This is a custom keyboard layout which lets you enter text in a number of Latin alphabet-based languages, not just English.
The layout also includes a number of miscellaneous characters (punctuation, math, box-drawing, etc).
The layout is designed for the US English keyboard and can be used with other very similar keyboards (e.g. the Russian keyboard includes all the same characters on the same key caps as the US English keyboard).
The multitude of different characters is entered by means of so-called
dead keys. They work like this... For à you first enter the grave accent
(by pressing the back tick / grave accent key) and then a. Likewise, for ã
you first enter ~ (shift + back tick / grave accent) and then a. For â you
enter ^ (shift + 6) and then a. For á you press AltGr/Right Alt + a.
What you enter before 'a' in these examples are dead keys. They don't
produce characters of their own if not followed by additional key presses,
hence they're dead.
Even though there are many dead keys in the layout (13 in total), most of them don't get in the way of typing text in English or software source code (whose keywords are often English-based). The remaining nine dead keys (besides the four just mentioned in the above paragraph) are all combinations of AltGr (or Right Alt) and another key. These combinations are mostly intuitive. For example, for ā you first enter AltGr+- and then a. For å you first enter AltGr+. and then a. Likewise, for ä you begin with entering AltGr+;. To get ç you first enter AltGr+, and then c.
Here's the complete list of the dead keys and their typical behavior:
- back tick / grave accent: adds a grave accent, e.g. à, è
- ~: adds a tilde, e.g. ã, ñ
- ^: adds a circumflex, e.g. â, ŷ, ŵ
- AltGr: adds an acute accent, e.g. á, ć, ń, ś, ź
- AltGr+-: adds a macron, e.g. ā, ī
- AltGr+p: adds a breve, e.g. ă, ğ
- AltGr+j: adds an ogonek or comma, e.g. ą, ę, ș, ț
- AltGr+k: adds a caron, e.g. ǎ, č, ď, ě, ľ, ň, ř, ť, ž
- AltGr+;: adds a diaeresis/umlaut, e.g. ä, ü, ÿ
- AltGr+': adds a stroke (in loose sense), e.g. ¢, đ, €, ł, ø, ₽, ŧ, ¥
- AltGr+m: uncategorized/miscellaneous, e.g. æ, ©, ð, ı, ij, ĸ, µ, ŋ, œ, π, ®, ß, þ, Ω
- AltGr+,: adds a cedilla or double acute accent, e.g. ç, ķ, ş, ţ, ő, ű
- AltGr+.: adds a dot or ring above: ė, ġ, ż, å, ů
Here's an ASCII-art visualization:
+------+ +------+------+------+------+ +------+------+------+------+ +------+------+------+------+ +------+------+------+
|Esc | |F1 |F2 |F3 |F4 | |F5 |F6 |F7 |F8 | |F9 |F10 |F11 |F12 | |PrtScr|Scroll|Pause/|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |/SysRq|Lock |Break |
+------+ +------+------+------+------+ +------+------+------+------+ +------+------+------+------+ +------+------+------+
+======+------+------+------+------+------+======+------+------+------+------+======+------+--------+ +------+------+------+ +------+------+------+------+
|~ DEAD|! |@ |# |$ |% |^ DEAD|& |* |( |) |_ |+ |Back- | |Insert|Home |PgUp | |Num |/ |* |- |
|` DEAD|1 |2 |3 |4 |5 |6 |7 |8 |9 |0 |- |= |space | | | | | |Lock | | | |
+======+------+------+------+------+------+======+------+------+------+------+======+------+--------+ +------+------+------+ +------+------+------+------+
`´ ~?? ¹¼¬ºª└╚²½☺ √┴╩³¾◊■ⁿ№┘╝???├╠ ???┼╬ ??^┤╣ ???┌╔ ו∞☼∏┬╦???┐╗ ??°? –— ??? ?≈∑≡±
? ╘╙ ╧╨ ╛╜ ╞╟ ╪╫ ╡╢ ╒╓ ╤╥ ╕╖ ♂♀ ♠♣ ♥♦
???? ???? ???? ¢?¥₪¤₽€£ ???? ???? ???? ???? ???♪♫ ???? ???∅ ???± ???≠
??? ??? ?↓▼? ??? ?←◄? ▌▐↔↕‰ ?→►? ??? ?↑▲? ??? ??? ??? ⌠⎮│║⌡∫
ñ ¡ ? ¶§ ? ▀▄ ? ? ░▓ ▒█ DEAD— ─═
+--------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+======+------+------+------+ +------+------+------+ +------+------+------+------+
|Tab |Q |W |E |R |T |Y |U |I |O |P |{ |} || | |Delete|End |PgDn | |7 |8 ^ |9 |+ |
| |q |w |e |r |t |y |u |i |o |p |[ |] |\ | | | | | |Home | | |PgUp | |
+--------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+======+------+------+------+ +------+------+------+ +------+------+------+ |
???? ẁ?ŵ? è?êē ???? ???? ỳ?ŷ? ùũûū ìĩîī òõôō ???? “‘ ??? ”’ ??? ????
? ? ĕ ? ? ? ŭ ĭ ŏ ? ? ? ?
???? ??ẅ? ęěë€ ?ř?? țť™ŧ ??ÿ¥ ų?ü? į?ï? ??öø ???₽ ???? ???? ??¦ †‡
??? Ω?? ??ė ®ŗ? þţṫ ??? ?űů ı?? œő? πΠ?ṗ ??? ??? ???
? ẃ é ŕ ? ý ú í ó DEAD ? ? ?
+----------+------+------+------+------+------+------+======+======+------+======+======+-----------+ +------+------+------+ |
|Caps Lock |A |S |D |F |G |H |J |K |L |: |" |Enter | |4 |5 |6 |+ |
| |a |s |d |f |g |h |j |k |l |; |' | | | <-- | | --> | |
+----------+------+------+------+------+------+------+======+======+------+======+======+-----------+ +------+------+------+------+
àãâā ??ŝ? ???? ???? ??ĝ? ??ĥ? ??ĵ? ???? ???£ ???? „‚ ???
ă ? ? ? ğ ? ? ? ? ? ?
ąǎä? șš?ſ ?ď?đ ???? ???? ???ħ ???? ???? ?ľ?ł ???? ????
æ?å ßşṡ ð?ḋ ƒ?ḟ ?ģġ ??? ij?? ĸķ? ?ļ? ??… ???
á ś ∂∆ ? ? ? DEAD DEAD ĺ DEAD DEAD´˝
+-------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+======+======+======+------+--------------+ +------+ +------+------+------+------+
|Shift | |Z |X |C |V |B |N |M |< |> |? |Shift | | ^ | |1 |2 | |3 |Enter |
| | |z |x |c |v |b |n |m |, |. |/ | | | | | |End | v |PgDn | |
+-------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+======+======+======+------+--------------+ +------+ +------+------+------+ |
???? ???? ??ĉ? ???? ???? ?ñ?? ???? «‹ ??≤ »› ??≥ ÷???
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
?ž?? ???? ?č?¢ ???? ???? ?ň?? ???? ???? ??…? ????
??ż ??? ©çċ ??? ??ḃ ŋņ? µ?ṁ ??? ??· ???
ź ? ć ? ? ń DEADµ DEAD DEAD· ¿
+-------+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------+=======+-------+-------+-------+ +------+------+------+ +------+------+------+ |
|Ctrl |Win/GUI|Alt |Space |Alt(Gr)|Win/GUI|App/ |Ctrl | | | | | | |0 |. |Enter |
| | | | | | |Menu | | | <-- | v | --> | |Ins |Del | |
+-------+-------+-------+-------------------------------------------+=======+-------+-------+-------+ +------+------+------+ +------+------+------+------+
`~^¯
˘
˛ˇ¨/
*¸˙
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From the included USLatin.klc file you can make an installable keyboard layout for Windows using Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator 1.4. If you do this yourself, you may need to go to Windows Features and turn on .NET Framework 3.5 before the layout creator can run.
Alternatively, prebuilt installation files for Microsoft Windows may be
available under releases.