Keyboard layouts

It is obvious that each typable writing system has to have its own keyboard layouts. In addition, there are numerous rearrangements of keyboards for specific languages and countries. Many languages require specific letters not used in other languages. As a result, most locales have their own keyboard layouts, in some cases several. The following examples are all incomplete. For alphabets with upper- and lower-case, only the lower-case is shown. No attempt has been made to indicated combining diacritics and other composed characters.

In Linux, keyboard definitions are text files in a specific format. Macintosh OS X uses an XML file. Standard Windows keyboard layouts are compiled using the Windows SDK. Free keyboards for Windows can be created in Tavultesoft Keyman.

Latin Alphabet

Latin keyboards mostly fall into a few basic arrangements, with many lesser variations to accommodate special characters. The most common are

QWERTY

Standard English-language keyboard

` 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - =
   q w e r t y u i o p [ ] \
    a s d f g h j k l ; ´
     z x c v b n m , . /
   

Dvorak

Alternate Standard Keyboard (ASK)

` 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 [ ]
   ' , . p y f g c r l / = \
    a o e u i d h t n s -
     ; q j k x b m w v z

AZERTY

French

² & é " ' ( - è _ ç à ) =
   a z e r t y u i o p ^$ *
    q s d f g h j k l m ù
     w x c v b n , ; : !

QWERTZ

German

^ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 ß 
   q w e r t z u i o p ü + #
    a s d f g h j k l ö ä
     y x c v b n m , . -

Greek

Follows various Latin layouts to some degree.

` 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - =
   ; ς ε ρ τ υ θ ι ο π [ ] \
    α σ δ φ γ η ξ κ λ 
     ζ χ ψ ω β ν μ , . /

Cyrillic

There are four keyboard layouts for Russian, with variants for other languages written in Cyrillic. During the Soviet period, there were more than 200 of them. Several of the newly independent states of Central Asia have changed to other alphabets, according to national preference, including Arabic, Latin, and Mongolian.

Russian

This is the standard Russian layout for Linux systems.

ё 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - =
   й ц у к е н г ш щ з х ъ \
    ф ы в а п р о л д ж э
     я ч с м и т ь б ю /

Ukrainian

' 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - =
   й ц у к е н г ш щ з х ї ґ
    ф і в а п р о л д ж є
     я ч с м и т ь б ю /

More keyboards needed.

• Indic
• Hebrew and Yiddish
• Arabic and related, including Hausa, Farsi, and more
• Armenian
• Georgian
• Ethiopic
• Thaana
• Sinhala
• Tibetan
• Mongolian
• Burmese
• Thai
• Lao
• Korean Hangeul
• Chinese Zhuyin (Bopomofo)
• Japanese kana
• Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics
• Cherokee
• Yoruba
• Igbo

See also Input Method Editors for typing languages whose character sets will not fit on a single keyboard layout.