Virtual Curiosities

Keyboard Layout

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What is a Keyboard Layout?

A keyboard layout is the way how keys are placed on the keyboard of a computer. For example, in a QWERTY keyboard, we see the keys Q, W, E, R, T, Y in this order in the top-left corner of the alphanumeric region. In an AZERTY keyboard, it's not QW but AZ that are placed in the top-left corner.

Different languages have different keyboard layouts, and even the same language may have different layouts used in different regions.

Images

Diagram showing the ANSI keyboard layout compared to the ISO keyboard layout. ISO has a shorter shift and a red key next to it, and a taller Return key.
A comparison between ANSI and ISO keyboard layouts. Different keys in red. Diagram by Brilliantwiki2 on Wikimedia Commons (license: CC BY-SA 4.0)
A yellow keyboard with ANSI layout.
A keyboard featuring the ANSI keyboard layout. Photo by Thomas Vogt on Flickr (license: CC BY 2.0).
A black keyboard with English and Cyrillic letters on its keys.
A Cyrillic keyboard featuring the ISO keyboard layout. Photo by Thomas Vogt on Flickr (license: CC BY 2.0).
A white IBM keyboard.
A Brazilian Portuguese keyboard featuring the ABNT2 layout. Photo by Rsjsouza on Wikimedia. License: CC BY-SA 3.0.
Written by Noel Santos.

About the Author

I'm a self-taught Brazilian programmer graduated in IT from a FATEC. In a world of increasingly complex and essential computers, I decided to use my technical expertise in hardware, desktop applications, and web technologies to create an informative resource to make PC's easier to understand.

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