Keyboard layouts of the world

What a keyboard layout is

A keyboard layout is the map from each physical key to the character it types. The keys on your desk have the same shape in every country; the layout is software. That is why one laptop can type English, Hebrew and Korean: you change the layout, not the keyboard. The Unicode CLDR data this guide is built on lists 206 Windows layouts, and this page counts what they have in common and where they differ.

Two words get mixed up. The physical layout is the shape of the keyboard: how many keys, how the Enter key looks. The keyboard layout (Windows calls it an input layout) is what each key types. This guide is about the second one, with one exception below, because the shape decides whether a layout fits your keys at all.

ANSI and ISO keyboards: the missing key

Most keyboards sold in the United States follow the ANSI shape: a wide left Shift and a long, flat Enter key. Most of Europe uses the ISO shape: a tall, L-shaped Enter and one extra key between the left Shift and Z.

That extra key matters more than it looks. On 100 of the 206 layouts, it types something the backslash key does not. On a French layout it is < and >; on German it is <, > and |. Plug a US keyboard into a PC set to one of these layouts and those characters have no key. Every keyboard page on this site shows that extra key only when the layout really uses it.

QWERTY, QWERTZ and AZERTY

103 of the 206 layouts write in the Latin alphabet. Read the first six letters of the top row and they fall into three big families: 64 are QWERTY, 16 are QWERTZ and 9 are AZERTY. The other 14 start with something else.

QWERTZ swaps two letters: on the German layout Z sits where a US keyboard has Y and Y where it has Z. AZERTY moves four: on the French layout A and Q trade places, Z and W trade places, and M moves to the key right of L, where a US keyboard has ;.

The number row is where AZERTY surprises people most. Without Shift, the French layout types & é " ' ( - è _ ç à across the top: the digits need Shift. 21 Latin layouts put something other than digits there, including Belgian (Comma), Belgian (Period), Belgian French, Central Atlas Tamazight, Czech, Czech (QWERTY), French, Hungarian.

Layouts for other alphabets

The other 103 layouts cover 36 more writing systems. Cyrillic has the most (25), then Arabic script (10).

Only 3 non-Latin layouts keep Latin letters one level up, where Shift gives Latin capitals: Georgian (MES), Hebrew, Hebrew (Standard). On the others, Shift gives more letters of the same script, or marks, and English needs a layout switch.

Right-to-left layouts

19 layouts write right to left: Arabic (101), Arabic (102), Arabic (102) AZERTY, Central Kurdish, Divehi Phonetic, Divehi Typewriter, Hebrew, Hebrew (Standard), N’Ko, Pashto (Afghanistan), Persian, Persian (Standard), Syriac, Syriac Phonetic, Urdu, Uyghur, Uyghur (Legacy). The keyboard itself does not know about direction. Your text box does: it lays out Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, Thaana and N'Ko from the right and keeps numbers and Latin words inside them running left to right. One side effect is that brackets look mirrored: on the Hebrew layout the key where a US keyboard has [ types ], which a right-to-left text box draws as an opening bracket.

Dead keys and AltGr: where the extra characters live

A keyboard has about 48 character keys, and many alphabets need more. Layouts solve it in two ways. 86 layouts use dead keys: an accent key that types nothing until you press the letter, so ´ then e gives é. The most common dead keys are ^ (64 layouts), ¨ (63 layouts), ´ (60 layouts), ` (58 layouts), ~ (50 layouts). The dead keys guide covers them in full.

154 layouts also use AltGr, the right Alt key, as a third level: on the German layout AltGr + Q types @ and AltGr + E types €.

One language, many layouts

The 206 layouts cover 107 languages, so many languages have more than one. English has the most, mainly for Dvorak and the international variants:

The opposite happens too: some languages share a layout. These pairs type exactly the same letters on the same keys, without Shift and with it:

• German = German (IBM) = Sorbian Standard
• Tibetan (PRC) = Tibetan (PRC) - Updated
• Luxembourgish = Swiss French
• Sorbian Extended = Sorbian Standard (Legacy)
• Norwegian = Norwegian with Sami
• Kyrgyz Cyrillic = Russian
• Danish = Greenlandic
• Thai Pattachote = Thai Pattachote (non-ShiftLock)
• Finnish = Finnish with Sami = Swedish = Swedish with Sami
• Hebrew = Hebrew (Standard)

That is why this site has one Swedish and Finnish keyboard instead of two.

The biggest and smallest layouts

Counting every character a layout can type, with Shift and AltGr, the largest are Inuktitut - Naqittaut (222), Inuktitut - Latin (215), Sinhala - Wij 9 (196), Cherokee Nation (182), Khmer (179). The smallest are Ogham (29), Old Italic (38), Futhark (42): historic alphabets with few letters.

Try any layout

Every keyboard on this site uses these same layouts, key for key. Pick a language, type with your own keyboard or tap the keys, and copy the result. The guides below go deeper into single layouts.

• Hebrew keyboard layout
• Russian keyboard layout
• How to type Korean
• Romaji chart
• Arabic harakat on the keyboard
• Dead keys explained
• How to add a keyboard language

Questions

What is the most common keyboard layout?

Among the 206 Windows layouts, QWERTY is the most common Latin family: 64 of the 103 Latin layouts start with Q W E R T Y. This counts layouts, not how many people use each one.

What is the difference between QWERTY, QWERTZ and AZERTY?

QWERTZ swaps Y and Z. AZERTY swaps A with Q and Z with W, moves M next to L and puts symbols and accented letters on the number row, so digits need Shift.

What is an ISO keyboard?

An ISO keyboard has an L-shaped Enter key and one extra key between the left Shift and Z. On 100 of the 206 Windows layouts that key types characters the backslash key does not.

Why does my keyboard type the wrong letters?

The layout set in your operating system does not match the letters printed on your keys. Switch the input layout in your settings; the guide on adding a keyboard language shows where.

Try it on the keyboard

• French keyboard
• German keyboard
• Hebrew keyboard
• Arabic keyboard
• Russian keyboard
• Korean keyboard

More guides

• Dead keys explained
• Hebrew keyboard layout
• Hebrew final letters
• Arabic harakat on the keyboard
• How to type Korean
• Romaji chart
• Russian keyboard layout
• How to add a keyboard language

Sources

• Unicode CLDR release 43, keyboards/windows

Every key and count in this guide is computed from the layout data when the site is built, so it always matches the keyboards here.