Italian Keyboard Tester

What’s different on an Italian keyboard

Italian keyboards are ISO: a tall Enter key and an extra key next to left Shift (< and >). The letters are in the same place as on a US keyboard, so the differences are in the punctuation and the accented vowels: è and + next to P, ò, à and ù on the right of the home row, ì on the key left of Backspace. The key left of 1 types \ and |, and ’ and ? sit on the key right of 0.

The layout has no dead keys: each accented letter has its own key, and Shift types a second accent or symbol (é, ç, °, §). Many programming characters live on AltGr instead: @ on ò, # on à, [ and ] on è and +, € on E and 5. The table under this text lists every key that differs from a US keyboard, with its AltGr character.

Switching to Italian

• Windows: Settings, Time & language, Language & region, Add a language, Italian, or add the Italian keyboard to your current language. Switch with Win+Space.
• macOS: System Settings, Keyboard, Text Input, Edit, +, Italian. macOS has its own Italian layouts, which place some symbols differently from this Windows layout.
• Linux (GNOME): Settings, Keyboard, Input Sources, +, Italian.

Testing it

Press every key; it lights up under its Italian legend. If ò types ; or the @ doesn’t appear with AltGr+ò, the key works but the computer is set to another layout: in Chrome and Edge the line under the picture says so, and the key column of the event log shows what each key really types. Keys that stay grey are hardware faults, and AltGr must light up the right Alt key in the picture, or no AltGr character will work.

The Italian 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.