The Arabic (101) layout
The picture shows Windows’ Arabic (101) layout on a US-shaped (ANSI) board, the most common Arabic keyboard. The 28 letters and their extra forms fill the letter keys and the punctuation keys around them: ذ on the key left of 1, ج and د where US boards have [ and ], ك and ط on ; and ’, و ز ظ on the bottom row’s right. Arabic keycaps print the Latin letter too, so the picture draws it small at the top right of each key.
Shift adds the harakat, lam-alef forms, hamza forms (أ إ آ) and punctuation. Standing alone, a haraka is drawn on a tatweel (ـَ), as keycaps print it. The table under this text lists every key that differs from a US keyboard.
Right-to-left typing and the tester
Arabic is written right to left, but keys are keys: the tester goes by each key’s position, so a press lights up the same key whether the computer is set to Arabic or English. That makes it easy to separate a hardware fault (the key never lights up) from a layout problem (it lights up but types the wrong letter). The picture keeps the Arabic legends either way; in Chrome and Edge the line under it says when the computer is set to another layout, such as English.
Switching to Arabic
- Windows: Settings, Time & language, Language & region, Add a language, Arabic; the keyboard is Arabic (101). Switch with Win+Space or left Alt+Shift.
- macOS: System Settings, Keyboard, Text Input, Edit, +, Arabic. “Arabic – PC” matches Windows keyboards.
- Linux (GNOME): Settings, Keyboard, Input Sources, +, Arabic.
The Arabic keys at a glance
These keys differ from a US keyboard. The browser code is the name the key sends in the event log, taken from the US key in the same place. AltGr is the right Alt key; on Windows, Ctrl+Alt does the same.
| Key | Shift | AltGr | Browser code | US keyboard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ذ | ـّ | Backquote | ` | |
| 9 | ) | Digit9 | 9 | |
| 0 | ( | Digit0 | 0 | |
| ض | ـَ | KeyQ | Q | |
| ص | ـً | KeyW | W | |
| ث | ـُ | KeyE | E | |
| ق | ـٌ | KeyR | R | |
| ف | لإ | KeyT | T | |
| غ | إ | KeyY | Y | |
| ع | ‘ | KeyU | U | |
| ه | ÷ | KeyI | I | |
| خ | × | KeyO | O | |
| ح | ؛ | KeyP | P | |
| ج | < | BracketLeft | [ | |
| د | > | BracketRight | ] | |
| ش | ـِ | KeyA | A | |
| س | ـٍ | KeyS | S | |
| ي | ] | KeyD | D | |
| ب | [ | KeyF | F | |
| ل | لأ | KeyG | G | |
| ا | أ | KeyH | H | |
| ت | ـ | KeyJ | J | |
| ن | ، | KeyK | K | |
| م | / | KeyL | L | |
| ك | : | Semicolon | ; | |
| ط | " | Quote | ' | |
| ئ | ~ | KeyZ | Z | |
| ء | ـْ | KeyX | X | |
| ؤ | } | KeyC | C | |
| ر | { | KeyV | V | |
| لا | لآ | KeyB | B | |
| ى | آ | KeyN | N | |
| ة | ’ | KeyM | M | |
| و | , | Comma | , | |
| ز | . | Period | . | |
| ظ | ؟ | Slash | / |