Computers & Writing Systems
| SIL HOME | SIL SOFTWARE | SUPPORT | DONATE | PRIVACY POLICY |
You are here: Input > Resources
Short URL: https://scripts.sil.org/KeymanKeyboardLinks
Known Unicode Keyman Keyboards
Note:
This page is now obsolete. It is provided for historical information. For using the Keyman program, please go to the 
Keyman site. Most of these keyboards are now available for download from the https://keyman.com/ site.
Contents
Keyman is freely available: https://keyman.com/.
SIL Unicode Keyman keyboards
Africa (SIL)
Cameroon
Other Cameroon resources include a mapping file to convert from the SIL Cameroun Branch "cam2dr" truetype font to Unicode encoding.
Pan-Africa
SIL Keyboarding Chart for Africa
This is a pan-Africa keyboarding chart. Results were compiled from data received from SIL entities in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo. Where possible, the keystroke sequences that the majority of the entities seemed to prefer was used.
These keyboards are developed for Keyman 6.0.
Eastern Congo
Other Eastern Congo resources include a mapping file to convert from the Eastern Congo Group fonts to Unicode encoding.
Ethiopia
Kenya
This keyboard was developed for use by BTL (Bible Translation & Literacy) language teams in Kenya. It was originally created for customized fonts but has been updated for Unicode.
Liberia
Vai
Other Vai resources: Two Vai Unicode fonts are available here. is based on . Windows 7 provides a Unicode font with Vai support called . TECkit mapping files for converting text to Unicode are provided here.
Mali
These keyboards are developed for work in language groups of Mali.
Clavier du Mali (Qwerty) Clavier du Mali (Qwertz)Other Mali resources include mapping files to convert from the SIL Mali standard legacy fonts to Unicode encoding and Charis SIL fonts which have been modified for use in Malian languages.
N'Ko
N'Ko Keyman keyboard — included as part of the experimental N'Ko Graphite font package.
Nubian
Uganda/Tanzania
This Unicode keyboard was developed for work in language groups of Uganda and Tanzania.
Americas (SIL)
Wayuunaiki (Colombia/Venezuela)
This keyboard was developed for keyboarding Wayuu which is spoken in Colombia and Venezuela. This keyboard is developed for Keyman 6.0 on any keyboard. Keyman 6.0 must be installed prior to attempting to install this keyboard. Guidelines for who can use Keyman can also be find at this site.
After installing Keyman, download the Wayuu keyboard and double-click on the file you downloaded. This should install the keyboard and the documentation. Read the documentation by going to .
For further help in installing Keyman keyboards, see: Keyboard Installation and Use.
 | Keyman keyboard for Wayuu Lorna A. Priest, 2004-04-16 Download "Wayuu.kmp", Keyman keyboard package, 155KB [5992 downloads] |
Asia (SIL)
Tamil
Tamil Keyman keyboard — included as part of the experimental Tamil Graphite font package.
Tai Dam
Eurasia (SIL)
SIL Yi
Europe/Middle East (SIL)
Biblical Hebrew
Greek (polytonic precomposed) Unicode
Sumero-Akkadian Cuneiform
Sumero-Akkadian Cuneiform Keyman keyboard — included as part of the experimental Sumero-Akkadian Cuneiform Graphite font package.
Other SIL Unicode Keyman keyboards
Biblical Greek/Hebrew transliteration
Hebrew and Greek Transliteration (SIL)
IPA
Modifier Apostrophe
Many languages use the Modifier Apostophe (U+02BC ) in their orthographies. With this keyboard, you type ' and U+02BC will be input in your text. This is the only rule in the keyboard.
 | Modifier apostrophe Keyman keyboard Beth Bryson, 2006-05-22 Download "ModApos_kbd.zip", ZIP archive, 1KB [3980 downloads] |
Non-SIL Unicode Keyman keyboards
The following are some Web sites that have Unicode keyboards available for download. These are listed by the language supported, organized by regions of the world. This list should not be considered complete. The Keyman website has the most extensive list of keyboards.
Note: SIL does not endorse or provide support for these. The contact address at each Web site should be used for any user support.
Africa (non-SIL)
Americas (non-SIL)
- Blackfoot http://www.languagegeek.com/algon/keyboards/bf_kbds.html
- Cree - Western Plains (Y), Northern (TH), Western Swampy (N) http://www.languagegeek.com/algon/syllabics_keyboards/cr_oj_oc_na.html
- Cree - Moose (L) http://www.languagegeek.com/algon/syllabics_keyboards/cr_oj_oc_na.html
- Cree - East James Bay Quebec (N,Y) http://www.languagegeek.com/algon/syllabics_keyboards/cr_oj_oc_na.html
- Dene - Beaver http://www.languagegeek.com/keyboard_general/all_keyboards.html
- Déné - Dakelh Carrier http://www.languagegeek.com/keyboard_general/all_keyboards.html
- Inuktitut Nunavut http://www.languagegeek.com/keyboard_general/all_keyboards.html
- Oji-Cree Northern Ojibway http://www.languagegeek.com/algon/syllabics_keyboards/cr_oj_oc_na.html
Asia (non-SIL)
- Tamil
Tamil Typewriter (freeware)
Greek (non-SIL)
- Polytonic Greek (for German keyboard driver) http://www.lukas-pietsch.de/Keyman/Keyboards.html
- Polytonic Greek (for US keyboard driver) http://www.lukas-pietsch.de/Keyman/Keyboards.html
Other (non-SIL)
- Latin-Extended (for German keyboard driver) http://www.lukas-pietsch.de/Keyman/Keyboards.html
- Latin-Extended (for US keyboard driver) http://www.lukas-pietsch.de/Keyman/Keyboards.html
- Phonetic (for German keyboard driver) http://www.lukas-pietsch.de/Keyman/Keyboards.html
- Phonetic (for US keyboard driver) http://www.lukas-pietsch.de/Keyman/Keyboards.html
- Transliteration of Semitic languages (Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, Epigraphic South Arabian) (for Swedish keyboards) http://www.lingfil.uu.se/afro/semitiska/forskarutbildning/teknikaliteter.html
Other Keyman and keyboarding resources
Keyman
Keyman is a keyboard management utility that makes it practical to input many different languages in almost any Windows application. Keyman allows you to have arbitrarily long input sequences and to have diacritics typed after the base character.
Keyboard Installation and Use
Computers were designed to work primarily with English. The problem is that many of us wish to input other languages into the computer. This is possible by switching keyboards (not the physical keyboard) on the computer.
In this overview we give details of how to use Microsoft and Keyman keyboards. Microsoft keyboards are probably preferable to use if you wish to input text in one of the languages for which they have supplied a keyboard. If you need a keyboard for some other language, or you do not like Microsoft's layout, you may want to use a keyboard manager like Keyman. Keyman allows you to create your own customized keyboard, or if you choose, you may use a Keyman keyboard someone else has created.
Instructions are given here for installing Microsoft keyboards as well as Keyman keyboards.
Keyboarding issues as related to SIL fonts – FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions about keyboarding issues as related to older SIL fonts.
Keyboard-related registry keys in Microsoft Windows
This document lists a number of registry keys and file types and locations that are used for keyboard management in Windows, and also some Keyman-specific settings.
Converting Keyman 3.2 Keyboards to Keyman 6
Getting your old Keyman 3.2 keyboards to work in Keyman5 or 6 is not difficult. There are just a few modifications needed, as discussed below. Whether you should convert your keyboards so that they can be used in Windows 2000 and higher is a question that should also be considered. It may be better to encourage users to move to new Unicode keyboards, rather than continue producing texts which must be converted. But there are legitimate reasons for using legacy fonts and keyboards, so this is how you get the keyboards to work.
Building Keyboards with Keyman 6.0
We will be creating a keyboard which will allow us to type IPA text. Our goal will be to learn how to develop a Keyman keyboard, not to create a complete keyboard.
Legacy Fonts and Keyboards
The fonts and keyboards on this page are considered "legacy" solutions. As such, they are made available for use and downloading, although Unicode solutions are encouraged.
An introduction to keyboard layout design theory: What goes where?
Designing a keyboard layout is relatively easy: you just allocate codepoints to keystrokes. The difficulty comes when trying to decide what codepoints to assign to what keystrokes. Do you design based around the characters on the keytops of a user's keyboard or the relative position of the keys? What do you do if you want to be able to type more characters than there are keys in your keyboard?
Presentations and working papers in the area of input
This page contains various papers on input related issues which have been presented at conferences.
Changelog
2012-08-15 LP: updated many links
2011-05-28 LP: updated GrkPoly keyboard
2009-10-30 LP: added Vai keyboard
2009-02-09 LP: added UTB keyboards
2008-11-10 LP: updated Mali keyboards
2008-10-2 LP: added Mali keyboards
2008-02-29 JW: added biblical greek/heb transliteration kbd
2007-03-19 - added link for transliteration of Semitic languages
2006-05-25 LP: added ethiopic links
2005-01-25 LP: added Tamil link
2004-05-03 LP: changed Hebrew Unicode link
2004-04-14 LP: added link for Yi
2004-04-14 LP: Revised IPA link
2003-10-31 VG: Revised SIL Greek keyboard link
© 2003-2024 SIL International, all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted elsewhere on this page.
Provided by SIL's Writing Systems Technology team (formerly known as NRSI). Read our Privacy Policy. Contact us here.