Keyboard layout
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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. It was invented by Christopher Sholes in 1868 and sold to the Remington Typewriter Company in 1873. Various alternatives to the QWERTY layout have been suggested, many claiming advantages such as higher typing speeds and more ergonomic position of keys. One of the most common alternatives is the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard.
[edit] Keyboard structure
Keys labeled 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 labeled "⇧", 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.) (Please note that English-language keyboards in the USA do not have an AltGr key, which is common on keyboards for many other languages. The AltGr key is in the same position as the right Alt key, which can function as an AltGr key.)
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.
[edit] 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.
Most of the keyboards adopt the ISO 9995 layout. This layout was first defined by the user group at AFNOR in 1984 working under the direction of Alain Souloumiac (Alain Souloumiac, Les perspectives de l'informatique, La Documentation Francaise 1983, p.72). Based on this work, a well known ergonomic expert, wrote a report (Yves Neuville, Le clavier bureautique et informatique, Cedic-Natan 1985) which was adopted at the ISO Berlin meeting in 1985 and became the reference for the keyboards' layout.
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, which predates Unicode, provides access only to characters found in the legacy Mac Roman character set and does not support other diacritics, such as ˇ (caron), that are not commonly found in Western European languages (but which are commonly used in many Eastern European languages). However, the Mac OS X U.S. Extended keyboard layout, which was released after Unicode support became common, does provide access to many more diacritics.
[edit] 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 the Roman alphabet 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] QWERTY
By far the most widespread layout in use, and the only one that is 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.
[edit] Canadian Multilingual Standard
This keyboard layout is commonly used in French speaking Canada. English speaking Canadians mostly use 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. In addition, the Canadian Multilingual Standard layout can commonly be found on portable computers (laptops) marketed in Canada.
A remarkable characteristic of the Canadian Multilingual Standard keyboard is the number and variety of its shift states and dead keys, thanks to which it can be used to type just about all accented Latin characters, including such exotica as the ġ (dotted g) of Maltese or the ĵ (circumflexed j) of Esperanto.
[edit] Danish
[edit] Dutch (Netherlands)
- The Dutch keyboard layout is barely used; the majority of the Dutch use the United States (International) layout instead.
[edit] Faroese
[edit] Icelandic
Note this illustration is not entirely accurate: Notably, there are several more deadkeys, Alt-Gr Q is @, and various other things are missing.
[edit] Italian
Note:
- braces (right above square brackets and shown in purple) are given with both AltGr and Shift pressed.
[edit] Norwegian
[edit] Polish
Image:KB Polish QWERTZ PN87.svg
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"). Also, on MS Windows, the tilde character (shift+`) acts as a dead key to type Polish diacritical marks; thus, to obtain an "ł", one may press ~ followed by l. The tilde character is obtained with ~ and space.
[edit] Portuguese (Portugal)
[edit] Portuguese (Brazil)
[edit] Spanish (Spain)
[edit] Spanish (Latin America)
- The Spanish (Latin America) keyboard layout is barely used in South America; the majority of South American countries use the Spanish (Spain) layout instead. However, it is the predominant keyboard layout in Chile and Mexico.[citation needed]
[edit] Swedish/Finnish
[edit] UK and Ireland
The United Kingdom and Ireland[1] use a keyboard layout based on the 48-key version defined in British Standard BS 4822[2]. It is somewhat similar to that of the United States, but features £ and € signs, some rarely used EBCDIC symbols (¬, ¦), and uses different positions for some punctuation characters (@, ", #, ~, \, |). See the article British and American keyboards for details.
The BS 4822:1994 standard does not make any use of the AltGr key and lacks support for any non-ASCII characters other than ¬ and £. It also assigns a key for the non-ASCII character broken bar (¦), but lacks one for the far more commonly used ASCII character vertical bar (|). It also lacks support for Welsh orthography. Therefore, various manufacturers have modified or extended the BS 4822 standard:
- The B00 key (left of Z) shifted results in vertical bar (|) on some systems (e.g., Microsoft Windows’ UK/Ireland keyboard layout and Linux/X11 UK/Ireland keyboard layout), rather than the broken bar (¦) assigned by BS 4822 and provided in some systems (e.g., OS/2’s UK166 keyboard layout)
- The E00 key (left of 1) with AltGr provides either vertical bar (|) (OS/2’s UK166 keyboard layout, Linux/X11 UK keyboard layout) or broken bar (¦) (Microsoft Windows’ UK/Ireland keyboard layout)
- Windows XP SP2 and later also offer a "United Kingdom Extended" keyboard layout mainly intended for Welsh-language input. This changes the grave accent key to a dead key and adds ẃ, ý and ç to the AltGr state (AltGr+W, AltGr+Y, AltGr+C respectively). In addition, AltGr+2 produces a dead umlaut ¨ (AltGr+2, O gives ö), AltGr+' a dead acute accent (AltGr+', E gives é), AltGr+# a dead tilde (AltGr+#, N gives ñ), and AltGr+6 a dead circumflex (AltGr+6, W gives ŵ).
(Hong Kong uses US and Chinese (Traditional) keyboards rather than UK and Ireland ones. See also Technical standards in colonial Hong Kong.)
[edit] 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. However, on some operating systems (including Windows), the layout can be set to US-International which allows for dead keys but still uses the standard US keyboard. The right Alt key then acts as an AltGr key. On the other hand, the US or UK keyboard layout is occasionally used by programmers in countries where the keys for []{} are located in less convenient positions on the locally customary layout.[citation needed]
U.S. keyboards are used not only in the United States, but also in other English-speaking countries (e.g., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand), except for the United Kingdom and Ireland, which use a British standard instead.
[edit] 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 keyboard layout is used in the Netherlands and in Brazil.
- In The Netherlands often just a second Alt is shown instead of AltGr, but it has the same function. The standard Dutch layout is rarely used, excluding very few specialized industries.
[edit] 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 diacritical characters.
[edit] Hungary
[edit] Germany and Austria (but not Switzerland)
The PC keyboard layout commonly used in Germany and Austria is based on one defined in an old (October 1988) version of the German standard DIN 2137-2. The characters ² ³ { [] } \ @ € | µ ~ are accessed by holding the Alt Gr key and tapping the other key. The Alt key on the left will not access these additional characters.
The accent keys ^ ` ´ are dead keys: press and release an accent key, then press a vowel key to produce accented characters (ô, á, ù, etc.). One problem with German keyboards when used to type English text is that users frequently mistype a spacing accent instead of an apostrophe (e.g., it´s or it`s instead of correctly it's or it’s).[3]
Note that the semi-colon and colon are accessed by using the Shift (large arrow up) key.
Abbreviations on a German keyboard: Strg = Steuerung – control (Ctrl); Alt Gr = Alternate Graphics (Right Alt, or Strg+Alt (Ctrl+Alt) keys simultaneously); Einfg = Einfügen – insert (Ins)("add in" – insert); Entf = Entfernen – delete (Del); Bild↑ = Bild auf – page up (PgUp); Bild↓ = Bild ab – page down (PgDn); Pos 1 = Position eins – Home ("position one"). Druck\S-Abf stands for Print Screen, Rollen (to roll) is Scroll Lock, and Pause\Untbr (Pausing, Unterbrechen = break, stop) is Break. The numeric keypad has the multiplication sign (×) instead of the asterisk (*).
Note too, that the DIN sets an uncommon behaviour of Caps Lock which is correctly described as Shift Lock. When pressed, all keys are shifted, including numbers and special characters. To release, you need to press the Shift key below Shift Lock (as on mechanical typewriters). The sign on the key is a large arrow down, on newer designs pointing to an uppercase A key. In IT, an alternative behavior is often preferred, usually described as "IBM", which is the same as Caps Lock on English keyboards - only letters are shifted, and hitting Caps Lock again releases it.
[edit] Romanian in Romania and Moldova
The current Romanian National Standard SR 13392:2004 establishes two layouts for Romanian keyboards: a "primary" one and a "secondary" one.
The "primary" layout is intended for more traditional users that learned long ago how to type with older, Microsoft-style implementations of the Romanian keyboard. The "secondary" layout is mainly used by programmers and it doesn't contradict the physical arrangement of keys on a US-style keyboard. The „secondary” arrangement is used as the default one by the majority of GNU/Linux distributions.
There are four Romanian-specific characters that are incorrectly implemented in all Microsoft Windows versions before Vista:
- "S with comma below" (Unicode 0218) - incorrectly implemented as "S with cedilla below" (Unicode 015E)
- "s with comma below" (Unicode 0219) - incorrectly implemented as "s with cedilla below" (Unicode 015F)
- "T with comma below" (Unicode 021A) - incorrectly implemented as "T with cedilla below" (Unicode 0162)
- "t with comma below" (Unicode 021B) - incorrectly implemented as "t with cedilla below" (Unicode 0163)
The cedilla-versions of the characters don't actually exist in Romanian language (it is purely a historic bug) - please see http://www.secarica.ro/html/s-uri_si_t-uri.html.
Since Romanian hardware keyboards are not widely available, Cristian Secară has created a driver that allows the Romanian characters to be generated with an US-style keyboard, in all Windows versions previous to Vista. It uses the right AltGr key modifier to generate the characters. The keyboard driver is available at http://www.secarica.ro/html/ro_keyboard.html (text is in Romanian).
[edit] Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian (latin) and Slovene
The Bosnian, Croatian, Slovene and Serbian (latin) keyboard layout has five additional special characters Č, Ć, Ž, Š and Đ. This keyboard layout was standardised in 1980s during existence of Yugoslavia. Characters Ć and Đ are not part of the Slovene alphabet however they are used for historical reasons. The Ž is on the right side of the Ć key on keyboards which have a longer Backspace key, and the usual inverted L shaped Enter key.
[edit] Swiss German, Swiss French, Swiss Italian, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg
The layout of the Swiss keyboard is designed to allow easy access to frequently used accents of the French, German and Italian languages. The difference between the Swiss German (sg) and the Swiss French (sf) layout 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. There is no separate driver setting for Swiss Italian. Furthermore, Swiss German does not include the ß used in Germany and Austria. Whilst the German keyboard uses German-language abbreviations (e.g. Strg for German Steuerung instead of Ctrl for Control), Swiss keyboards use the English abbreviations as a neutral solution, as they are used for all the national languages of Switzerland.
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. Liechtenstein, which also has no keyboard layout of its own, is using the Swiss German keyboard.
[edit] 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.
[edit] French
[edit] Belgian
The Belgian AZERTY was developed from the French AZERTY but some adaptations were made in the 1980s. All letters remain the same as on the French keyboard, but some signs (? ! @ - _ + = §) are on different locations.
[edit] 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
[edit] 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 adaptations for languages other than English, and single handed variants.
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).
[edit] Chorded and single handed 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.
There are also variants of the Dvorak keyboard layout available for typists who use one hand -- both left and right handed variants are available with Microsoft Windows.
[edit] Turkish
The Turkish language uses the Roman alphabet, and a dedicated keyboard layout was designed in 1955 by Erim Tuna. 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 used on most computers in Turkey. F keyboards are mostly used in official places like Registry of Births or municipalities.
[edit] Original
Several alternative keyboard layouts to QWERTY and Dvorak exist, such as Maltron, Colemak, Asset[4], or Arensito[5], designed with various principles in mind such as minimising finger movement, maximising hand alternation or inward rolls (where successive letters are typed moving towards the centre of the keyboard), minimising changes from QWERTY to ease the learning curve, and so on; however, none of them are in widespread use -- the creator of Colemak claims that with about 600-1300 users as of June 2007 it is the "third most popular keyboard layout for touch typing in English, after QWERTY and Dvorak."[6] There also exists Kiwi[7], a program where user preferences can be applied to adjust which of the aforementioned principles are applied and to what extent to generate a custom keyboard layout.
Programs such as the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator[8] and KbdEdit[9] make it very easy for users to create their own layouts or modify existing ones to suit their own typing patterns and needs[10]. Some high end keyboards also allow users total flexibility to reprogram keyboard mappings at the hardware level.
[edit] 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.
All non-Roman computer 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.
[edit] Arabic
The keyboard above has an Arabic Azerty layout commonly found in French North Africa (namely Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia).
[edit] Armenian
[edit] Greek
[edit] Hebrew
[edit] Russian
People who do not have a Cyrillic keyboard sometimes use a phonetic (transliterated) layout where ‘А’ is obtained by pressing ‘A’, ‘Б’ by pressing ‘B’, ‘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.
[edit] Ukrainian
[edit] 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.
[edit] Devanagari
Many different layouts exist for Devanāgarī. See Devanagari for additional configurations.
[edit] Khmer
[edit] East Asian languages
Chinese and Japanese 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 Hanja in 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 grids when written, the script is essentially 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 validly 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.
[edit] Chinese
[edit] 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 Changjie 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).
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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Hangul (for Korean)
[edit] Dubeolshik
Dubeolshik (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.
[edit] 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; almost 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Sebeolsik Noshift
Sebeolsik Noshift is a variant of sebeolsik which can be used without pressing the shift key. Its advantage is that people with disabilities who cannot press two keys at the same time will still be able to use it to type in Hangul.
[edit] Japanese
Usually the JIS keyboard is used. Some people type Hiragana directly, but most people prefer typing Latin letters[citation needed], which are automatically converted to Hiragana. In both cases, the Alt+Zen/Han key combination is used to switch on Japanese input methods. 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.
[edit] Tibetan
The Chinese National Standard on Tibetan Keyboard Layout standardises a layout for the Tibetan language.[11]
The first version of Microsoft Windows to support the Tibetan keyboard layout is Windows Vista. The layout has been available in Linux since September 2007.
[edit] See also
- Colemak
- 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
- Computer keyboard
- Alphanumeric keyboard
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ There is a separate Irish Gaelic keyboard layout, but this is rarely used. In all common operating systems that have a different selection for Irish, this refers to the layout that is identical with the UK layout, not the Irish Gaelic layout; the latter tends to be called Gaelic or similar.
- ^ British Standard BS 4822: Keyboard allocation of graphic characters for data processing. British Standards Institute, 1994.
- ^ Markus Kuhn: Apostrophe and acute accent confusion, 2001.
- ^ Asset keyboard layout. Retrieved on 2007-08-24.
- ^ The Arensito keyboard layout. Retrieved on 2007-08-24.
- ^ Coleman, Shai. Statistics for 2006. Colemak forums.
- ^ Kiwi custom keyboard layout evolver. Retrieved on 2007-09-23.
- ^ Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator. Retrieved on 2007-07-26.
- ^ KbdEdit. Retrieved on 2007-10-04.
- ^ Kaplan, Michael (2006-11-28). Your layout (in all likelihood) bores me. Retrieved on 2007-07-26.
- ^ http://www.yalasoo.com/English/docs/yalasoo_en_MStbKb.html
[edit] External links
Custom Layouts
Keyboard keys | |
|---|---|
| Dead keys | Compose |
| Modifier keys | Control · Shift · Alt/Option (Apple) · AltGr · Command/Meta (Apple/MIT/Sun keyboards) · Windows/Super · Fn (compact keyboards) |
| Lock keys | Scroll lock · Num lock · Caps lock |
| Navigation | Arrow · Page Up/Page Down · Home/End |
| Editing | Return/Enter · Backspace · Insert · Delete · Tab · Space bar |
| Misc. | System request/Print screen · Break/Pause · Escape · Menu · Numeric keypad · Function · Power management (Power, Sleep, Wake) · Language input · Any key |
da:Tastaturlayout de:Tastaturbelegung es:Disposición del teclado eo:Klavarofasono fr:Disposition des touches des claviers informatiques id:Tata letak keyboard nl:Toetsenbordindeling ja:キー配列 nn:Tastaturoppsett pl:Układ klawiatury ru:Раскладка клавиатуры
Categories: Cleanup from July 2007 | All pages needing cleanup | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since December 2007 | Articles with unsourced statements since October 2007 | Articles with unsourced statements since July 2007 | Keyboards | Keyboard layouts
