Different Types of Keyboard Layouts

The way people use keyboards differs greatly, and each country has its own layout. The layouts have not only different characters but also different key arrangements.

If you are new to typing in a foreign language, you may not know which layout to use. This article will introduce the different types of keyboard layouts and help you decide which is best for you.

What are the Different Types of Keyboard Layouts?

The main 3 types of keyboard layouts are discussed in this section. Read them carefully.

Qwerty

Qwerty is the word used to describe the standard English keyboard layout. It was designed in 1873 by Christopher Sholes and was used widely around the early 1900s. The Qwerty keyboard layout is every letter in upper case followed by every number that starts with a number and then random letters that are all spread out.

This layout has been proven to be the most difficult for typing because your fingers will hit different combinations before hitting the next key you want. Your brain will then have to process the next key and correct the mistake.

The problem with the Qwerty keyboard layout is it has extra keys that are not used in most languages.

For example, since the English language uses more letters than any of those other languages, you need to press many extra keys to get each letter.

The main reason why the Qwerty keyboard is still used today is that it was widely used before, computers were first introduced and people have grown accustomed to using it. Most people have never seen another keyboard layout.

Dvorak

In computing, a Dvorak keyboard layout is a proxy of the standard Qwerty keyboard layout used on traditional typewriter keyboards. Others may also know it as “Dvorak Simplified,” “Dvorak Simplified with Spacing,” or “QWERTY-DH.”

The Dvorak design was developed by August Dvorak in the 1930s and has changed somewhat since then. The layout has letters arranged in a different order, which makes it not difficult to type.

The Dvorak keyboard is similar to the Qwerty keyboard but with greater spacing between the keys. In Dvorak, all of the numbers are at the bottom of the keyboard and all of the letters are at the top of the keyboard. Since it does not use any modifier keys, people that primarily use upper case letters can forget about using them for number input.

To type a number on the Dvorak keyboard, you need to press the numbers at the bottom of your keyboard. On most keyboards, there is a Num-Lock key that when on will either make the numbers work just like the top row of letters or will make all of the keys work like the numbers. The downside to using Dvorak is that since it was designed for English speakers it does not have any symbols for other languages.

Colemak

The Colemak keyboard layout is a proxy of the Qwerty layout. It was designed by Shai Coleman in 2006, and he claims it allows for easier typing of English words in comparison to the QWERTY layout. The Colemak keyboard was designed based on the frequency of letter use in English and is intended to be easier on the fingers.

Colemak has a lower thumb displacement than the standard Qwerty keyboard. In Colemak, the letters Q, W, E, and R are on the home row just as they would be in Qwerty. There is a modifier key that can be used to type any of the numbers or symbols.

Is a Laptop Keyboard Specific to a Given Country or Region?

Almost all laptops are shipped with a keyboard layout, but the “standard” is not the same as desktop computers.

1. US English layout: These are the most commonly used in the United States and Canada. Mostly used in portable devices.

2. International English layout: This layout is similar to US English, with the addition of a common “comma” key.

3. UK layout: The UK keyboard layout came into being when the UK switched over to using standard keyboards in place of the multiplexor keyboards that had been previously used. It is a standard keyboard layout that has been designed for use with keyboards originally designed for use in the UK.

4. Arabic: Arabic keyboard layout is specifically designed for typing in the Arabic language and is used in Arabic-speaking countries like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Iraq, and Kuwait. Also, Egypt, Oman, Yemen, and others.

5. Armenian: The Armenian keyboard is used in countries where the Armenian language is spoken and is often referred to as “Armenian QWERTY” or “ANSI “. It is used to type both Latin and Cyrillic characters.

6. Azeri: Azeri keyboard layout is based on the AZERTY layout and was designed for people whose native language for Azeri and was published in 1998 by the Iranian Azerty Keyboard Layout Committee.

7. Belgian: Belgian layout is based on the French AZERTY keyboard. It was designed to meet the needs of people in Belgium, and it so happens to be the same as the French AZERTY layout.

8. Bengali: The Bengali keyboard layout is used in India and Bangladesh. It’s based on the Dutch AZERTY layout.

9. Bosnian: The Bosnian keyboard layout was created around 1996 by the Association of Bosnian Engineers in the said region. It is a standard international English-allowed Serbian language version of AZERTY.

10. Bulgarian: The Bulgarian keyboard layout was designed for people who have to type the Bulgarian language, which is one of the Cyrillic-based alphabets.

11. Burmese: The Burmese keyboard is a version of QWERTY designed for people who have to type in the Burmese language. It is different from the default layout, but it is also not a standard layout.

12. Chinese: The Chinese language is based on the ideographic system, which means pinyin is used rather than using Latin letters. This means that there are a lot of key combinations that are not found on a standard QWERTY keyboard.

13. Cherokee: The Cherokee language is spoken by the members of the Cherokee Nation, and it uses a modified version of the Latin alphabet. It is called the Cherokee QWERTY keyboard.

14. Colemak: The Colemak keyboard layout is a proxy of the Qwerty layout. The Colemak keyboard was designed based on the frequency of letter use in English and is intended to be easier on the fingers.

15. Croatian: The Croatian keyboard is based on the US English AZERTY layout. It is used in Croatia by people who need to type in the Croatian language.

16. Czech: The Czech keyboard is also referred to as QWERTZ and is used by more than 10 million Czechs. Mainly designed for use with Microsoft Windows, but it also works with macOS and Linux. The standard QWERTY layout does not work well for typing in Czech and other languages that do not use the Roman alphabet, so a new layout was created for this purpose.

17. Danish: The Danish keyboard is an alternative to the Danish AZERTY layout. It’s designed to be more suitable for typing in Danish and is based on the US English keyboard.

18. Dvorak: The Dvorak keyboard layout was designed for people to type as compared to Qwerty and it required less finger movement. This layout is still commonly used today despite there being other alternative layouts like Colemak and Workman.

19. Dutch: The Dutch keyboard layout is based on the AZERTY layout and was designed for people whose native language is Dutch and was published in 1997 by the Dutch AZERTY Keyboard Layout Committee.

20. Estonian: The Estonian keyboard layout was designed for people who have to type in the Estonian language, which is one of the Cyrillic-based alphabets.

21. French: The French AZERTY keyboard was designed for people whose native language is French and is widely used in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Slovenia, and Suriname.

22. Finnish: The Finnish keyboard layout was designed for people who have to type in the Finnish language, which is one of the Cyrillic-based alphabets.

23. German: The German keyboard layout was designed for people in Germany and used by those whose native language is German.

24. Greek: The Greek Keyboard Layout is based on the Greek AZERTY layout and was designed for people whose native language is Greek.

25. Georgian: The Georgian keyboard layout is based on the QWERTY keyboard, which means it uses the same keys for different letters or symbols. It was developed in about 1990 by the Scientific Center of Georgia in Tbilisi.

26. Hebrew: The Hebrew Keyboard Layout is very similar to the AZERTY. It uses the same keys as AZERTY to type Latin characters and Hebrew characters using their respective alphabets. However, there are some differences between Hebrew and English, which means that this keyboard layout is not ideal for typing in both languages.

27. Hindi: The Hindi keyboard layout is based on the US English AZERTY layout. It is used in India and is designed to be used with the Hindi language.

28. Hungarian: Hungarian keyboard layout has been designed for people who have to type in the Hungarian language. This is one of the Latin alphabet-based languages so it uses a QWERTY layout, but there are some differences between it and the standard QWERTY layout.

29. Icelandic: The Icelandic keyboard layout is a variant of the AZERTY layout. It was primarily designed for Icelandic people who use Windows and macOS.

30. Indonesian: The Indonesian keyboard layout was designed by ISTE in Indonesia. It uses similar keys as the US English AZERTY or the US QWERTY layouts but has some differences from these basic layouts. However, it is not compatible with both Windows and macOS systems.

31. Italian: The Italian keyboard layout is based on the AZERTY layout and was designed for people whose native language is Italian and who are living in Italy.

32. Japanese: The Japanese keyboard layout was designed for people who have to type in the Japanese language, which is one of the two character-based alphabets. It uses different keys from the standard QWERTY layout, but it uses a similar number system and contains most of the letters found on a QWERTY keyboard.

33. Kannada: The Kannada keyboard layout is also referred to as the Karnataka keyboard layout. It was designed for use with Microsoft Windows and macOS and it uses similar keys to the US English QWERTY keyboard.

34. Kazakh: The Kazakh keyboard is a proxy of the standard QWERTY layout. It contains an extra row of letters on top of the grid, but it uses a similar number system and contains most of the letters found on a QWERTY keyboard.

35. Khmer: The Khmer keyboard layout is designed for people whose native language is Khmer and who are living in Cambodia. It is a modified version of the standard QWERTY layout and has been designed to be used on both Windows and macOS computers, but it does not work well with either system.

36. Korean: The Korean keyboard layout was designed for people who have to type in the Korean language, which uses a phonetic alphabet called Hangul.

37. Latvian: The Latvian keyboard layout is also referred to as QWERTY-LV. It is used in Latvia, which is a country in the Baltic region that borders the Baltic Sea and shares its border with Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, and Russia.

38. Malayalam: The Malayalam keyboard layout is designed for people whose native language is Malayalam and who are living in India.

39. Maltese: The Maltese keyboard layout is designed for people whose native language is Maltese and who are living in Malta.

40. Norwegian: The Norwegian keyboard layout was designed for Norwegians who have to type in the Norwegian language, which is one of the Latin alphabet-based languages.

41. Nepali: The Nepali keyboard layout is designed for people whose native language is Nepali and who are living in Nepal.

42. Polish: The Polish keyboard layout was designed for people from Poland and it uses the same keys as the standard QWERTY keyboard. However, it does not work well with both Windows and macOS systems. Instead, the US English QWERTY layout works with both systems.

43. Punjabi: The Punjabi keyboard layout is based on the US English QWERTY layout and was designed for people whose native language is Punjabi and who are living in India.

44. Pashto: The Pashto keyboard layout is designed for people whose native language is Pashto and who are living in Afghanistan.

45. Portuguese: The Portuguese keyboard layout was designed for people whose native language is Portuguese and who are living in Portugal.

46. Romanian: The Romanian keyboard layout is based on the AZERTY layout and was designed for people whose native language is Romanian.

47. Russian: The Russian keyboard layout is a variant of the standard QWERTY layout and has been designed for people whose native language is Russian.

48. Serbian: The Serbian keyboard layout is based on the US English QWERTY layout, which was designed for people whose native language is Serbian and who are living in Serbia.

49. Slovak: The Slovak keyboard layout is based on the QWERTY layout and was designed for people whose native language is Slovak.

50. Spanish: The Spanish keyboard layout has been designed for people whose native language is Spanish and who are living in Spain. It uses a different number system and contains most of the letters found on a QWERTY keyboard, but it does not work well with both Windows and macOS.

51. Swedish: The Swedish keyboard layout was designed for people whose native language is Swedish and who are living in Sweden.

52. Turkish: The Turkish keyboard layout was designed for people whose native language is Turkish and who are living in Turkey. It uses the same number system as the standard QWERTY layout but has some differences between it and the standard QWERTY layout, making it a poor choice for both Windows and macOS operating systems.

53. Tamil: It can be found in the Windows Keyboard setting. It’s used in Tamil Nadu and Sri-Lanka.

54. Thai (Kedmanee): The Thai (Kedmanee) keyboard layout is based on the US English QWERTY layout and was designed for people whose native language is Thai (Kedmanee) and who are living in Thailand.

55. Ukrainian: The Ukrainian keyboard layout is based on the US-English QWERTY keyboard layout.

56. Urdu: The Urdu keyboard layout is based on the US-English QWERTY keyboard layout.

57. Uzbek: The Uzbek keyboard layout was designed for people whose native language is Uzbek.

58. Vietnamese: The Vietnamese keyboard layout is based on the AZERTY layout and was designed for people whose native language is Vietnamese and who are living in Vietnam.

59. Welsh: The Welsh keyboard layout was designed for people whose native language is Welsh and who are living in Wales.

60. Zulu: The Zulu keyboard layout was designed for people whose native language is Zulu and who are living in South Africa.

Final Words

When it comes to keyboards, the layout is important because it affects how easily fingers can access certain letters. If your hand has a physical limitation but you want to learn a new language, then learning about the different types of keyboard layouts can be beneficial for your comfort and learning process.

Nazmul

I am a regular user of computer keyboards. For using keyboard face different kinds of problems and also solve it very easily. I love sharing knowledge about keyboards.