QWERTY

QWERTY (/ˈkwɜːrti/) is a keyboard

design for Latin-script alphabets. The
name comes from the order of the first
six keys on the top left letter row of the
keyboard ( Q W E R T Y ). The
QWERTY design is based on a layout
created for the Sholes and Glidden
typewriter and sold to E. Remington and
Sons in 1873. It became popular with QWERTY keyboard layout (US)
the success of the Remington No. 2 of
1878, and remains in ubiquitous use.

Contents
History
Differences from modern layout
Substituting characters
Combined characters A laptop computer keyboard using
Contemporary alternatives the QWERTY layout

Properties
Computer keyboards
Diacritical marks
Other keys and characters
International variants
Canadian
Canadian Multilingual Standard
Canadian French
Czech
Danish
Dutch (Netherlands)
Estonian
Faroese
Finnish multilingual
Greek
German
Icelandic
Irish
Italian
Latvian
Lithuanian
 Maltese
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Brazil
Portugal
Romanian (in Romania and Moldova)
Slovak
Spanish
Spain
Latin America, officially known as Spanish
Latinamerican sort
Swedish
Turkish
United Kingdom
UK Apple keyboard
United Kingdom (Extended) Layout
Mac OS
Windows
Chrome OS
United States
US-International
US-International in the Netherlands
Apple International English Keyboard
Vietnamese
Alternatives
Comparison to other keyboard input systems
Half QWERTY
See also
References
Informational notes
Citations
External links

History
The QWERTY layout was devised and created in the early 1870s by Christopher Latham Sholes, a
newspaper editor and printer who lived in Kenosha, Wisconsin. In October 1867, Sholes filed a patent
application for his early writing machine he developed with the assistance of his friends Carlos Glidden and
Samuel W. Soulé.[1]

The first model constructed by Sholes used a piano-like keyboard with two rows of characters arranged
alphabetically as shown below:[1]
 - 3 5 7 9 N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
2 4 6 8 . A B C D E F G H I J K L M

The construction of the "Type Writer" had two flaws that made the product
susceptible to jams. Firstly, characters were mounted on metal arms or type
bars, which would clash and jam if neighbouring arms were pressed at the
same time or in rapid succession. Secondly, its printing point was located
beneath the paper carriage, invisible to the operator, a so-called "up-stroke"
design. Consequently, jams were especially serious, because the typist could
only discover the mishap by raising the carriage to inspect what had been
typed. The solution was to place commonly used letter-pairs (like "th" or
"st") so that their type bars were not neighbouring, avoiding jams.[2]

Sholes struggled for the next five years to perfect his invention, making
many trial-and-error rearrangements of the original machine's alphabetical
key arrangement. The study of bigram (letter-pair) frequency by educator
Amos Densmore, brother of the financial backer James Densmore, is
believed to have influenced the array of letters, but the contribution was
later called into question.[3] Others suggest instead that the letter groupings
evolved from telegraph operators' feedback.[4]
Keys are arranged on
In November 1868 he changed the arrangement of the latter half of the
diagonal columns to give
alphabet, O to Z, right-to-left.[5] In April 1870 he arrived at a four-row,
space for the levers.
upper case keyboard approaching the modern QWERTY standard, moving
six vowel letters, A, E, I, O, U, and Y, to the upper row as follows:[6]

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 -
A E I . ? Y U O ,
B C D F G H J K L M
Z X W V T S R Q P N

In 1873 Sholes's backer, James Densmore, successfully sold the manufacturing rights for the Sholes &
Glidden Type-Writer to E. Remington and Sons. The keyboard layout was finalized within a few months by
Remington's mechanics and was ultimately presented:[7]

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 - ,
Q W E . T Y I U O P
Z S D F G H J K L M
A X & C V B N ? ; R

After they purchased the device, Remington made several adjustments, creating a keyboard with essentially
the modern QWERTY layout. These adjustments included placing the "R" key in the place previously
allotted to the period key. Apocryphal claims that this change was made to let salesmen impress customers
by pecking out the brand name "TYPE WRITER QUOTE" from one keyboard row are not formally
substantiated.[7] Vestiges of the original alphabetical layout remained in the "home row" sequence
DFGHJKL.[8]

The modern layout is:

 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 , . /

The QWERTY layout became popular with the success of the Remington No. 2 of 1878, the first typewriter
to include both upper and lower case letters, using a shift key.

Differences from modern layout

Substituting characters

The QWERTY layout depicted in Sholes's 1878 patent

is slightly different from the modern layout, most
notably in the absence of the numerals 0 and 1, with
each of the remaining numerals shifted one position to
the left of their modern counterparts. The letter M is
located at the end of the third row to the right of the
letter L rather than on the fourth row to the right of the
N, the letters X and C are reversed, and most
punctuation marks are in different positions or are
missing entirely.[9] 0 and 1 were omitted to simplify the
design and reduce the manufacturing and maintenance Christopher Latham Sholes's 1878 QWERTY
costs; they were chosen specifically because they were keyboard layout
"redundant" and could be recreated using other keys.
Typists who learned on these machines learned the habit
of using the uppercase letter I (or lowercase letter L) for the digit one, and the uppercase O for the zero.[10]

Combined characters

In early designs, some characters were produced by printing two symbols with the carriage in the same
position. For instance, the exclamation point, which shares a key with the numeral 1 on post-mechanical
keyboards, could be reproduced by using a three-stroke combination of an apostrophe, a backspace, and a
period. A semicolon (;) was produced by printing a comma (,) over a colon (:). As the backspace key is slow
in simple mechanical typewriters (the carriage was heavy and optimized to move in the opposite direction),
a more professional approach was to block the carriage by pressing and holding the space bar while printing
all characters that needed to be in a shared position. To make this possible, the carriage was designed to
advance forward only after releasing the space bar.

The 0 key was added and standardized in its modern position early in the history of the typewriter, but the 1
and exclamation point were left off some typewriter keyboards into the 1970s.[11]

In the era of mechanical typewriters, combined characters such as é and õ were created by the use of dead
keys for the diacritics (′, ~) , which did not move the paper forward. Thus the ′ and e would be printed at the
same location on the paper, creating é.

Contemporary alternatives
There were no particular technological requirements for the QWERTY layout,[7] since at the time there were
ways to make a typewriter without the "up-stroke" typebar mechanism that had required it to be devised.
Not only were there rival machines with "down-stroke" and "frontstroke" positions that gave a visible
printing point, the problem of typebar clashes could be circumvented completely: examples include Thomas
Edison's 1872 electric print-wheel device which later became the basis for Teletype machines; Lucien
Stephen Crandall's typewriter (the second to come onto the American market) whose type was arranged on a
cylindrical sleeve; the Hammond typewriter of 1887 which used a semi-circular "type-shuttle" of hardened
rubber (later light metal); and the Blickensderfer typewriter of 1893 which used a type wheel. The early
Blickensderfer's "Ideal" keyboard was also non-QWERTY, instead having the sequence "DHIATENSOR" in
the home row, these 10 letters being capable of composing 70% of the words in the English language.[12]

Properties
Alternating hands while typing is a desirable trait in a keyboard design. While one hand types a letter, the
other hand can prepare to type the next letter, making the process faster and more efficient. However, when
a string of letters is typed with the same hand, the chances of stuttering are increased and a rhythm can be
broken, thus decreasing speed and increasing errors and fatigue. In the QWERTY layout many more words
can be spelled using only the left hand than the right hand. In fact, thousands of English words can be
spelled using only the left hand, while only a couple of hundred words can be typed using only the right
hand[13] (the three most frequent letters in the English language, ETA, are all typed with the left hand). In
addition, more typing strokes are done with the left hand in the QWERTY layout. This is helpful for left-
handed people but disadvantages right-handed people.

Contrary to popular belief, the QWERTY layout was not designed to slow the typist down,[5] but rather to
speed up typing by preventing jams. Indeed, there is evidence that, aside from the issue of jamming, placing
often-used keys farther apart increases typing speed, because it encourages alternation between the
hands.[14] There is another origin story in the Smithsonian that the QWERTY keyboard was made for
telegraph operators and has this layout to make it easy for the telegraph operator to work.[14][15][16] (On the
other hand, in the German keyboard the Z has been moved between the T and the U to help type the frequent
digraphs TZ and ZU in that language.) Almost every word in the English language contains at least one
vowel letter, but on the QWERTY keyboard only the vowel letter "A" is on the home row, which requires
the typist's fingers to leave the home row for most words.

A feature much less commented-on than the order of the keys is that the keys do not form a rectangular grid,
but rather each column slants diagonally. This is because of the mechanical linkages – each key is attached
to a lever, and hence the offset prevents the levers from running into each other – and has been retained in
most electronic keyboards. Some keyboards, such as the Kinesis or TypeMatrix, retain the QWERTY layout
but arrange the keys in vertical columns, to reduce unnecessary lateral finger motion.[17][18]

The words 'typewriter', 'proprietor', 'perpetuity', and 'repertoire' (from French) are the longest English words
that can be written using only the keys in the top row.

Computer keyboards
The first computer terminals such as the Teletype were typewriters that could produce and be controlled by
various computer codes. These used the QWERTY layouts and added keys such as escape (ESC) which had
special meanings to computers. Later keyboards added function keys and arrow keys. Since the
standardization of PC-compatible computers and Windows after the 1980s, most full-sized computer
keyboards have followed this standard (see drawing at right). This layout has a separate numeric keypad for
data entry at the right, 12 function keys across the top, and a cursor section to the right and center with keys
for Insert, Delete, Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down with cursor arrows in an inverted-T shape.[19]
Diacritical marks

Different computer operating

systems have methods of support for
input of different languages such as
Chinese, Hebrew or Arabic.
QWERTY was designed for English,
a language with accents appearing
only in a few words of foreign
origin. Thus, QWERTY keyboards
have no standard way of typing
these "diacritics". The standard US The standard QWERTY keyboard layout used in the US. Some
keyboard for Microsoft Windows countries, such as the UK and Canada, use a slightly different QWERTY
has no provision for it at all; the (the @ and " are switched in the UK); see keyboard layout
need was later met by the so called
"US-International" keyboard layout,
which uses dead keys to type accents without having to add more keys. The same principle is used in the
standard "US" keyboard layout for MacOS, but in a different way. Third-party layouts exist that try to
overcome this shortcoming, necessarily customised for a limited subset of languages. Most European PC
keyboards (Windows, Linux, ChromeOS but not MacOS) have an AltGr key (Alternative Graphics key,
replaces the right Alt key) that enables easy access to the most common diacritics used in the territory where
sold. (Where this key is not provided, some layouts provide its equivalent using ctrl + alt +the letter to be
accented, which can mean some chords that require additional manual dexterity).

Depending on the operating system and sometimes the application program being used, there are many ways
to generate Latin characters with accents independently of the layout in use. Naturally, this can lead to
confusion, when the imprints on the keys are different from what the software produces.

Other keys and characters

International variants
Minor changes to the arrangement are made for other languages. There are a large number of different
keyboard layouts used for different languages written in Latin script. 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, for example this QWERTY layout and the AZERTY layout.

The following sections give general descriptions of QWERTY keyboard variants along with details specific
to certain operating systems. The emphasis is on Microsoft Windows.

Canadian

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 keyboard layout (see below).

Canadian Multilingual Standard

The Canadian Multilingual Standard
keyboard layout is used by some
Canadians. Though the caret (^) is
missing, it is easily inserted by typing
the circumflex accent followed by a
space.

The CSA keyboard

Canadian Multilingual Standard keyboard layout

Canadian French

This keyboard layout is

commonly used in Canada by
French-speaking Canadians. It is
the most common layout for
laptops and stand-alone
keyboards targeting French
speakers. Unlike the French
layout used in France and Canadian French keyboard layout
Belgium, it is a true QWERTY
layout and as such is also
relatively commonly used by English speakers in the US and Canada (using standard QWERTY keyboards)
for easy access to the accented letters found in some French loanwords. 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, and is the standard
for keyboards in Quebec. It can also easily map to a standard English QWERTY keyboard with the sole loss
the guillemet/degree sign key. Use of the European French layout in Quebec is practically unheard of.

In some variants, the key names are translated to French:

⇪ Caps Lock is Fix Maj or Verr Maj (short for Fixer/Verrouiller Majuscule, meaning Lock
Uppercase).
↵ Enter is ↵ Entrée .[20]
Esc is Échap .
Czech

The typewriter came to the Czech-

speaking area in the late 19th century,
when it was part of Austria-Hungary
where German was the dominant
language of administration.
Therefore, Czech typewriters have
the QWERTZ layout. However, with
the introduction of imported
computers, especially since the
1990s, the QWERTY keyboard
layout is frequently used for
Czech QWERTY keyboard layout
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 an American keyboard. In Czech QWERTZ keyboards the positions of these characters
accessed through AltGr differs.

Danish

Both the Danish and Norwegian

keyboards include dedicated keys for
the letters Å/å, Æ/æ and Ø/ø, but the
placement is a little different, as the
Æ and Ø keys are swapped on the
Norwegian layout. (The Finnish–
Swedish keyboard is also largely
similar to the Norwegian layout, but Danish keyboard layout
the Ø and Æ are replaced with Ö
and Ä . On some systems, the
Danish keyboard may allow typing Ö/ö and Ä/ä by holding the AltGr or ⌥ Option key while striking Ø
and Æ , respectively.)

Dutch (Netherlands)

Though it is seldom used (most

Dutch keyboards use US
International layout), [21] the Dutch
layout uses QWERTY but has
additions for the € sign, the diaresis
(¨), and the braces ({ }) as well as
different locations for other symbols.
An older version contained a single- Dutch (Netherlands) keyboard layout
stroke key for the Dutch character
IJ/ij, which is usually typed by the
combination of I and J . In the 1990s, there was a version with the now-obsolete florin sign (Dutch:
guldenteken) for IBM PCs.
In Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium), "AZERTY" keyboards are used instead, due to influence
from the French-speaking part of Belgium.

See also #US-International in the Netherlands below.

Estonian

The keyboard layout used in Estonia

is virtually the same as the Swedish
layout. The main difference is that
the Å and ¨ keys (to the right of
P ) are replaced with Ü and Õ
respectively (the latter letter being
the most distinguishing feature of the
Estonian alphabet). Some special Estonian keyboard layout
symbols and dead keys are also
moved around.

Faroese

The same as the Danish layout with

added Đ (Eth), since the Faroe
Islands are a self-governed part of the
Kingdom of Denmark.

Faroese keyboard layout

Finnish multilingual

The visual layout used in Finland is

basically the same as the Swedish
layout. This is practical, as Finnish
and Swedish share the special
characters Ä/ä and Ö/ö, and while the
Swedish Å/å is unnecessary for
writing Finnish, it is needed by
Swedish-speaking Finns and to write Finnish multilingual keyboard layout
Swedish family names which are
common.

As of 2008, there is a new standard for the Finnish multilingual keyboard layout, developed as part of a
localization project by CSC. 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 the AltGr key, as well as dead keys,
which allow typing a wide variety of letters with diacritics (e.g., Ç/ç, Ǥ/ǥ, Ǯ/ǯ).[22][23]
Based on the Latin 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 official languages of Finland, using the familiar keyboard layout but adding
some advanced punctuation options, such as dashes, typographical quotation marks, and the non-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 three Nordic national languages (Danish, Norwegian and Icelandic) 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, and German).

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
official languages of the European Union (excluding Bulgarian and Greek). Some letters, like Ł/ł needed for
Slavic languages, are accessed by a special "overstrike" key combination acting like a dead key.[24]
However, the Romanian letters Ș/ș and Ț/ț (S/s and T/t with comma below) are not supported; the
presumption is that Ş/ş and Ţ/ţ (with cedilla) suffice as surrogates.

Greek
The stress
accents,
indicated
in red, are
produced
by
pressing
that key
(or shifted
key)
followed
by an Modern Greek keyboard layout

appropriate vowel.
Use of the "AltGr" key may produce the characters shown in blue.

German

Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Luxembourg use QWERTZ layouts, where the letter Z is
to the right of T.

Icelandic

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, 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 the Esc 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 Icelandic keyboard layout
in Icelandic, but may have been
implemented for ease of
communication in other Nordic languages. Additional diacritics may be found behind the AltGr key:
AltGr + + for ˋ (grave accent) and AltGr + ´ for ˆ (circumflex).

Irish

Microsoft Windows includes an Irish

layout which supports acute accents
with AltGr for the Irish language
and grave accents with the ` dead
key for Scottish Gaelic. The other
Insular Celtic languages have their
own layout. The UK or UK-Extended
layout is also frequently used. Microsoft Windows Irish layout

Italian
Braces (right above square
brackets and shown in purple)
are given with both AltGr and
Shift pressed.
The tilde (~) and backquote (`)
characters are not present on
the Italian keyboard layout
(with Linux, they are available
by pressing Italian keyboard layout
AltGr + ⇧ Shift + ì , and
AltGr + ⇧ Shift + ' ; Windows
might not recognise these keybindings).
When using Microsoft Windows, the standard Italian keyboard layout does not allow one to
write 100% correct Italian language, since it lacks capital accented vowels, and in particular
the È key. The common workaround is writing E' (E followed by an apostrophe) instead, or
relying on the auto-correction feature of several word processors when available. It is possible
to obtain the È symbol in MS Windows by typing Alt + 0 2 0 0 . Mac users, however, can
write the correct accented character by pressing ⇧ Shift + ⌥ Option + E or, in the usual Mac
way, by pressing the correct key for the accent (in this case Alt + 9 ) and subsequently
pressing the wanted letter (in this case ⇧ Shift + E ). Linux users can also write it by pressing
the è key with ⇪ Caps Lock enabled.
There is an alternate layout, which differs only in disposition of characters accessible through AltGr , and
includes the tilde and the curly brackets. It is commonly used in IBM keyboards.

Italian typewriters often have the QZERTY layout instead.

The Italian-speaking part of Switzerland uses the QWERTZ keyboard.

Latvian

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 latin ones,
but with a dead key, which allows entering special characters (āčēģīķļņšūž, sometimes ō and ŗ). The most
common dead key is the apostrophe ('), which is followed by Alt+Gr (Windows default for Latvian layout).
Some prefer using the tick (`).

Lithuanian

In Lithuanian QWERTY keyboards the number keys on the top row have the following meanings: Ą, Č, Ę,
Ė, Į, Š, Ų, Ū instead of their counterparts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Besides these changes the keyboard is standard
QWERTY. Besides QWERTY, the ĄŽERTY layout is used.

Maltese

The Maltese 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 are two standard keyboard layouts for Maltese (https://www.mita.gov.mt/
MediaCenter/Images/1_Fonts_Pic1.jpg), 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.

Norwegian

The Norwegian languages use the

same letters as Danish, but the
Norwegian keyboard differs from the
Danish layout regarding the
placement of the Ø , Æ and \
(backslash) keys. On the Danish
keyboard, the Ø and Æ are
swapped. The Swedish keyboard is Norwegian keyboard layout
also similar to the Norwegian layout,
but Ø and Æ are replaced with Ö
and Ä . On some systems, the Norwegian keyboard may allow typing Ö/ö and Ä/ä by holding the AltGr or
⌥ Option key while striking Ø and Æ , respectively.

There is also an alternative keyboard layout called Norwegian with Sámi, which allows for easier input of
the characters required to write various Sámi (also known as Lapp) languages. All the Sámi characters are
accessed through the AltGr key.

On Macintosh computers, the Norwegian and Norwegian 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 between
Æ and Return .

Norwegian with Sámi

Polish

Most typewriters use a QWERTZ

keyboard with Polish 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 (except custom-made, Polish typist's keyboard (QWERTZ PN-87)
e.g., in public sector and some Apple
computers); the "Polish
programmer's" (Polish: polski
programisty) layout has become the
de facto standard, used on virtually
all computers sold on the Polish
market.

Most computer keyboards in Poland

are laid out according to the standard
US visual and functional layout. Polish programmer's keyboard
Polish diacritics are accessed by
using the AltGr key with a
corresponding similar letter from the base Latin alphabet. Normal capitalization rules apply with respect to
Shift and Caps Lock keys. For example, to enter "Ź", one can type Shift+AltGr+X with Caps Lock off, or
turn on Caps Lock and type AltGr+X.

Both ANSI[25] and ISO[26] mechanical layouts are common sights, and even some non-standard[27]
mechanical layouts are in use. ANSI is often preferred, as the additional key provides no additional function,
at least in Microsoft Windows where it duplicates the backslash key, while taking space from the Shift key.
Many keyboards do not label AltGr as such, leaving the Alt marking as in the US layout - the right Alt key
nevertheless functions as AltGr in this layout, causing possible confusion when keyboard shortcuts with the
Alt key are required (these usually work only with the left Alt) and causing the key to be commonly referred
to as right Alt (Polish: prawy Alt).[28] However, keyboards with AltGr marking are available and it is also
officially used by Microsoft when depicting the layout.[29]
 Key combinations to obtain Polish characters (Windows)
Keystroke
Caps Lock state In combination with
A C E L N O S Z X U
right Alt ą ć ę ł ń ó ś ż ź €
Off
Shift & right Alt Ą Ć Ę Ł Ń Ó Ś Ż Ź
right Alt Ą Ć Ę Ł Ń Ó Ś Ż Ź €
On
Shift & right Alt ą ć ę ł ń ó ś ż ź
Note: On Polish programmer keyboard, right Alt plays the role of AltGr

Also, on MS Windows, the tilde character "~" (Shift+`) acts as a dead key to type Polish letters (with
diacritical marks) thus, to obtain an "Ł", one may press Shift+` followed by L. The tilde character is obtained
with (Shift+`) then space.

In Linux-based systems, the euro symbol is typically mapped to Alt+5 instead of Alt+U, the tilde acts as a
normal key, and several accented letters from other European languages are accessible through combinations
with left Alt. Polish letters are also accessible by using the compose 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.[30][31] However, modern
predictive text and autocorrection algorithms largely mitigate the need to type them directly on such devices.

Portuguese

Brazil

The Brazilian computer keyboard

layout is specified in the ABNT NBR
10346 variant 2 (alphanumeric
portion) and 10347 (numeric portion)
standards.

Essentially, the Brazilian keyboard

contains dead keys for five variants
Portuguese (Brazil) keyboard layout
of diacritics in use in the language;
the letter Ç, the only application of
the cedilla in Portuguese, has its own key. In some keyboard layouts the AltGr + C combination produces
the ₢ character (Unicode 0x20A2), symbol for the old currency cruzeiro, a symbol that is not used in
practice (the common abbreviation in the eighties and nineties used to be Cr$). The cent sign ¢, is accessible
via AltGr + 5 , but is not commonly used for the centavo, subunit of previous currencies as well as the
current real, which itself is represented by R$. The Euro sign € is not standardized in this layout. The
masculine and feminine ordinals ª and º are accessible via AltGr combinations. The section sign § (Unicode
U+00A7), in Portuguese called parágrafo, 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),[32] has a unique mechanical layout, combining some features of the ISO 9995-
3 and the JIS 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 the AltGr + Q , AltGr + W , and AltGr + E
combinations.

Portugal

Essentially, the Portuguese keyboard

contains dead keys for five variants
of diacritics; the letter Ç, the only
application of the cedilla in
Portuguese, has its own key, but there
are also a dedicated key for the
ordinal indicators and a dedicated
key for quotation marks. The Portuguese (Portugal) keyboard layout
AltGr + E combination for
producing the euro sign € (Unicode
0x20AC) has become standard. 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 in Portugal.

Romanian (in Romania and Moldova)

The current Romanian National

Standard SR 13392:2004 establishes
two layouts for Romanian keyboards:
a "primary"[33] one and a
"secondary" [34] one.

The "primary" layout is intended for

traditional users who have learned
how to type with older, Microsoft- Romanian keyboard layout
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 by Linux
distributions, as defined in the "X Keyboard Configuration Database".[35]

There are four Romanian-specific characters that are incorrectly implemented in versions of Microsoft
Windows until Vista came out:

Ș (U+0218, S with comma), incorrectly implemented as Ş (U+015E, S with cedilla)

ș (U+0219, s with comma), incorrectly implemented as ş (U+015F, s with cedilla)
Ț (U+021A, T with comma), incorrectly implemented as Ţ (U+0162, T with cedilla)
ț (U+021B, t with comma), incorrectly implemented as ţ (U+0163, t with cedilla)

The cedilla-versions of the characters do not exist in the Romanian language (they came to be used due to a
historic bug).[36] 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.[37]
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.[38]

MS Windows 7 now includes 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.

Slovak

In Slovakia, similarly to the Czech

Republic, both QWERTZ and
QWERTY keyboard layouts are used.
QWERTZ is the default keyboard
layout for Slovak in Microsoft
Windows.

Slovak QWERTY/Z keyboard layout

Spanish

Spain

The Spanish keyboard layout is used

to write in Spanish and in other
languages of Spain such as Catalan,
Basque, Galician, Aragonese,
Asturian and Occitan. It includes Ñ
for Spanish, Asturian and Galician,
the acute accent, the diaeresis, the
inverted question and exclamation Spanish keyboard layout
marks (¿, ¡), the superscripted o and a
(º, ª) for writing abbreviated ordinal
numbers in masculine and feminine in Spanish and Galician, and finally, some characters required only for
typing Catalan and Occitan, namely Ç, the grave accent and the interpunct (punt volat / punt interior, used
in l·l, n·h, s·h; located at Shift-3). It can also be used to write other international characters, such as those
using a circumflex accent (used in French and Portuguese among others) or a tilde (used in both Spanish and
Portuguese), which are available as dead keys. However, it lacks two characters used in Asturian: Ḥ and Ḷ
(historically, general support for these two has been poor – they aren't present in the ISO 8859-1 character
encoding standard, or any other ISO/IEC 8859 standard); several alternative distributions, based on this one
or created from scratch, have been created to address this issue (see the Other 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. An alternative version exists, supporting all of ISO 8859-1.[39]

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 (+),[40][41] while in other
keyboards it's situated on the right of the inverted exclamation mark key (¡).[42][43]

Latin America, officially known as Spanish Latinamerican sort

The Latin American Spanish

keyboard layout is used throughout
Mexico, Central and South America.
Before its design, Latin American
vendors had been selling the Spanish
(Spain) layout as default.

Its most obvious difference from the

Latin American Spanish keyboard layout
Spanish (Spain) layout is the lack of
a Ç key; on Microsoft Windows it
lacks a tilde (~) dead key, whereas on Linux systems the dead tilde can be optionally enabled. This is not a
problem when typing in Spanish, but it is rather problematic when typing in Portuguese, which can be an
issue in countries with large commercial ties to Brazil (Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay).

Normally "Bloq Mayús" is used instead of "Caps Lock", and "Intro" instead of "Enter".

Swedish

The central characteristics of the Swedish keyboard are the three additional letters Å/å, Ä/ä, and Ö/ö. The
same visual layout is also in use in Finland and Estonia, as the letters Ä/ä and Ö/ö are shared with the
Swedish language, and even Å/å is needed by Swedish-speaking Finns. However, the Finnish multilingual
keyboard adds new letters and punctuation to the functional layout.

The Norwegian keyboard largely resembles the Swedish layout, but the Ö and Ä are replaced with Ø
and Æ . The Danish keyboard is also similar, but it has the Ø and Æ swapped. On some systems, the
Swedish or Finnish keyboard may allow typing Ø/ø and Æ/æ by holding the AltGr or ⌥ Option key while
striking Ö and Ä , respectively.
The Swedish with Sámi keyboard
allows typing not only Ø/ø and Æ/æ,
but even the letters required to write
various Sámi (also known as Lapp)
languages. This keyboard has the
same function for all the keys
engraved on the regular Swedish
keyboard, and the additional letters
are available through the AltGr key. Swedish Windows keyboard layout

On Macintosh computers, the

Swedish and Swedish 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 .

On Linux systems, the Swedish keyboard may also give access to additional characters as follows:

first row: AltGr ¶¡@£$€¥{[]}\± and AltGr + ⇧ Shift ¾¹²³¼¢⅝÷«»°¿¬

second row: AltGr @ł€®þ←↓→œþ"~ and AltGr + ⇧ Shift ΩŁ¢®Þ¥↑ıŒÞ°ˇ
third row: AltGr ªßðđŋħjĸłøæ´ and AltGr + ⇧ Shift º§ÐªŊĦJ&ŁØÆ×
fourth row: AltGr |«»©""nµ¸·̣ and AltGr + ⇧ Shift ¦<>©‘’Nº˛˙˙

Several of these characters function as dead keys.

Turkish

Today the majority of Turkish

keyboards are based on QWERTY
(the so-called Q-keyboard layout),
although there is also the older F-
keyboard layout specifically designed
for the language.

Turkish Q-keyboard layout

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom and

Ireland [nb 1] use a keyboard layout
based on the 48-key version defined
in the (now withdrawn) British
Standard BS 4822.[44] It is very
similar to that of the United States,
but has an AltGr key and a larger
Enter key, includes £ and € signs and United Kingdom and Ireland (except Mac) keyboard layout
some rarely used EBCDIC symbols
(¬, ¦), and uses different positions for
the characters @, ", #, ~, \, and |. See the article British and American keyboards for details.
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 United Kingdom Keyboard layout for Linux
diacritics used in the Welsh alphabet,
and the Scottish Gaelic alphabet; and
also is missing the letter yogh, ȝ, used very rarely in the Scots language. 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. 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. IBM OS/2 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)

In many Commonwealth countries and other English-speaking jurisdictions (e.g., Canada, Australia, the
Caribbean nations, Hong Kong, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Singapore, New Zealand, and South
Africa), local spelling conforms more closely to British English usage, while the supplied keyboard is or
based on the English (US) keyboard. In Windows 8 and later versions, the backslash \ key (left of Z or
space) is duplicated onto the hash # key (left of Enter), press which with Alt Gr key to type backslash \ ,
with Alt Gr and ⇧ Shift keys to type vertical bar | . This aids users who are familiar with UK keyboard
layout while the keyboard lacks this key (e.g. US Standard keyboard and Japan JIS keyboard).

UK Apple keyboard

The British version of the Apple

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 United Kingdom version of Apple keyboard
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 the return key has \ and | .
United Kingdom (Extended) Layout

Mac OS

Apple's Mac OS X does not include

UK Extended, as it has key
combinations for accents on any
keyboard layout.
United Kingdom Extended Keyboard Layout for Windows
Windows

From Windows XP SP2 onwards,

Microsoft has included a variant of
the British QWERTY keyboard (the
"United Kingdom Extended"
keyboard layout) that can
additionally generate several
diacritical marks. This supports input
on a standard physical UK keyboard United Kingdom Extended Keyboard Layout for Linux
for many languages without changing
positions of frequently used keys,
which is useful when working with
text in Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and
Irish — languages native to parts of
the UK (Wales, parts of Scotland and
Northern Ireland respectively).

In this layout, the grave accent key

becomes, as it also does in the US
International layout, a dead key United Kingdom International Keyboard Layout for Linux
modifying the character generated by
the next key pressed, but the
apostrophe, double-quote, tilde and caret keys are not changed. Instead, the additional characters are
obtained using the AltGr key. The extended keyboard is software installed from the Windows control panel,
and the extended characters are not normally engraved on keyboards.

The UK International 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.:

grave accents (e.g. à, è, etc.) are generated by pressing the grave accent/backtick key ` ,
which is now a dead key, then the letter. Thus ` + a produces à, as used by Scots Gaelic.
acute accents (e.g. á) are generated by pressing the AltGr key together with the letter (or
AltGr + ' – acting as a dead key combination – followed by the letter). Thus AltGr + a
produces á, as used in Irish. (Some programs use the combination of AltGr and a letter for
other functions, in which case the AltGr + ' method must be used to generate acute accents).
a circumflex may be added by AltGr + 6 , acting as a dead key combination, followed by the
letter. Thus AltGr + 6 then a produces â, AltGr + 6 then w produces the Welsh letter ŵ.
diaeresis or umlaut (e.g. ä, ë, ö, etc.) is generated by a dead key combination AltGr + 2 , then
the letter. Thus AltGr + 2 a produces ä.
 tilde (e.g. ã, ñ, õ, etc., as used in Spanish and Portuguese) is generated by dead key
combination AltGr + # , then the letter. Thus AltGr + # a produces ã.
cedilla (e.g. ç) under c is generated by AltGr + C , and the capital letter (Ç) is produced by
AltGr + ⇧ Shift + C

The AltGr 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 be mnemonic and designed to be easy to remember: the circumflex
accent (e.g. â) is similar to a caret (^), printed above the 6 key; the diaeresis/umlaut (e.g. ö) is visually
similar to the double-quote (") above 2 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 different
character sets, such as Greek and Russian. t also does not cater for thorn (þ, Þ) in Old English, the ß in
German, the œ in French, nor for the å, æ, ø, ð, þ in Nordic languages.

Chrome OS

The UK Extended layout in Chrome OS provides all the same combinations as with Windows, but adds
many more symbols and dead keys via AltGr.

¬◌ !¡ "½ £⅓ $¼ %⅜ ^⅝ &⅞ *™ (± )° _¿ +◌
◌¦ 1¹ 2◌ 3³ 4€ 5½ 6◌ 7{ 8[ 9] 0} -◌ =◌
QΩ WẂ EÉ R® TŦ YÝ UÚ IÍ OÓ PÞ {◌ }◌
tab
q@ wẃ eé r¶ tŧ yý uú ií oó pþ [◌ ]◌
AÁ S§ DÐ Fª GŊ HĦ J◌ K& LŁ :◌ @◌ ~◌
aá sß dð fđ gŋ hħ j◌ kĸ lł ;◌ '◌ #◌
|¦ Z< X> CÇ V‘ B’ NN Mº <× >÷ ?◌
shift shift
\| z« x» cç v“ b” nn mµ ,─ .· /◌

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 combinations with
AltGr.
AltGr + ⇧ Shift + 0 (°) is a degree sign; AltGr + ⇧ Shift + M (º) is a masculine ordinal indicator

Dead keys
` + letter produces grave accents (e.g., à/À) ( ` + ` produces a standalone grave sign).
AltGr + 2 (release) letter produces diaeresis accents (e.g., ä/Ä)
AltGr + 6 (release) letter produces circumflex accents (e.g., â/Â)
AltGr + = (release) letter produces (mainly) comma diacritic or cedilla below the letter
e.g., ş/Ş
AltGr + ⇧ Shift + = (release) letter produces a hook (diacritic) on vowels (e.g., ą/Ą)
AltGr+[ same as AltGr+2
 AltGr+] same as AltGr+#
AltGr + { (release) letter produces overrings (e.g., å/Å)
AltGr + } (release) letter produces macrons (e.g., ā/Ā)
AltGr + j (release) letter produces mainly horn (diacritic)s (e.g., ả/Ả)
AltGr + ⇧ Shift + j (release) letter is a dead key that appears to have no function (as of
January 2020)
AltGr + ; (release) letter produces acute accents (e.g., ź/Ź)
AltGr + ⇧ Shift + ; (release) letter is another dead key that appears to have no function
AltGr + ' (release) letter produces acute accents (e.g., á/Á)
AltGr + ⇧ Shift + ' (release) letter produces caron (haček) diacritics (e.g., ǎ/Ǎ)
AltGr + # (release) letter produces tilde diacritics (e.g., ã/Ã)
AltGr + ⇧ Shift + # (release) letter produces inverted breve diacritics (e.g., ă/Ă)
AltGr + / (release) letter produces mainly underdots (e.g., ạ/Ạ)
AltGr + ⇧ Shift + / (release) letter produces mainly overdots (e.g., ȧ/Ȧ)

Finally, any arbitrary Unicode glyph can be produced given its hexadecimal code point: ctrl + ⇧ Shift + u ,
release, then the hex value, then space bar or ↩ Return . For example ctrl + ⇧ Shift + u (release)
1 2 3 4 space produces the Ethiopic syllable SEE, ሴ. ̣

United States

The arrangement of the character

input keys and the Shift keys
contained in this layout is specified in
the US national standard ANSI-
INCITS 154-1988 (R1999) (formerly
ANSI X3.154-1988 (R1999)),[45]
where this layout is called "ASCII
keyboard". The complete US United States keyboard layout
keyboard layout, as it is usually
found, also contains the usual
function keys in accordance with the international standard ISO/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 places,
including India, Australia, English Canada, Hong Kong, New Zealand, South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore
and Philippines, including Indonesia that uses the same 26-letter alphabets as English. However, the United
Kingdom and Ireland use a slightly different layout because of the Irish language.

The US keyboard layout has a second Alt key instead of the AltGr key and does not use any dead 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 by programmers in countries where the keys for []{} are located in
less convenient positions on the locally customary layout.[46]

On some keyboards the enter 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 the backslash key (\). In these cases the backslash is located in
alternative places.[47] It can be situated one line above the default location, on the right of the equals sign
key (=).[48][49] Sometimes it's placed one line below its traditional situation, on the right of the apostrophe
key (') (in these cases the enter key is narrower than usual on the line of its default location).[50] It may also
be two lines below its default situation on the right of a narrower than traditionally right shift key.[51]

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.[39]

US-International

An alternative layout uses the

physical US keyboard to type
diacritics in some operating systems
(including Windows). This is the US-
International layout, which uses the
right Alt key as an AltGr key to
support many additional characters
directly as an additional shift key. US-International keyboard layout (Windows)
(Since many smaller keyboards don't
have a right Alt key, Windows also
allows Ctrl + Alt to be used as a substitute for AltGr .) This layout also uses keys ' , ` , " , ^ and ~ as
dead 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[52] or
similar; 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, and Swedish. Some less common western European languages, such as Welsh and Maltese
(the Welsh language using circumflexes and Maltese using the stroked H, among other accents), are not
fully supported by the US-International keyboard layout.

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 the symbols ', `, ", ^ and ~, when the following
character is capable of having a diacritic, press the Spacebar after the key.

Characters with diacritics can be typed with the following combinations:

' + vowel → vowel with acute accent, e.g., ' + e → é

` + vowel → vowel with grave accent, e.g., ` + e → è
" + vowel → vowel with diaeresis (or umlaut), e.g., " + e → ë
^ + vowel → vowel with circumflex accent, e.g., ^ + e → ê
~ + a , n or o → letter with tilde, e.g. ~ + n → ñ, ~ + o → õ
' + c → ç (Windows) or ć (X11)

The US-International layout is not entirely transparent to users familiar with the US layout; when using a
machine with the international layout the commonly used single- and double-quote keys and the less
commonly used grave accent, tilde, and caret keys behave unexpectedly. This could be disconcerting on a
machine for shared or public use.
There are also alternative US-International formats, 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, using the AltGr modifier key to activate dead keys, so that the ASCII quotation marks or
circumflex symbol are not affected and can be typed normally with a single keystroke.

US-International in the Netherlands

The standard keyboard layout in the Netherlands is US-International, as it provides easy access to diacritics
on common UK- or US-like keyboards. The Dutch layout is historical, and keyboards with this layout are
rarely used. Many US keyboards sold do not have the extra US-International characters or AltGr engraved
on the keys, although € ( AltGr + 5 ) always is; nevertheless, the keys work as expected even if not marked.
Many computer-literate Dutch people have retained the old habit of using Alt + number codes to type
accented characters; others routinely type without diacritics, then use a spelling checker to produce the
correct forms.

Apple International English Keyboard

There are three kinds of Apple

Keyboards for English: the United
States, the United 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 International English version of Apple keyboard
on ⌥ Option + 2 (although this
shortcut is present with all Apple
QWERTY layouts).

Differences from the US layout are:

~ | "
1. The ` key is located on the left of the Z key, and the \ key is located on the right of the '
key.
2. The ±§ key is added on the left of the !1 key.
3. The left ⇧ Shift key is shortened and the Return key has the shape of inverted L.

Vietnamese

The Vietnamese keyboard layout is

an extended Latin QWERTY layout.
The letters Ă, Â, Ê, and Ô are found
on what would be the number keys
1 – 4 on the US English keyboard,
with 5 – 9 producing the tonal
marks (grave accent, hook, tilde,
acute accent and dot below, in that Vietnamese keyboard layout
order), 0 producing Đ, = producing the đồng sign (₫) when not shifted, and brackets ( [ ] ) producing Ư
and Ơ.[53]

Alternatives
Several alternatives to QWERTY have been developed over the years, claimed by their designers and users
to be more efficient, intuitive, and ergonomic. Nevertheless, none have seen widespread adoption, partly due
to the sheer dominance of available keyboards and training.[54] Although some studies have suggested that
some of these may allow for faster typing speeds,[55] many other studies have failed to do so, and many of
the studies claiming improved typing speeds were severely methodologically flawed or deliberately biased,
such as the studies administered by August Dvorak himself before and after World War II. Economists Stan
Liebowitz and Stephen Margolis have noted that rigorous studies are inconclusive as to whether they
actually offer any real benefits,[56] and some studies on keyboard layout have suggested that, for a skilled
typist, layout is largely irrelevant – even randomized and alphabetical keyboards allow for similar typing
speeds to QWERTY and Dvorak keyboards, and that switching costs always outweigh the benefits of further
training on whichever keyboard you already use.

The most widely used such alternative is the Dvorak keyboard layout; another alternative is Colemak, which
is based partly on QWERTY and is claimed to be easier for an existing QWERTY typist to learn while
offering several supposed optimisations.[57] Most modern computer operating systems support these and
other alternative mappings with appropriate special mode settings, with some modern operating systems
allowing the user to map their keyboard in any way they like, but few keyboards are made with keys labeled
according to any other standard.

Comparison to other keyboard input systems

Comparisons have been made, between Dvorak, Colemak, QWERTY, and other keyboard input systems,
namely stenotype or its electronic implementations (e.g., Plover an opensource project [1] (http://plover.sten
oknight.com/)). However, stenotype is a fundamentally different system, which relies on Phonetics and
simultaneous key presses or chords. Although stenography has long been known as a faster and more
accurate typing system, adoption has been limited, likely due to the historically high cost of equipment,
steeper initial learning curve, and low awareness of the benefits within primary education and in the general
public.

The first typed shorthand machines appeared around 1830, with english versions gaining popularity in the
early 1900s. Traditionally, stenotype output required interpretation back to longhand by a trained
professional, comparable to reading Gregg shorthand, which was very much in vogue at the time and taught
publicly until the 1980s. Gregg shorthand also did not require much more than training and a pen, however
machines gradually gained traction in the courtroom. Modern electronic stenotype machines or programs
such as Plover Steno, output to written language, which provides an experience similar to other keyboard
setups that immediately produce legible work.

Half QWERTY
A half QWERTY keyboard is a combination of an alpha-numeric keypad and a QWERTY keypad, designed
for mobile phones.[58] In a half QWERTY keyboard, two characters share the same key, which reduces the
number of keys and increases the surface area of each key, useful for mobile phones that have little space for
keys.[58] It means that 'Q' and 'W' share the same key and the user must press the key once to type 'Q' and
twice to type 'W'.
See also
AZERTY
HCESAR
QWERTZ
JCUKEN
Colemak Keyboard
Dvorak keyboard layout
KALQ keyboard split-screen touchscreen thumb-typing Android-
only 2013 beta
Keyboard monument
Maltron keyboard The Nokia E55 uses a half
Path dependence QWERTY keyboard layout.
Repetitive strain injury
Text entry interface
Thumb keyboard
Touch typing
Velotype
Virtual keyboard
WASD

References

Informational notes
1. There is a separate 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 and
supports Scottish Gaelic as well. The other Insular Celtic languages have their own layout.

Citations
1. US 79868 (https://worldwide.espacenet.com/textdoc?DB=EPODOC&IDX=US79868), Shole,
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External links
Article on QWERTY and Path Dependence from EH.NET's Encyclopedia (https://web.archive.
org/web/20060113120201/http://www.eh.net/encyclopedia/article/puffert.path.dependence)
QWERTY Keyboard History (https://web.archive.org/web/20080527223912/http://www.ideafind
er.com/history/inventions/qwerty.htm)
QWERTY Keyboard in Mobiles (https://web.archive.org/web/20110708055946/http://www.bak
waash.com/2011/07/05/mobile-phone-termonologies/)
Android phones with QWERTY keyboards (https://web.archive.org/web/20160502220014/htt
p://merelinc.com/art-and-design/qwerty-android-phones-amazing-buttons)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=QWERTY&oldid=950860178"

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