z and Y keys mapped like in English layouts and also includes characters like the 'at' (@) and dollar ($) signs, among others. The older cedilla-version layout is still included albeit as the 'Legacy' layout.
InSlovakia, similarly to the Czech Republic, both QWERTZ and QWERTY keyboard layouts are used.QWERTZ is the default keyboard layout forSlovak in Microsoft Windows.
The Spanish keyboard layout is used to write inSpanish and in other languages of Spain such asCatalan,Basque,Galician,Aragonese,Asturian andOccitan. It includesÑ for Spanish, Asturian and Galician, theacute accent, thediaeresis, theinverted question and exclamation marks (¿, ¡), the superscripted o and a (º, ª) for writing abbreviatedordinal numbers in masculine and feminine in Spanish and Galician, and finally, some characters required only for typing Catalan and Occitan, namelyÇ, thegrave accent and theinterpunct (punt volat /punt interior, used inl·l; located at Shift-3). It can also be used to write other international characters, such as those using acircumflex accent (used in French and Portuguese among others), which are available asdead keys. However, it lacks two characters used in Asturian:Ḥ andḶ (historically, general support for these two has been poor – they are not present in theISO 8859-1 character encoding standard, or any otherISO/IEC 8859 standard). Several alternative distributions, based on this one or created from scratch, have been created to address this issue (see theOther original layouts and layout design software section for more information).
On most keyboards, € is marked as Alt Gr + E and not Alt Gr + 5 as shown in the image. However, in some keyboards, € is found marked twice.
Spanish keyboards are usually labelled in Spanish instead of English, its abbreviations being:
| Spanish label | English equivalent |
|---|---|
| Insertar (Ins) | Insert (Ins) |
| Suprimir (Supr) | Delete (Del) |
| Retroceder página (Re Pág) | Page up (PgUp) |
| Avanzar página (Av Pág) | Page down (PgDn) |
| Inicio | Home |
| Fin | End |
| Imprimir pantalla / Petición de sistema (Impr Pant/PetSis) | Print Screen / System request (PrtScn/SysRq) |
| Bloqueo de mayúsculas (Bloq Mayús) | Caps Lock |
| Bloqueo numérico (Bloq Num) | Num Lock |
| Bloqueo de desplazamiento (Bloq Despl) | Scroll Lock |
| Pausa / Interrumpir (Pausa/Inter) | Pause/Break |
| Intro | Enter |
On some keyboards, the c-cedilla key (Ç) is located one or two lines above, rather than on the right of, the acute accent key (´). In some cases it is placed on the right of the plus sign key (+),[36][37] while in other keyboards it is situated on the right of the inverted exclamation mark key (¡).[38][better source needed][39]
The Latin AmericanSpanish keyboard layout is used throughoutMexico,Central andSouth America. Before its design, Latin American vendors had been selling the Spanish (Spain) layout as default; this is still being the case, with both keyboard layouts being sold simultaneously all over the region.
Its most obvious difference from the Spanish (Spain) layout is the lack of aÇ key. While it has thetilde (~), it is not a dead key on Windows (available on Linux as an option to be enabled). It also has the circunflex (^) and the grave accent (`) available as tertiary position characters onAltGr+{ andAltGr+} while in the Spanish Spain layout the grave has its own key and the diaeresis can be typed using⇧ Shift as a secondary position character. This is not a problem when writing in Spanish but it generates issues when trying to type in other languages such as French or Portuguese, due to the inhability to produce the Ç or the unfavourable position of the other dead keys. This is specially true either for countries with large commercial ties toBrazil (Argentina,Paraguay andUruguay) or for language learners and translators. Apart from that, the € sign is nonexistent on this layout. It has to be typed from the numeric pad using an altcode or copied and pasted from other websites.
The Latin American layout, although similar to the Spanish Spain layout, has some peculiarities: the´ is placed next to thep, while in the Spanish Spain layout it is located next to theñ. Meanwhile, the @ sign (done by pressingAltGr+2 in the Spain layout) is instead produced by pressingAltGr+q. These two features generate a lot of confusion on many users as many machines use a different keyboard layout that the one set as default on the system: one may encounter a computer with the Spanish Spain layout set up as default but also having the Latin American keyboard physically, or the other way around. Thus, it is very common for people to hit the wrong dead key or be unable to produce a character as shown on the layout because these two keyboards are available side by side to the public, so users generally struggle from the transition of i.e. using the Latin American distribution at home while employing the Spanish Spain layout at work or school or viceversa.
In this layout, key names are translated: "Caps Lock" is rendered as "Bloq Mayús", "Enter" appears as either "Intro" or "Entrar" depending on the vendor, "Page up" and "page down" appear as "re pág" and "av pag", respectively; "shift" is translated as "mayús", and "backspace" is "retroceso".
The central characteristics of theSwedish keyboard are the three additional lettersÅ/å,Ä/ä, andÖ/ö. The same visual layout is also in use inFinland andEstonia, as the letters Ä/ä and Ö/ö are shared with theSwedish language, and even Å/å is needed bySwedish-speaking Finns. However, theFinnish multilingual adds new letters and punctuation to the functional layout.
TheNorwegian keyboard largely resembles the Swedish layout, but theÖ andÄ are replaced withØ andÆ. TheDanish keyboard is also similar, but it has theØ andÆ swapped. On some systems, the Swedish or Finnish keyboard may allow typing Ø/ø and Æ/æ by holding theAltGr or⌥Option key while strikingÖ andÄ, respectively.
TheSwedish with Sámi keyboard allows typing not onlyØ/ø andÆ/æ, but even the letters required to write variousSámi languages. This keyboard has the same function for all the keys engraved on the regular Swedish keyboard, and the additional letters are available through theAltGr key.
OnMacintosh computers, theSwedish andSwedish Pro keyboards differ somewhat from the image shown above, especially as regards the characters available using the⇧Shift or⌥Option keys.⇧ Shift+§ (on the upper row) produces the° sign, and⇧ Shift+4 produces the€ sign. The digit keys produce©@£$∞§ with⌥ Option and¡"¥¢‰¶\{}≠ with⌥ Option+⇧ Shift.
OnLinux systems, the Swedish keyboard may also give access to additional characters as follows:
Several of these characters function asdead keys.
As of 2022, the majority of Turkish keyboards are based on QWERTY (the so-called Q-keyboard layout), although there is also the olderTurkish F-keyboard layout specifically designed for the language.
TheVietnamese keyboard layout is an extended Latin QWERTY layout. The letters Ă, Â, Ê, and Ô are found on what would be the number keys1–4 on the US English keyboard, with5–9 producing the tonal marks (grave accent,hook,tilde,acute accent anddot below, in that order),0 producing Đ,= producing theđồng sign (₫) when not shifted, and brackets ([]) producing Ư and Ơ.[40]
Multilingual keyboard layouts, unlike the default layouts supplied for one language and market, try to make it possible for the user to type in any of several languages using the same number of keys. Mostly this is done by adding a further virtual layer in addition to the⇧ Shift-key by means ofAltGr (or 'rightAlt' reused as such), which contains a further repertoire of symbols and diacritics used by the desired languages.
This section also tries to arrange the layouts in ascending order by the number of possible languages and not chronologically according to the Latin alphabet as usual.
The CSA keyboard layout (also named Canadian Multilingual Standard – CMS) is used by some Canadians, mostly in Quebec and New-Brunswick. Though thecaret (^) is missing, it is easily inserted by typing the circumflex accent followed by a space. This layout use three levels and two groups, up to 5 characters per key. Alt-Gr key is used to type a character on the level 3⇮AltGr and the Group 2 has a dedicated key⇨Group 2 instead of the Right-Ctrl⎈Ctrl.
FromWindows XP SP2 onwards, Microsoft has included a variant of the British QWERTY keyboard (the "United Kingdom Extended" keyboard layout) that can additionally generate severaldiacritical marks. This supports input on a standard physical UK keyboard for many languages without changing positions of frequently used keys, which is useful when working with text inWelsh,Scottish Gaelic and Irish — languages native to parts of the UK (Wales,parts of Scotland andNorthern Ireland respectively).
In this layout, the grave accent key (`¦) becomes, as it also does in the US International layout, adead key modifying the character generated by the next key pressed. The apostrophe, double-quote, tilde and circumflex (caret) keys are not changed, becoming dead keys only when 'shifted' withAltGr. Additionalprecomposed characters are also obtained by shifting the 'normal' key using theAltGr key. The extended keyboard is software installed from the Windowscontrol panel, and the extended characters are not normally engraved on keyboards.
The UK Extended keyboard uses mostly the AltGr key to add diacritics to the letters a, e, i, n, o, u, w and y (the last two being used in Welsh) as appropriate for each character, as well as to their capitals. Pressing the key and then a character that does not take the specific diacritic produces the behaviour of a standard keyboard. The key presses followed by spacebar generate a stand-alone mark.:
Some other languages commonly studied in the UK and Ireland are also supported to some extent:
TheAltGr and letter method used for acutes and cedillas does not work for applications which assign shortcut menu functions to these key combinations.
These combinations are intended to bemnemonic and designed to be easy to remember: the circumflex accent (e.g. â) is similar to the free-standing circumflex (caret) (^), printed above the6 key; the diaeresis/umlaut (e.g. ö) is visually similar to the double-quote (") above2 on the UK keyboard; the tilde (~) is printed on the same key as the#.
The UK Extended layout is almost entirely transparent to users familiar with the UK layout. A machine with the extended layout behaves exactly as with the standard UK, except for the rarely used grave accent key. This makes this layout suitable for a machine for shared or public use by a user population in which some use the extended functions.
Despite being created for multilingual users, UK-Extended in Windows does have some gaps — there are many languages that it cannot cope with, including Romanian and Turkish, and all languages with differentcharacter sets, such as Greek and Russian. It also does not cater forthorn (þ, Þ) inOld English, the ß in German, the œ in French, nor for the å, æ, ø, ð, þ in Nordic languages.
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The UK Extended layout inChromeOS provides all the same combinations as with Windows, but adds many more symbols and dead keys via AltGr.
| ¬◌ ◌¦ | !¡ 1¹ | "½ 2◌ | £⅓ 3³ | $¼ 4€ | %⅜ 5½ | ^⅝ 6◌ | &⅞ 7{ | *™ 8[ | (± 9] | )° 0} | _¿ -\ | +◌ =◌ |
| tab | QΩ q@ | WẂ wẃ | EÉ eé | R® r¶ | TŦ tŧ | YÝ yý | UÚ uú | IÍ ií | OÓ oó | PÞ pþ | {◌ [◌ | }◌ ]◌ |
| 🔍 | AÁ aá | S§ sß | DÐ dð | Fª fđ | GŊ gŋ | HĦ hħ | J◌ j◌ | K& kĸ | LŁ lł | :◌ ;◌ | @◌ '◌ | ~◌ #◌ |
| shift | |¦ \| | Z< z« | X> x» | CÇ cç | V‘ v“ | B’ b” | NN nn | Mº mµ | <× ,─ | >÷ .· | ?◌ /◌ | shift |
Notes: Dotted circle (◌) is used here to indicate a dead key. The` key is the only one that acts as a free-standing dead key and thus does not respond as shown on the key-cap. All others are invoked by AltGr.
AltGr+⇧ Shift+0 (°) is adegree sign;AltGr+⇧ Shift+M (º) is a masculineordinal indicator
Finally, any arbitrary Unicodeglyph can be produced given its hexadecimalcode point:ctrl+⇧ Shift+u, release, then the hex value, thenspace bar or↩ Return. For examplectrl+⇧ Shift+u (release)1234space produces theEthiopic syllable SEE, ሴ.
An alternative layout uses the physical US keyboard to type diacritics in some operating systems (including Windows). This is the US-International layout setting, which uses the rightAlt key as anAltGr key to support many additional characters directly as an additional shift key. (Since many smaller keyboards do not have a right-Alt key, Windows also allowsCtrl+Alt to be used as a substitute forAltGr.) This layout also uses keys',`,",^ and~ asdead keys to generate characters with diacritics by pressing the appropriate key, then the letter on the keyboard. The international keyboard is a software setting installed from the Windows control panel or similar;[41] the additional functions (shown in blue) may or may not be engraved on the keyboard, but are always functional. It can be used to type most major languages from Western Europe:Afrikaans,Danish,Dutch,English,Faroese,Finnish,French,German,Icelandic,Irish,Italian,Norwegian,Portuguese,Scottish Gaelic,Spanish,Swedish andTurkish. On Windows, it is not sufficient forFrench because it lacks the grapheme "œ/Œ" (as does every keyboard layout provided by Windows except theCanadian multilingual standard keyboard). Some less common western and central European languages (such asWelsh,Maltese,Czech,Finnish,Estonian andHungarian), are not fully supported by the US-International keyboard layout because of their use of additionaldiacritics orprecomposed characters.
A diacritic key is activated by pressing and releasing it, then pressing the letter that requires the diacritic. After the two strokes, the single character with diacritics is generated. Note that only certain letters, such as vowels and "n", can have diacritics in this way.
To generate an accented character with one of the diacritics◌́,◌̀,◌̂,◌̈ and◌̃, press the relevant accent key then the character to be accented. Characters with diacritics can be typed with the following combinations:
The US-International layout is not entirely transparent to users familiar with the conventional US layout; when using a machine with the international layout setting active, the commonly used single- and double-quote keys and the less commonly used grave accent, tilde, and circumflex (caret) keys are dead keys and thus behave unconventionally. This could be disconcerting on a machine for shared or public use.
There are also alternative US-International mappings, whereby modifier keys such as shift and alt are used, and the keys for the characters with diacritics are in different places from their unmodified counterparts. For example, the right-Alt key may be remapped as an AltGr modifier key or as acompose key and the dead key function deactivated, so that they (the ASCII quotation marks and circumflex symbol) can be typed normally with a single keystroke.
The standard keyboard layout in theNetherlands is theUS ANSI-standard QWERTY keyboard, with Windows supplementary keys. The standard keyboard mapping used is US-International, as it provides easy access to the diacritics used in Dutch. TheDutch layout is historical, and keyboards with this layout are rarely used unlike in the past when typewriters were ubiquitous. The US-style keyboards sold in the Netherlands do not have the extra US-International characters orAltGr engraved on the keys, although theeuro symbol (€) (AltGr+5) always is. Using this layout, the right-handalt key functions as anAltGr key.
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There are three kinds ofApple Keyboards for English: theUnited States, theUnited Kingdom and International English. The International English version features the same changes as the United Kingdom version, only without substituting# for the£ symbol on⇧ Shift+3, and as well lacking visual indication for the€ symbol on⌥ Option+2 (although this shortcut is present with all Apple QWERTY layouts).
Differences from the US layout are:
The visual layout used inFinland is basically the same as theSwedish layout. This is practical, asFinnish andSwedish share the special charactersÄ/ä andÖ/ö, and while the SwedishÅ/å is unnecessary for writing Finnish, it is needed bySwedish-speaking Finns and to write Swedish family names which are common. However, it lacks the lettersŠ/š andŽ/ž which are used in some Finnish loanwords likešaahi 'shah' anddžonkki 'junk'.
As of 2008, there is a new standard for the Finnish multilingual keyboard layout, developed as part of alocalization project byCSC. All the engravings of the traditional Finnish–Swedish visual layout have been retained, so there is no need to change the hardware, but the functionality has been extended considerably, as additional characters (e.g.,Æ/æ,Ə/ə,Ʒ/ʒ) are available through theAltGr key, as well asdead keys, which allow typing a wide variety of letters withdiacritics (e.g.,Ç/ç,Ǥ/ǥ,Ǯ/ǯ).[42][43]
Based on theLatin letter repertory included in the Multilingual European Subset No. 2 (MES-2) of the Unicode standard, the layout has three main objectives. First, it provides for easy entering of text in both Finnish and Swedish, the two officiallanguages of Finland, using the familiar keyboard layout but adding some advanced punctuation options, such asdashes, typographicalquotation marks, and thenon-breaking space (NBSP).
Second, it is designed to offer an indirect but intuitive way to enter the special letters and diacritics needed by the other threeNordic national languages (Danish,Norwegian andIcelandic) as well as the regional and minority languages (Northern Sámi,Southern Sámi,Lule Sámi,Inari Sámi,Skolt Sámi,Romani language as spoken in Finland,Faroese,Kalaallisut also known as Greenlandic, andGerman).
As a third objective, it allows for relatively easy entering of particularly names (of persons, places or products) in a variety of European languages using a more or less extended Latin alphabet, such as the officiallanguages of the European Union (excludingBulgarian andGreek). Some letters, likeŁ/ł needed for Slavic languages, are accessed by a special "overstrike" key combination acting like a dead key.[44]However, theRomanian lettersȘ/ș andȚ/ț (S/s and T/t withcomma below) are not supported; the presumption is thatŞ/ş andŢ/ţ (withcedilla) suffice as surrogates.
EurKEY, amultilingual keyboard layout which is intended for Europeans, programmers and translators uses true QWERTY (US layout) as base just adding a third and fourth layer available through theAltGr key andAltGr+⇧ Shift. These additional layers allows the users to type the symbolism of many European languages, special characters, the Greek alphabet (viadead keys), and many common mathematical symbols.
Unlike most of the other QWERTY layouts which are standards for a country or region, EurKEY is not a standard of the European Union, yet that is why a petition ofEurKEY as European standard was started.
To address the ergonomics issue of QWERTY,EurKEY Colemak-DH was also developed aColmak-DH version with the EurKEY design principals.
[t]his standard has been declared obsolescent as it is no longer felt to be relevant
