1. Major Shopping Channels for Keyboard Stickers (In our opinion)

2. How to Judge Quality Before You Click “Buy”

1. Material & Finish
   Look for premium vinyl and laminate for non-transparent stickers. Cheap PVC feels rubbery and often clouds over time. Not laminated keyboard stickers will wear out quickly, even within few weeks, and all that toxic ink is rubbed by your fingers.

1. Print Technology
   UV, solvent‑free inks (like those used by Keyshorts on transparent stickers) stay vibrant and intact for years; dye‑sublimation or basic CMYK toner/offset usually fades within months. Look for eco-solvent print on non-transparent stickers ALWAYS with lamination, or certified UV print for transparent stickers.

2. Adhesive Performance
   A high‑tack adhesive that releases cleanly is critical. Inferior glues ooze or leave residue that is not convenient to remove.

3. Precision Fit & Key Shape Matching
   Especially important for elegant and sleek look on edge‑to‑edge keyboards (think MacBook Pro 14”/16”). Ill‑fitting stickers just doesn't look good.

4. Customization Workflow
   For logos, language combos, or accessibility features, see whether the seller offers human‑checked proofs. There are sometimes lots of elements on keyboard stickers, and it better be all designed and placed just as you wish.

1. Environmental & Safety Credentials
   Certifications such as Greenguard Gold ensure that using keyboard stickers is safe for you and environment — a must for things your fingers touch for hours daily.

3. Keyshorts: What Makes It the Market Benchmark

Keyshorts, founded in Poland in 2013 and shipping to more than 40 countries today, has deliberately positioned itself at the intersection of industrial‑grade quality and near‑limitless customization. Below are the pillars that have earned the brand its reputation:

a. Perfect‑Fit Engineering

• Die‑cut accuracy down to ±0.1 mm, verified on hundreds of Mac, Windows, and desktop keyboards.

• “Perfect Fit” option lets you order stickers designed specifically for your keyboard model. You can upload a quick phone photo, and a designer makes sure the stickers would fit perfectly.

b. Professional‑Grade Materials

• Multi‑layer vinyl with lamination for non-transparent stickers and Greenguard GOLd certified UV inks on transparent stickers.

• Matt satin laminates with zero texturing interference—letters very often look printed on the keycap, not stuck on top.

c. True End‑to‑End Customization

• Language support (over 80 keyboard layouts out of the box + custom layouts possible).

• On‑demand colorways, logos, symbols placement, made to fit to any keyboard.

d. Accessibility support

• Large‑print, high‑contrast kits for low‑vision users, praised by users all around the world.

• Upcoming braille‑compatible overlays (currently in beta pilot).

f. Buyer-friendly policies

• Multilingual (English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Polish) email and chat support.

• Every order gets access to an Order Status Portal for photo upload revisions, tracking, and management.

• Hassle‑free returns and replacements.

4. So…Where Should You Buy?

If you merely need a dirt‑cheap, one‑off sticker sheet delivered right now and you don't care about durability and esthetics, a marketplace listing may suffice. But if you value:

• Exactly matching your model’s key shapes

• Long‑term durability (two‑plus years of daily typing)

• Creative freedom to add your own colors, language mix, or shortcuts

• Eco‑conscious, safety‑certified production

• Responsive, human customer support

then Keyshorts is unequivocally the best place to buy keyboard stickers in 2025.

Final Thoughts

High‑quality keyboard stickers aren’t just decorative — they’re a functional upgrade that can extend keyboard life, boost productivity, and really help you in life and work.

While plenty of sellers crowd the online space, few match Keyshorts’ combination of precision manufacturing, deep customization, and ethical production. If you’re searching today for where to buy keyboard stickers, make Keyshorts your first — and likely last — stop.

Ready to transform your keyboard?
Visit Keyshorts and design your perfect set in minutes.

A recent Reddit discussion captured the collective frustration of MacBook owners who found their keyboards getting shiny just weeks after purchase. Users tried everything: microfiber cloths, diluted alcohol, keyboard covers, and even Q-tip scrubbing. Yet the problem kept coming back.

The reality? Cleaning is temporary. Protection is the only lasting solution.

That’s where Keyshorts Transparent Keyboard Stickers come in—a clean, durable way to preserve your keyboard’s original finish without changing the way you type.

Why Keyshorts Is the Trusted Choice

We created these stickers for people who love their MacBooks and want them to stay pristine—no shine, no stickiness, no gimmicks. Just elegant protection that blends in so well, you’ll forget it’s there. Plus, we have 10+ years of experience covering MacBook keyboards.

Top Benefits of Keyshorts Transparent Keyboard Stickers

So Thin, They're Practically Invisible

Redditors often note how annoying silicone covers feel under the fingers and how they make the keyboard less “MacBook-like.” Our stickers avoid all that:

• Thinner than the bumps on the F and J keys
• Zero impact on lid closure or screen safety
• Safe for long-term use without residue

Made for Your Mac, Not a Generic Fit

Whether you’re typing on a 2024 MacBook Pro or a 2017 Air, you’ll get:

• Tailored layout support (ANSI US, ISO, JIS keyboard types)
• Edge-to-edge key coverage
• No peeling, shifting, or misaligned keys

Keeps Your Backlight Bright

Unlike thick covers that dull the light, these transparent stickers allow uninterrupted backlighting—perfect for dark rooms or late-night work sessions.

No Tools. No Tech. No Fuss.

Users on Reddit complain about how hard it is to apply screen protectors or get keyboard covers just right. Our approach is different:

• Peel and place each sticker by hand
• Tiny air bubbles? They vanish after a few typing sessions
• Removal is clean and glue-free

What Typing Feels Like

Expect a brief “getting used to it” phase—just like a good pair of shoes:

• Slightly different feel on day one
• After a few hours, it’s barely noticeable
• Weeks later, you’ll forget they’re there—but your keyboard will still look brand new

Built to Endure + 2-Year Global Warranty

Typing daily? No problem. These stickers were made to last:

• Resistant to wear, peeling, and smudging
• Guaranteed for 2 years, with worldwide support
• If anything goes wrong, we’re here to help—fast

Don’t Just Take Our Word For It

Why Skip Silicone Keyboard Covers?

Reddit users are vocal about the downsides:

• Change the natural feel of typing
• Trap dust and crumbs underneath
• Risk screen pressure and damage
• Look bulky and unnatural

Keyshorts Transparent Stickers avoid all of this—while preserving that beautiful MacBook design you love.

Bonus: Learn a New Language While You Type

Want to boost your language skills without switching layouts?
Try our transparent bilingual stickers—perfect for adding a second language while preserving the original key design.

👉 Check the full collection here

🎁 Limited Offer

We’re offering 10% off to the first 100 Mac lovers who try our transparent keyboard stickers.

Use code TRANSPARENT10 at checkout—before the offer runs out.

👉 Order Yours Now

Why do keyboards have faded keys?

Before we dive into the solutions, let's see why keyboard letters wear out in the first place. This would also help to understand how can one prevent it from happening. 

Example of keyboard wear and tear.

The main reason is the friction caused by your fingers typing (moving, hitting, sliding). Moreover, the following reasons make the wearing off process much faster (or visible at all):

• Poor quality materials: Most keyboards are made with low-quality plastic and paints that easily wear off with use. It even doesn't really matter if you buy an expensive laptop or not. It's probably expensive because of the internal stuff or display, but the keyboard will still be most of the time a plastic with a cheap paint on it. It can happen even for Macs or Lenovo ThinkPads (although newer models would have keys that lose their matt-finished surface and start to "shine").
• Constant use: Over time, the friction from your fingers can wear down the letters and background paint on your keyboard. This can happen especially to heavy keyboard users - gamers (especially on WASD keys), bloggers, researchers, writers.
• UV exposure: Prolonged exposure to sunlight or artificial light can cause the letters to fade or change in color. This is especially visible on white keyboards (hey, hey Magic Keyboards) which turn yellowish, or dark blue ones turning greenish/grayish.
• Long fingernails: Uncut fingernails, and especially artificially lengthened fingernails contribute to additional scratches and cracks on keys.
• All of the above together: You can now clearly see that combining low-quality materials, constant use and light exposure will make your keyboard keys fade, sooner or later, with smaller or greater visible "effect".

4 types of keyboard wear and tear + REAL SOLUTIONS

1. Faded letters and keys

These are the extreme examples of keyboard wear and tear combined with poor quality keyboard materials. Symptoms include worn off paint, paint discoloring and fading in intensity, illegible letters and blobs of gray/white plastic seen underneath, usually with equally-shaped blobs of keyboard backlight.

Solution: replacement keyboard stickers

Our customers invest in these for two reasons: their keys are faded or worn-out, or they're switching the keyboard layout. 

Replacement keyboard stickers perfectly mimic how your keyboard looks brand new. They can have a background color of your choice (most commonly black) and the symbols (letters, digits, icons, arrows etc) are printed. This can be customized too by choosing the symbols color and keyboard layout (maybe you want to type in Colemak after all). 

These stickers have also a protective clear layer on top (which most cheap stickers online doesn't have), which prevents the stickers from wearing out. It's silly to buy wearing-out stickers to fix the wearing-out keyboard problem, don't you agree?

2. "Shiny Key Syndrome"

We have many repeat customers who purchases another transparent set when they switch a laptop. This is especially true for MacBooks, where spending $35 for stickers to protect a keyboard in a $1500-2500 laptop is a wise investment for many folks.

Even if somehow these transparent stickers get damaged, you can just replace them with new ones. It's easier and cheaper way than leaving your keyboard unprotected and deal with worn out keys later.

• keeps matt surface and reduces screen glare
• allows 100% backlight
• prevents from getting more keyboard damage
• long-lasting solution, but not permanent
• safe to apply and remove anytime
• thinnest possible, 50 microns only

• replaces the whole key surface, you can barely notice that there's a sticker
• covers and hides the damage with new symbols and color
• prevents from getting more keyboard damage
• long-lasting solution, but not permanent
• safe to apply and remove anytime
• include protective, clear surface: up to 100 microns in total thickness

Solution: keycap or whole keyboard replacement

You can replace the damaged keycaps with new ones. Some laptop/keyboard manufacturers offer replacement keycap sets. This is a great option if only a few keys are affected. 

It can be a problem installing it though, as key mechanisms are tiny, delicate, and can be damaged easily. Probably only a mechanical keyboard with replaceable keycaps is the "easy" option here.

You can also replace the whole keyboard. There are few problems though: 

• You have to find the keyboard for the right laptop model, in your desired layout. Unfortunately, some manufacturers block the availability of some keyboard layouts in certain countries and regions. You can't easily buy a Japanese keyboard in Europe. This could be a serious problem for expats living in another continent.
• You have to replace the old keyboard. In modern laptops this means disassembling the whole device, which should probably be done by professionals with the right tools and knowledge.
• This is economically sound for a severely damaged keyboard. Most of people would prefer to dump the whole thing.
• It's money intensive and time consuming. You have to buy the new keyboard, wait for the delivery, pay for the repair, wait for it to be repaired and returned to you.

4. Yellow stains on Magic Keyboard & white ABS keyboards

White keyboards - especially made with ABS plastic - given the sunlight or artificial light and time, will turn yellowish. It may look like dirt or dust, but it's the dye itself and unfortunately cannot be "cleaned".

Solution: replacement keyboard stickers with white background

These are the same as in points no 1 and 2, but they mimic white keyboards. They have white background and (usually) black symbols printed on them. Again, these stickers have also a protective clear layer on top (which most cheap stickers online doesn't have), which prevents the stickers from wearing out. Even if the white dye in stickers gets yellowish, you can just easily replace them with a new, fresh set.

Myths on preventing keyboard fading

Now that we know the reasons behind fading keyboard letters and solutions to that, let's explore some common myths related to keeping the keyboard from wearing out and why these advices don't work.

1. Cleaning your keyboard regularly will prevent fading

Regular cleaning will remove the oils and dirt and definitely doing that will make typing more comfortable. But it has almost nothing to do with keys wearing out. Keyboards fade and wear out mainly because of friction caused by your fingers moving, hitting and sliding over keys, over time.

The ultimate solution to prevent the keyboard from any damage

Keyboard layout can vary depending on geographical region or where you bought your keyboard abroad. If you bought a refurbished laptop, you can also end up with different keyboard layout than your native one.

One of the most widely used keyboard layouts is the US layout, known for its QWERTY arrangement. In this article, we will explore the US keyboard layout, its differences from the UK layout (another commonly used input method), the significance of QWERTY, and how it differs from European keyboards.

US Keyboard Layout vs. UK Keyboard Layout

Here's a diagram of US keyboard layout used in Windows operating system. Version used in Mac OS system is virtually the same.

The US and British keyboard layouts share many similarities, but also have significant differences. One noticeable distinction is the placement of the "£" (pound) symbol. On the UK layout, it appears above 3 in shifted position.

Here's a diagram of UK keyboard layout used in Windows and another one used in Mac OS system.

Additionally, the position and shape of the "Enter" key varies, with the US layout having a larger, horizontal "Enter" key (ANSI keyboard type), while the UK layout features a smaller, 7-shaped vertical one (ISO keyboard type).

Identifying the Layouts

Differentiating between US and UK layouts is crucial, especially when purchasing or using keyboards. Look for the aforementioned presence of the "£" symbol and the "Enter" key shape. Additionally, the location of other symbols like "@" and "#" will differ in the two layouts.

Is QWERTY a US layout?

The QWERTY layout is the most prevalent keyboard arrangement worldwide, but is not exclusive to the US. The name "QWERTY" is derived from the first six letters on the keyboard's top row. It was initially developed for typewriters in the late 19th century to prevent mechanical jams while typing. While QWERTY is commonly associated with US keyboards, it is also used in other layouts, including in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Italy, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands and many other countries.

What Is the Difference Between US and European Keyboard?

European keyboards can vary significantly from the US layout. One notable difference is the inclusion of additional characters specific to European languages, such as accented letters or  diacritic symbols used in French, German, Spanish, and other languages. The location of certain keys, such as the "€" (euro currency) symbol, may also differ on European keyboards. Moreover, some European countries don't use QWERTY, with notable examples of QWERTZ (used in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary) and AZERTY (used in France and Belgium).

Need to switch to UK or US keyboard layout?

Such a change is very common these days. The fastest and easiest way to physically change the keyboard layout is to use QWERTY English keyboard stickers. We offer the best language-changing stickers on the planet, with many layouts, colors, and sizes available. Check them out below:

As workplaces become more multilingual and multicultural, with employees using more than one language on a daily basis and often working from different corners of the world, modern businesses need to be more versatile when it comes to accommodating the needs of their workers. While cultural sensitivity is the number one thing to create a comfortable work environment, there’s another thing that’s easy to overlook: the IT equipment, and, especially, keyboards.

Did you know that there are over 200 keyboard layouts?

It may come as a surprise, but keyboard layouts are not one-size-fit-all matters, as 200+ different layouts are used on a daily basis all over the world. Habits are difficult to break, and everyone’s used to the keyboard layout they’ve had for most of their life. This is especially important in case of jobs that require a lot of typing, such as customer service agents, copywriters, content creators, translators, even programmers and data analysts. Let’s face it – a well-matching keyboard makes typing easier and faster.

When it comes to transferring creative thoughts as well as factual data to the computer screen, typos are highly unwelcome, as even the tiniest mistake may cause serious problems. Yet quite often employees may face a computer with a keyboard layout they’re not used to. In such situations, replacing numerous laptops or keyboards may not fit into the company’s budget. This is where language keyboard stickers come to the rescue.

How can keyboard stickers help to improve the workplace?

No need to replace the equipment

Imagine a situation: the company purchased 50 laptops for their employees. When the laptops arrived, it turned out they were produced for the German market and the letter Y and Z are switched. This causes frustration and lowers productivity, as each employee needs to check the spelling and correct many documents every day. Since replacing the new laptops is out of the question, the company may easily solve the problem by ordering a set of keyboard stickers with the layout that all employees are used to.

Equipment is not market-specific anymore

While deciding to purchase new IT equipment such as laptops or computer keyboards, business owners need not limit their choice to products designed specifically for their market. They can find offers from other countries and import cheaper equipment, localizing it later with the language keyboard stickers of their choice. This can be especially helpful when keyboard layouts that are don’t follow the popular QWERTY standard are needed for specific teams. Since stickers can be easily removed, this solution is much safer than replacing the whole keyboard.

Accommodating personal preferences

Recently arriving from Paris in his new office in London, the French copywriter Pierre will not enjoy working on a QWERTY keyboard. Merde, he’ll exclaim every time when he types Q instead of A, interrupting his colleagues all the time. Instead of purchasing a new laptop or a keyboard for Pierre, the company may simply invest in French language keyboard stickers that fit perfectly on the old keyboard. Pierre may even choose his favorite background color to make work easier and more comfortable, and solitude can be easily restored in the office.

Supporting multi-language teams

Many workplaces hire individuals from various countries to use their language abilities for communication with customers, content creation, translating skills, and many other purposes. While your Customer Experience Specialist chats with clients in Russian, your translator might prepare the agenda in Arabic for the upcoming business trip to Dubai. Instead of purchasing dedicated keyboards or laptops that match everyone’s language preferences, the company can order customised language keyboard stickers that fit their needs.

As some employees may work with more than one language on a daily basis, it’s also possible to order multi-language stickers with more than one alphabet. Helping to accommodate the employees’ needs in such a way can contribute to increase in productivity as well as a more comfortable work environment.

It’s clear to see how language keyboard stickers can improve the workplace much more quickly, efficiently, and in a more budget-friendly way than purchasing new IT equipment. As each sticker set can be customised with a variety of font and background colors, it can also contribute to making a more friendly atmosphere of the office.

It’s worth noting that the stickers can be easily removed when they’re not needed anymore, and they don’t leave any permanent residue on the keys. To learn more about keyboard stickers, read 17 Questions About Keyboard Stickers You Always Wanted to Ask.

Want to buy your first keyboard stickers? Check linguistic stickers in Keyshorts online shop or build your custom keyboard stickers.

Troubles with reading the letters on the keyboard are also experienced by users who recently purchased the new laptop. Many of them complain on too low contrast between the letters and the keyboard background color. When symbols and what's around them have similar shades, in some light conditions it's hard to read them. Ironically, it is observed mostly during the day.

Our customers very often reach us for an advice on how to resolve these issues without giving up on the current laptop. Luckily, within the past 10 years, we have found a way to save many laptops from being abandoned in the deepest drawers, not to mention how much money our customers saved when they didn't have to replace the whole laptop because of the wrong keyboard. Where to get keyboard stickers that bring your typing experience to the new level, but also protect the keys? 

Check our customers’ 3 favourite solutions and pick yours: 

1. Keyboard Stickers in contrasting, black & white style
2. Keyboard stickers with transparent background & letters on the side
3. Keyboard stickers with large letters

1. Keyboard Stickers in contrasting, black & white style.

Simple black (or any other simple styled) keyboard stickers are perfect to completely transform the layout and hide its original look. On the stickers, we can design anything from the scratch - for example: make the letters bigger, add/reduce particular characters, or apply different colors. It's also a good way to replace the language which we don't use, but our laptop turned out to have one after we bought it.

How it's made (technical specification)?

Will they fit my keyboard (I have a Mac & Windows laptop)?

Perfect-fit stickers are Keyshorts bestsellers :) Yes, you can order a custom size which is individually adjusted to fit your keyboard. Please provide model name while placing order, there's drop-down menu where you need to pick your brand & write model name (if you know it). Photo will be appreciated, especially if you're not sure about the model name. You can send it in a reply to order confirmation email.

Can I customise it even more?

Yes, besides the size, you can add languages, adjust the colors. Metallic finish is available. We also have wide collection of our designer keyboard stickers for any device.

Most popular products from this section:

• Simple Black keyboard stickers
• Custom made keyboard stickers with designer assistance
• Language change keyboard stickers

2. Keyboard stickers with transparent background & letters on the side.

How it's made (technical specification)?

Will they fit my keyboard (I have a Mac & Windows laptop)?

Yes, custom size is available. We will need your device model name or a photo of a keyboard. If you are not sure about the model name or need stickers for multiple laptops, you might prefer a universal size which is versatile.

Can I customise it even more?

Yes, our designer will be happy to work with you on further adjustments. To order custom project, please visit our keyboard stickers builder

Most popular products from this section: 

• Transparent keyboard stickers with additional alphabet
• Protector transparent keyboard stickers without the letters 

3. Keyboard stickers with large letters

This is the solution we recommend if you are not only unhappy with the keyboard color, but also struggle with tiny letters. To have better visibility, you can simply apply stickers with large letters. One the product site, there are unlimited color options available to choose, but the best result you will get, if you choose yellow or white letters over black background. Need the background to be white? Pick black letters, like one of our customers has done recently:

How it's made (technical specification)?

Can I customise it even more?

Yes, beside getting them in particular color, you can customize any other product with larger letters. Make sure to add the Larger Letters upgrade to the cart togerther with a product of your choice.

We hope that you enjoyed the article. Let us know in the comments if you have any questions! Happy typing :)

1. Typing is waaay better with keyboard stickers

This is crucial for writers and anyone heavily relying on a typing speed and accuracy. Keyboard stickers just stick to the key without changing its shape, hardness or range of movement. Typing will be still an easy job for your fingers, as you won't have to change pressure on the keys.

Silicone cover makes an unnatural layer that changes the feel of typing (you feel a soft gel surface instead of hard key), and decreases typing speed and tactile feedback. Many people report they have to use much more force to type with silicone cover on. Many dumps covers because of that.

Sometimes silicone covers change how the keys are shaped and placed. It happens because manufacturers of these covers made the production cost more economical and put more than one keyboard layout into one product. Your enter key can suddenly change the shape from rectangular or 7-shaped to almost-triangular without a legitimate reason. It may be super rough change if you're used to your keyboard shape.

2. Keyboard stickers can be personalized to the extreme

You can get them with colorful artwork, custom fonts, and colors, bilingual, with keyboard shortcuts. What's more, you'll get them made exactly for your keyboard shape.

In comparison, silicone covers tend to have simple artworks, washed out colors, with one default letters color and font, without any customization.

Try to tell silicone cover seller that you'll like to change letters color and have it with a black stroke, with Great Wave of Kanagawa artwork, for a Dell XPS 13 9530 from 2023, with an Icelandic keyboard layout that has to match US English keyboard shape. We have such customers all the time, silicone cover sellers can't even make such a product.

3. Keyboard stickers can be matched with laptop skins

They can be matched with desired trackpad sticker or full skin coverage and it will always look good. Silicone covers are totally lonely in that matter, plus they just look like rubber. Try matching them with... what? There's nothing that will look seamless with silicone covers.

4. Once you change your laptop, you don't stay with a bunch of accessories when using keyboard stickers

Keyboard stickers can be simply taken off, squeezed and deposited in any recycle bin (plastic section). Let's face it - we all know that feeling when you change your phone but still have old chargers in a drawer. Keyboard stickers are - in this sense - more minimalistic and environmentally friendly. Silicone covers take much more room when thrown to garbage.

5. You get what's best from your MacBook or other laptop design

The sleek design and elegant lines - this is what you paid for while deciding to go with a particular laptop. And who would like to ruin that? With keyboard stickers, you only highlight the designer look, not hide it under a thick silicone layer.

6. In our opinion, silicone covers can leave marks or crack your screen

There have been multiple opinions on the internet about silicone covers leaving greasy marks on the screen, or that silicone covers allegedly crack the screen. This can be true or not, but why take the risk?

7. In our opinion, silicone covers increase your laptop's temperature and can lead to overheating in conducive environment

We had silicone covers years ago on a MacBook, and it keeps getting hot all the time. We dumped it on day two. I really don't like to type on a hot keyboard and hear fans screaming for more air.

8. Keyboard stickers can have metallic finish

We've been making metallic keyboard stickers for years, but you can't find any such silicone covers. Metallic finish is very elegant and can make stickers virtually disappear or blend in to the metal case of laptop. Silicone covers will always look like rubber. 

9. When you can't find silicone cover for your laptop model, custom keyboard stickers can be made for you

source of photo: https://keyshorts.com/pages/reviews

Silicone covers can't be made to order and on a per piece basis. You have to make a mold - which costs a lot - that's why you need to produce dozens of covers to make a profit. Keyboard stickers from Keyshorts can be designed and produced to order, exactly for your needs. 

To sum up, a handy table for you with pros and cons of keyboard stickers and silicone covers:

Overall, keyboard stickers are more versatile, more minimalistic, more customizable, safer and environmentally friendlier than silicone covers.

Yes, silicone covers offer more protection against dust and spills, but did you hear about medieval knights? They had protective armours so thick and heavy, they could barely move and fight. Same story with silicone covers - you get the protection, but the cost is you can't use your keyboard effectively.

I hope this article was informative and helped you with your decision. If so, or if you have other question/opinion, please leave a comment below :)

If you decide to purchase keyboard stickers, we offer a variety of high-quality keyboard stickers, ranging from keyboard decals for MacBooks and other laptops, to language ones and stickers with keyboard shortcuts to work faster in a software.

How to remove specialized keyboard stickers with removable glue (like Keyshorts)?

1. Turn off your computer so you avoid writing such email (ertgyhujkjhgfvgbhNONONO) to your boss by accident :)
2. Lever the corner of the sticker with your fingernail or the edge of a credit card. Slowly unstick the sticker, while holding the key with a second hand, so you avoid removing the key from a keyboard as well. Don't use any sharp tool like the Exacto knife - you'll most likely scratch the keyboard surface.
3. Repeat it with other keys.

• the keyboard wasn’t cleaned properly before applying stickers. That’s why we always include good, alcohol-based cleaning wipe with our stickers.
• you’re in a hurry and removed the stickers too fast.

So don’t rush, take your time and everything will be fine :)

How to remove the glue of non-specialized keyboard stickers from your keyboard?

1. Damp pad/paper in remover/oil and simply wipe the keys, one at a time. 
2. After it’s done, just let the remover evaporate quickly (if you’ve used that) and polish the keyboard with a soft cloth. 

Sometimes we ask our customers to send photos of their laptop or keyboard for identification/reference. Below you'll find quick tips on how to take these photos so that Keyshorts team is happy and ready to go :^)

1. Set up good light conditions - this way we will see your keyboard with all the details.
2. Position the camera possibly in the above angle. Thanks to that we'll be able to design your stickers perfectly :)
3. Cover all passwords and things you don't want us to see.
4. Leave some 'air' around laptop edges.
5. Upload file/files to Order Status page, after using your email and order number to sign in. If you've ordered a few products, you can upload files to each one separately. Avoid downsizing the files. We need to see all details at full resolution.

We - at Keyshorts - use one-by-one method, which requires about 15 minutes to complete, but it is the most reliable and precise way we know about. We're not fans of transfer film and we don't use that method - if you have stickers with transfer film attached, jump here. If you have Keyshorts stickers, watch the 1-minute video to see how to apply them:

or check out our infographic (always included with the stickers):

Transfer Film method with third-party stickers

Keyshorts stickers don't support application using transfer film, because this method is troublesome and the result is often far from perfect. Yes, it's quick, but in most cases you'll need to manually reposition off-placed stickers by hand, which takes time.

To apply any third-party stickers to the keyboard using transfer film, do this:

1. Clean your keyboard using wipe with some alcohol (to remove the grease).
2. Take transfer film and remove it from its backing.
3. Slowly stick transfer film to the surface of the sticker sheet, smooth it out using credit card or something similar.
4. Slowly start to peel off transfer film (it should peel off with small stickers on it).
5. Position the whole set above the keyboard. When you're ready, start to stick transfer film with stickers to the keyboard. Smooth it out and press using credit card or something similar.
6. Slowly and gently start to peel transfer film from stickers (they should stay on the keys).
7. Clean the stickers from the transfer film glue (can feel a little sticky).

That's it. If you were lucky, everything went perfect. Be careful on steps 3 and 5, as there is high probability that either transfer film won't "lift" all stickers from sheet, or won't leave all stickers on keyboard, or both.

You'll also have to remove the transfer film adhesive from the stickers, because otherwise typing can be frustrating. Before you do that, make sure your third-party stickers have overlaminate that protects the artwork. If not, you could be wiping the ink from the stickers (!).

We protect artwork on our keyboard stickers with overlaminate by default. That's why typing with Keyshorts decals feels very natural.

If this article helped you in any way, please spread the guide with the world by using buttons below :^) Thanks!

Want to match your physical keyboard to the keyboard layout from your input source? Buy Custom Keyboard Stickers here.

Laptop and desktop keyboards come with various layouts and languages, which are specific to a given country or region. Here you'll find detailed illustrations to quickly determine which Windows keyboard layout you have. These are also the exact layouts we use on our decorative laptop keyboard stickers and language keyboard stickers.

If you're looking for Mac layouts, click here.

Table of contents

What Layout Is My Keyboard?

US English keyboard layout

Used in the US, Canada, Australia, Puerto Rico, Guam, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and many other countries. Has horizontal, rectangular enter key. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy US English keyboard stickers.

US International keyboard layout

It has an identical symbol set as US English but with additional Euro symbol and Alt Gr key instead of Alt. Has horizontal, rectangular enter key. Can be easily misidentified as US English layout. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy US International keyboard stickers.

UK (British) English keyboard layout

Used in the England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Can also be found on Malta, Gibraltar and former British colonies. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy UK British English keyboard stickers.

Arabic keyboard layout

Used in Arabic-speaking countries: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, etc. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Arabic keyboard stickers.

Armenian keyboard layout

Used in Armenia. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Armenian keyboard stickers instead.

Azeri/Azerbaijani keyboard layout

Used in Azerbaijan. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Azeri keyboard stickers instead.

Belgian keyboard layout

Used in Belgium. Frequently misidentified with French layout, which is similar. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Belgian keyboard stickers.

Bengali keyboard layout

Used in Bangladesh and India. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Bengali keyboard stickers instead.

Bosnian keyboard layout

Used in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It's identical to Croatian, Slovene/Slovenian, and Serbian (Latin) layouts. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Bosnian keyboard stickers.

Bulgarian keyboard layout

Used in Bulgaria. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Bulgarian keyboard stickers.

Burmese keyboard layout

Used in Myanmar. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Burmese keyboard stickers instead.

Cherokee keyboard layout

Used by Cherokee people in the United States. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Cherokee keyboard stickers instead.

Chinese keyboard layout

Used in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Includes Cangjie, Dayi and Zhuyin symbols. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Chinese Zhuyin keyboard stickers or Chinese Cangjie keyboard stickers.

Colemak English keyboard layout

Used by writers and programmers as a faster alternative to standard QWERTY. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Colemak keyboard stickers instead.

Croatian keyboard layout

Used in Croatia and Montenegro. It is identical to Bosnian, Slovene/Slovenian, and Serbian (Latin) layouts. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Croatian keyboard stickers.

Czech keyboard layout

Used in the Czech Republic. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Czech keyboard stickers.

Danish keyboard layout

Used in Denmark, Greenland and Faroese Islands. It can also be a part of so-called "Nordic" layout, combined with Norwegian and Swedish layouts. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Danish keyboard stickers.

Dutch keyboard layout

Used in the Netherlands. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Dutch keyboard stickers.

Dvorak English keyboard layout

Used by writers and programmers as a faster alternative to standard QWERTY. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Dvorak keyboard stickers instead.

Estonian keyboard layout

Used in Estonia. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Estonian keyboard stickers instead.

Finnish keyboard layout

Used in Finland. It's identical to the standard Swedish layout. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Finnish keyboard stickers.

French (BÉPO) keyboard layout

Used as a faster alternative to standard French AZERTY layout. It's available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy French BÉPO keyboard stickers instead.

French (Canadian) keyboard layout

This is a QWERTY variant of French layout, used by French-speaking citizens of Canada, mainly in the Quebec region. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Canadian French keyboard stickers.

French keyboard layout

Used in France, Belgium, Morocco, Algeria, French Guyana, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire. It's also used in parts of Luxembourg and Switzerland. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy French keyboard stickers.

German keyboard layout

Used in Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, and can also be found in Switzerland. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy German keyboard stickers.

Georgian keyboard layout

Used in Georgia (country). It's available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Georgian keyboard stickers instead.

Greek keyboard layout

Used in Greece. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Greek keyboard stickers.

Greek Polytonic keyboard layout

An alternative to the standard layout, with extra diacritics. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Greek Polytonic keyboard stickers instead.

Gujarati keyboard layout

Used mainly in the Indian state of Gujarat. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Gujarati keyboard stickers instead.

Hebrew keyboard layout

Used in Israel. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Hebrew keyboard stickers.

Hindi (Devanagari InScript) keyboard layout

Used in India. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Hindi Devanagari keyboard stickers.

Hungarian keyboard layout

Used in Hungary. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Hungarian QWERTZ keyboard stickers.

Icelandic keyboard layout

Used in Iceland. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Icelandic keyboard stickers.

Inuktitut (Canadian Aboriginal Syllabary) keyboard layout

Used by peoples speaking Inuktitut, Cree, Ojibwe, and Blackfoot languages in parts of Canada. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Inuktitut (Canadian Aboriginal Syllabary) keyboard stickers instead.

Italian layout keyboard

Used in Italy. Can be also found in Tunisia and Libya. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Italian keyboard stickers.

Japanese layout keyboard

Used in Japan. It has distinct key shapes, with additional keys next to the spacebar, and changed placement of Caps Lock, Control, and Fn keys. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Japanese keyboard stickers.

Kannada layout keyboard

Used mainly in the Indian state of Karnataka. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Kannada keyboard stickers instead.

Kazakh keyboard layout

Used in Kazakhstan. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Kazakh keyboard stickers instead.

Khmer keyboard layout

Used in Cambodia and Vietnam. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Khmer keyboard stickers instead.

Korean (2-set) Hangul keyboard layout

Used in South Korea. Basic layout (2-set), much more is available but not so popular as this one. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Korean Hangul keyboard stickers.

Kurdish (Central) keyboard layout

Used in parts of Iraq and Iran. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Kurdish keyboard stickers instead.

Latvian keyboard layout

Used in Latvia. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Latvian keyboard stickers instead.

Lithuanian keyboard layout

Used in Lithuania. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Lithuanian keyboard stickers instead.

Macedonian keyboard layout

Used in North Macedonia. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Macedonian keyboard stickers instead.

Malayalam keyboard layout

Used mainly in the Indian state of Kerala. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Malayalam keyboard stickers instead.

Maltese keyboard layout

Used in Malta as an alternative to widely used UK English or Italian layouts. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Maltese keyboard stickers instead.

Nepali keyboard layout

Used in Nepal and northern India. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Nepali keyboard stickers instead.

Northern Sami keyboard layout

Used in northern parts of Norway, Sweden, and Finland. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Northern Sami keyboard stickers instead.

Norwegian (Bokmål) keyboard layout

Used in Norway and Svalbard. It can also be a part of the so-called "Nordic" layout, combined with Danish and Swedish layouts. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Norwegian keyboard stickers.

Odia/Oriya keyboard layout

Used mainly in the Indian state of Odisha. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Oriya/Odia keyboard stickers instead.

Pashto keyboard layout

Used in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Pashto keyboard stickers instead.

Persian/Farsi keyboard layout

Used in Iran. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Persian keyboard stickers instead.

Polish keyboard layout

In widespread use in Poland. It's actually identical to the Dutch and US International layouts. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Polish Programmers keyboard stickers.

Polish (214) keyboard layout

Used back in the 80s and 90s, features Polish symbols. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Polish 214 keyboard stickers instead.

Portuguese (Brazilian ABNT) keyboard layout

The Brazilian version of Portuguese layout. Used in Brazil. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Portuguese Brazilian ABNT keyboard stickers instead.

Portuguese keyboard layout

Used in Portugal and its islands. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Portuguese keyboard stickers.

Punjabi (Gurmukhi) keyboard layout

Used mainly in the Indian state of Punjab and Pakistan. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Punjabi Gurmukhi keyboard stickers instead.

Romanian keyboard layout

Used in Romania. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Romanian keyboard stickers.

Russian keyboard layout

Used in Russia. Also found in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kirgistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Belarus. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Russian keyboard stickers.

Russian Phonetic/Mnemonic keyboard layout

Used mainly by foreigners who learn Russian. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Russian Phonetic/Mnemonic keyboard stickers instead.

Serbian keyboard layout

Used in Serbia. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Serbian keyboard stickers instead.

Serbian (Latin) keyboard layout

Used in Serbia as an alternative to the Cyrillic layout. Identical to the Bosnian, Croatian and Slovene/Slovenian layouts. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Serbian Latin keyboard stickers.

Sinhala keyboard layout

Used in Sri Lanka. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Sinhala keyboard stickers instead.

Slovak keyboard layout

Used in Slovakia. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Slovak keyboard stickers.

Slovene/Slovenian keyboard layout

Used in Slovenia. Identical to the Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian Latin layouts. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Slovene/Slovenian keyboard stickers.

Spanish (Latin America) keyboard layout

The American version of Spanish layout. Used in Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Cuba, Belize, Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Surinam, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Paraguay. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Spanish (Latin American) keyboard stickers.

Spanish keyboard layout

Used in Spain. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Spanish keyboard stickers.

Swedish keyboard layout

Used in Sweden. It can also be a part of the so-called "Nordic" layout, combined with Norwegian and Danish layouts. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Swedish keyboard stickers.

Swiss keyboard layout

Used in Switzerland. It's a joined layout of Swiss French and Swiss German. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Swiss keyboard stickers.

Tamil keyboard layout

Used mainly in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Tamil keyboard stickers instead.

Telugu keyboard layout

Used mainly in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Telugu keyboard stickers instead.

Thai (Kedmanee) keyboard layout

Used in Thailand. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Thai keyboard stickers.

Tibetan keyboard layout

Used by Tibetan people all around the world. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Tibetan keyboard stickers instead.

Turkish F keyboard layout

Used in Turkey by enthusiasts and fast-typists. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Turkish F keyboard stickers instead.

Turkish Q keyboard layout

This is a modern version of Turkish layout which utilizes QWERTY key placement (Turkish-Q). You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Turkish Q keyboard stickers.

Ukrainian keyboard layout

Used in Ukraine. You can buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can also buy Ukrainian keyboard stickers.

Urdu keyboard layout

Used in Pakistan and India. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Urdu keyboard stickers instead.

Uyghur keyboard layout

Used in western China, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Uyghur keyboard stickers instead.

Uzbek (Arabic) keyboard layout

Used in Afghanistan and western parts of China. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Uzbek keyboard stickers instead.

Vietnamese keyboard layout

Used in Vietnam. This layout is available through Windows keyboard settings. You most likely can't easily buy a laptop/desktop keyboard with this layout. You can buy Vietnamese keyboard stickers instead.

What are 4 types of keyboard layout?

Different characters, letters and symbols are not the only things that differ from layout to layout. There are also four different key arrangements commonly found in keyboards:

• ANSI (commonly known as US/American type), featuring horizontal, rectangular enter key and wide left Shift key;
• ISO (commonly know as European type), featuring 7-shaped enter key and short left Shift key together with additional regular key on the right of the left Shift key;
• JIS (commonly known as Japanese type), featuring multiple additional keys around spacebar, shortened spacebar, and an enter key similar in shape to ISO type, but wider;
• ABNT (commonly known as Brazilian type), which is identical to ISO type, but features an additional key to the left of right Shift key.

How to physically switch/change layouts or to make a multilingual keyboard?

We run Keyshorts for several years now and we learned that many people need to change their keyboard layout or to have multiple layouts on the same keyboard. Unfortunately, purchasing and replacing the keyboard is expensive and hard, and - in the case of quite a few layouts - impossible.

Keyboard stickers are a great solution for this. They are relatively cheap and easy to apply and come with many different layouts. You can even customize their caption and background colors.

If you simply want to switch your keyboard to another layout, we can suggest choosing our Simple Black stickers or language stickers.

If you want to have two languages on one keyboard, try our bilingual stickers. If you need even more, our trilingual stickers and quadrilingual stickers will be the perfect solution.

Conclusion

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MacBook Keyboard Diagram / Map

MacBook keyboard has few distinctive sections: Function keys (in light blue), which provides access to various functions in MacBook itself or Mac OS system. By combining them with the FN key, you'll get access to F1 - F12 keys, which can be associated with particular application features (useful in Photoshop for example).

The second section is the modifier keys (in light yellow). Shift allows to type uppercase letters and other additional characters. Command and Alt/Option are used in keyboard shortcuts, as well as the Control key, which is used almost exclusively by Mac OS X and Apple programs.

Return and left Shift has two variants, one used in the US and Eastern Asia (horizontal Return and long Shift), and second, used in Europe, Middle East and Africa (vertical Return and short left Shift). On the diagram, this is shown by dashed lines. Of course, MacBook keyboards have lots of localizations, the most common - US English - is shown above. If you're unsure about the localization you have, go and check it with this guide.

MacBook Air 11" has slightly different keyboard, with smaller top and bottom row keys to accommodate smaller laptop size. Newest MacBooks Pros don't have upper F keys row, instead, they have a touchscreen which changes displayed options based on context.

MacBook Keyboard Symbols Chart

Symbol	Meaning	Notes
	Screen brightness down
	Screen brightness up
	Launches Mission Control	Icon available on MacBooks Unibody
	Launches Mission Control	Icon available on MacBooks pre-unibody
	Launches Dashboard	Icon available on MacBooks Unibody
	Launches Dashboard	Icon available on MacBooks pre-unibody
	Keyboard backlight down
	Keyboard backlight up
	Rewind
	Play / Pause
	Fast Forward
	Sound: mute
	Sound: volume down
	Sound: volume up
	Eject	Available on MacBooks with CD/DVD drive
	Power	Available on MacBooks without CD/DVD drive
	Command	On MacBooks 1st generation this is replaced by Apple logo
	Alt / Option	Available on European/ISO keyboard layouts
	Tab	Available on European/ISO keyboard layouts
	Backspace	Available on European/ISO keyboard layouts
	Shift	Available on European/ISO keyboard layouts
	Caps Lock	Available on European/ISO keyboard layouts
	Return	Available on European/ISO keyboard layouts
	Enter	Available on European/ISO keyboard layouts, accessed with FN key
	Delete	Not on MacBooks, but worth knowing
	Clear	Not on MacBooks, but worth knowing
	Home	Not on MacBooks, but worth knowing. Can be substituted by CMD + up arrow shortcut.
	End	Not on MacBooks, but worth knowing.  Can be substituted by CMD + down arrow shortcut.
	Page Up	Not on MacBooks, but worth knowing
	Page Down	Not on MacBooks, but worth knowing
	Arrows	Used to move things or pointer

MacBook Keyboard Special Characters and Accents Map

If you want to type special characters or accents, change your keyboard language to US International PC (thanks, Steve!) and use the map below to get them. You can also check out our solution to the two languages on one keyboard problem.

Where is the Print Screen Button?

Unlike PC keyboard, there is no Print Screen key on MacBook keyboard. This functionality is accessed by keyboard shortcuts and - on Mac - you have greater flexibility:

• Command + Shift + 3 - captures entire screen;
• Command + Shift + 4 - captures selected region. Your cursor turns to crosshair and by clicking and dragging you can specify which area you want to capture;
• Command + Shift + 4 + Space - captures selected window. First press the shortcut from above, then - when you have crosshair - hit Space. The cursor will turn to the camera and the active window will have a blue overlay. Click on it to get it captured.

In some apps, like Photoshop, you need to add Control into the mix, to paste the screenshot into the app.

MacBook Keyboard Tricks

There's a lot you can do in Mac OS by using the keyboard only. Here's a list of highly useful and not-so-useful keyboard shortcuts:

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1. Check MacBook model name in Mac OS

1. Go to the system bar on top of the screen and click on . From the menu choose About This Mac.

2. In the window that showed up you can find your Mac model, it will start with MacBook. In my case, it says iMac (27-inch, Late 2013). Use name shown here and type it into the Model name field when adding our stickers to the shopping cart. 

3. That's all :-)

2. Check MacBook model name on the laptop itself

Turn your Mac upside down and locate small captions at the top. Look for a model number starting with A. Review the table below to match the model number to plain-English model name:

1. The Canadian "snow mode" key

The french canadian keyboard layout is used in french-speaking parts of Canada, mainly the Quebec region. It features the "snow mode" key, with snowflake icon next to Ctrl caption. It looks funny, because we usually tend to associate Canada with winter time (although it's the same stereotype that all Italians eat pasta only). The truth is, the icon graphically represent the Ctrl (Control) key and nothing more. It was established by ACNOR in the first canadian keyboard layout, which was later copied by computer manufacturers, including Apple for its French Canadian layout.

The ACNOR keyboard. Photo from Wikipedia.org

2. The shortest space keys are found in... Japan

Space is the longest key on every keyboard, but in Japan the statistical Spacebar is much shorter than in any other place on Earth. Why? Because japanese keyboards require switching between latin/roman letters (called rōmaji) and japanese characters (called hiragana and kana). To do that switching, additional keys are required. They are placed next to Space. In the result, japanese keyboards look like this:

Japanese MacBook keyboard. Photo (c) Hosikawafuzi @ Wikipedia.org

3. When you hit spacebar, 600000 people in the world did just the same

Talking about the space, it's not only the longest key, but also the most used one. Without the space, it would be hardtoreadthisarticle, don't you think? According to this YouTube video by Vsauce, when you type, 18% of all keyboard hits goes to spacebar. You also don't type alone, ever. From doing math, it turns out that in every 1/10th of a second on Earth, spacebar is hit 600,000 times. So when you hit the space, you're doing it at the exact time as 600,000 other people. Wow :)

Photo (c) William Iven @ Unsplash.com

4. QWERTY is not the most efficient keyboard layout

We tend to think that QWERTY keyboard layout is the most efficient because it's so widespreadly used. Nothing can be more wrong. So why keyboard starts with QWERTY and not, for example, ABCDE? QWERTY layout was invented by Christopher Sholes in 1872 for his new typewriter design (of course there was no computers these days). It turns out that when you would place keys in alphabetical order, people would type so fast, that the mechanical parts (so called hammers) would jam. Sholes came with the idea that in order to slow people down, you need to mess with the layout. QWERTY is also constructed that way to minimize the neighbouring keystrokes - which too - jammed the hammers. As the computers took place of typewriters, the QWERTY was already a legacy that was uncritically adopted.

Photo (c) Dustin Lee @ Unsplash.com

5. Mini-keyboards

These keyboards use only few keys to type full range of possible characters. But how is that possible? Instead of typing one character with one key (like on the normal keyboard), in chorded keyboard you're using chords (like on the piano). This way you can type much more characters than there's physical keys. Chorded keyboards are used mainly by visually impaired (Braille versions) and in situations where normal keyboard is useless.

FrogPad chorded keyboard. Photo by Hustvedt @ Wikipedia.ord

6. Dirty keyboards

Do you know that your keyboard may contain more germs than toilet seat? A study conducted by UK scientists found out that four out of 33 keyboards tested were potential health hazards, and one had levels of germs five times higher than that found on the toilet seat. Some keyboards in office buildings even had mice droppings in them! How to prevent this situation? Wash your hands and clean keyboard the right way.

7. Keyboard from space

Space Cadet keyboard was designed by Tom Knight for the MIT Lisp machines back in the 70's. It looks like taken straight from Star Trek. The keyboard is known for it's elongated look and abundance of modifier keys, with names such as Super, Meta, Terminal, Status and Hyper. Name "Space Cadet" came from a title of 1948 science-fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. Now you can have stylized version of this keyboard on your MacBook, using these keyboard decals.

Space Cadet keyboard. Photo by Dave Fischer @ Wikipedia.org

8. Fashion for keyboards

There is an ongoing trend for the last couple of years, especially among young people, to decorate their laptop keyboards (and whole laptops) with vinyl stickers. These stickers are subject to fashion, have trending colors or patterns, like Stardust or Washi tape. There are few global brands that specializes in such products, among them Keyshorts, of which I am the co-founder. You can see some of the MacBook keyboard decals on our website.

9. Keys that are (rather) useless but still on keyboards today

There are four keys on majority of modern keyboards that are legacy from the ancient times of computers. Here we'll focus on three of them:

• System Request is often abbreviated SysRq or Sys Req. The origin of this key dates back to 1980, when IBM computers typically ran few operating systems. System Request was designed to switch between them. Since then, the key has no purpose. Today it is rarely used in software testing and programming on Windows system.
• Print Screen (usually placed in conjunction with System Request), often abbreviated PrtScr or PrntScrn. It's original purpose was to capture the screen and print it on paper. Today it's used to capture the screen and save it to clipboard.
• Pause/Break key have it's predecessor in 19th century telegraph, where electrical circuit had to break in certain moment. Today, the key has no real meaning and it's used in keyboard shortcuts and few games. Pause functionality works in terminal environments to pause the execution of command or program, but is rarely used almost exclusively by programmers.

10. Bilingual keyboards

Many people and businesses communicate in two or more languages. Translators need bilingual keyboards to easily type in one of selected keyboard layout. People who have families in two different countries often need bilingual keyboards to write emails or chat on Facebook in two languages. Businesses (especially in customer service departments) must communicate with customers who speak foreign languages.

All those people need special keyboards. Of course keyboards are simply produced this way, many layouts are bilingual by default (eg. korean, arabic, japanese), but still, the possibilities are limited and the cost is higher than normal keyboard. That's why people use bilingual stickers for keyboards, which simply expand the functionality for a reasonable price. Plus, you can change them over time to something different.

English - Arabic bilingual stickers for Mac

11. The mysterious Scroll Lock

Scroll Lock (abbreviated ScrLk) is the fourth of rather useless keys on modern keyboards, but it deserves it's own place on the list. Why? Because it never really had any particular function (!). It supposed to lock page scrolling with arrow keys, but since its introduction it never worked that way. Today it is very rarely used, mainly as a part of keyboard shortcuts. 

12. The father of all modern keyboards

The model M, produced by IBM and Lexmark starting in 1984, is the father of modern day keyboard. It introduced separated numeric section, separated arrow keys, and the separate row of function keys. It is considered the most universal computer keyboard design and is still in use today.

IBM model M keyboard. Photo by Raymangold22 @ Wikipedia.org

13. Editing keyboards

There are special keyboards for professional use in movie studios, design agencies and music studios. These are called editing keyboards. Keys in such keyboards contain additional information and icons which refer to app or environment the keyboard is used in. For example, there are keyboards for movie editing software, such as Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro. Cheaper and more versatile option is keyboard stickers for apps, which are installed on regular keyboards.

Keyboard stickers for Adobe Premiere Pro software

14. Dvorak keyboard layout

The first man to question the QWERTY layout was August Dvorak, who created and patented his layout in 1936. Dvorak layout allegedly incorporate less finger movement which lead to faster typing speed and reduced repetitive strain injuries. There is an ongoing debate whether these claims are true or not. While Dvorak layout is still a niche, most of operating systems (including Windows, Mac OS X and Linux) give user the ability to change keyboard layout to Dvorak. Some keyboard decals we talked about earlier can be designed in Dvorak layout. Today, Dvorak is used mainly by geeks, programmers, and typists.

Dvorak layout (US English variant) for MacBook

15. Keyboard computers

You don't see them now, but in the 80's and early 90's keyboard computers (computers that fit inside bulky keyboard) was common in people's homes. Commodore 64 and Amiga 500 was notable examples, although they were popular mostly in Europe. In the mid 90's they were dethroned by the PCs.

Amiga 600 keyboard computer. Photo by Alex Jones @ Wikipedia.org

16. The fastest typist on Earth

Is statistically a woman (typist was and is a strongly feminine occupation). Currently, the official world record is held by Barbara Blackburn (typing in english). Unofficially, Sean Wrona set the world record for typing over a minute and 50 minutes intervals. You can see him typing for the record on YouTube. There is an ongoing debate as to how to measure typing speed, because it depends on language, keyboard layout and the keyboard itself. Many of the fastest typist on earth use Dvorak layout.

17. Typewriter

The word Typewriter can be typed using only top row on QWERTY keyboards. Some speculate that QWERTY inventor - Christopher Sholes - did that on purpose as a kind of demo back in the 19th century.

18. Typewriter and keyboard early adopters

Today we have early adopters in technology gadgets - people that are ahead of rest of us in using a cool, new stuff. But early adopters were always there. Most notable early adopter of typewriter was Mark Twain, who wrote his Life on the Mississippi in 1883 (although probably he just dictated to the typist). One of the early adopter of using computer to write his books was Douglas Adams (Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency written on Macintosh in 1987). In contrast, one of the most praised sci-fi writer of all time - Stanislaw Lem, never learned how to use computer.

19. Ergonomic keyboards

Because long periods of typing on regular keyboard can lead to strains and is generally detrimental to your health, ergonomic keyboards were discovered. Usually they feature split-keyboard layout with slightly tilted surfaces to accommodate hand anatomy.

Example of ergonomic keyboard. Photo by Hustvedt @ Wikipedia.org

20. Gaming keyboards

Another type of ergonomic keyboards are these used by gamers. They can feature additional keys and gizmos that relate to particular game or common games activities.

PlayStation 3 gaming keypad. Photo by William Hook @ Wikipedia.org via Flickr

21. CTRL ALT DEL

Is a famous keyboard shortcut to soft reboot or bring a Close Program dialog on Windows. The idea for soft rebooting via keyboard came from David Bradley (IBM). This shortcut was chosen for safety reasons, to avoid accidental trigger. Ctrl Alt Del was chosen because it was impossible to hold this combination with one hand on the IBM PC 5150 keyboard.

22. More than one national layout

Many countries have more than one national keyboard layout. In most of these countries one layout is overwhelmingly more common than the other (Turkey, Poland). In other countries, there are few equivalent layouts: in South Korea there are few Hangul layouts. Chinese use Traditional, Simplified, Cantonese and Taiwanese variants. India has one layout (called InScript) for all its official languages: hindi, bengali, gujarati, gurmukhi, kannada, malayalam, oriya, tamil and telugu.

23. The longest words to type with one hand

On QWERTY keyboard, these are stewardesses (among other 12-letter words) for left hand, and polyphony for the right hand. According to this research, Dvorak layout can produce 14-letter words with only left hand used, for example overemphasized.

24. All hail the QWERTY

First email ever sent contained the qwertyuiop, all letters from the top row of QWERTY keyboard. As Ryan Tomlinson (the man who did it) explained, he just needed something to put in the email to test if it's working.

There is a planetoid called (6600) Qwerty, which was discovered in 1988.

The qwerty is also one of the most commonly used passwords on earth. Don't use it.

25. The only keyboard where to type period, you need to ...

Press Shift + ;

No, really. In French keyboards to type . you have to hit Shift + semicolon. I can't imagine the reasoning behind placing such commonly used character in shift position, but that's not the only thing that makes french keyboards so unique - you'll learn some of the quirks later.

26. Italian brackets

Another strange way to get common character is to type brackets on italian keyboards. To type { or }, you have to use Shift + Alt + è and Shift + Alt + plus sign respectively. Crazy. Probably that's why Italian coders use US english layout for their keyboards (they use brackets a lot).

27. Upside down numeric section

There are 3 keyboard layouts in the world, where numeric keys contain digits in shift position. These layouts are used in France, Belgium and Czech Republic. "Normal" QWERTY layout have digits in lower position, so hitting 1 key gives 1. In these special layouts to type 1, you must hit Shift + 1. Imagine quick calculations on computer... mission impossible.

Czech layout (in blue and yellow) in comparison with standard QWERTY (white).

28. The only keyboard monument in the world

Yes, someone actually made a monument for QWERTY keyboard. To be specific, it is located in the city of Yekaterinburg, Russia. It's called "Pamyatnik Klaviature" and made of stone, with grass growing between the keys. Local people make wishes by jumping from key to key. When they want to reset their lives, they jump CTRL ALT DEL.

29. The most efficient keyboard layout in the world ...

is called Turkish F. It was designed by İhsan Sıtkı Yener in 1955. He used scientific methods to measure letter frequencies in turkish language to compose a keyboard layout that would be fast to use. Also, this layout provides almost ideal balance between two hands when typing. With Turkish F this country has broken 14 world records in typewriting championships between 1957 and 1995. Strangely, Turkish F is not the most commonly used layout in Turkey. The Turkish Q (adaptation of standard QWERTY layout) won because of ubiquity. MacBook turkish layout is also Turkish Q, not F.

30. The most complicated keyboards in the world

East Asian countries has by far the most complicated keyboards in the world. Because there are so many languages, dialects and alphabets that span sometimes hundreds of characters, most of Chinese, Indian, Thai or Japanese keyboards have 3 or 4 letters on each key. These letters are then accessed by using modifier keys, where the Japanese keyboards are the most complex example. 

31. The most difficult typing in the world

That title belongs to japanese and chinese keyboards. In QWERTY keyboard when you hit keys, you get letters on screen. Things are not so simple in China and Japan. You need to use special input methods, where you type simplified characters or latinized version of the word you like to type, and then the language driver shows you the proper words you can use. Besides, japanese layout on Mac OS X has the most options to set up from the whole list of 50+ layouts available in that system.

Bonus: The most strange (for some people) keyboard layout

That's French. Not only you have to hit Shift + ; to get a period, but there are more unbelievable quirks. Digits are accessed with Shift pressed down. Layout isn't even compatible with the officially recognized french standards. A single key was designated for letter ù, which occurs in only one french word - où (where). At the same time, the œ is missing, despite being in common use in french language. The guillemets (french quotation marks) are missing. When you want to get ¦, you'll get | instead. That's why French Culture Ministry started work on new national layout in 2016.

That's it, thirty one (plus one) weird and fun facts about computer keyboards you didn't know about, but now you do. If you enjoyed this article, share it with the world - look right :-}

Everybody should work smart, not hard. There's no dumber way to waste your time, than repeating common tasks. So what do we automate? Pretty much everything.

Get the basics right

My production workflow is as follows:

1. I'm opening a template with layout for customer's keyboard. Each template is a combination of laptop model and keyboard localization (more on them here). There are tons of different keyboard shapes, so unfortunately there's no one-size-fit-all solution. We tried it a long time ago and it didn't work.

Template is created from scratch only when we encounter particular laptop model for the first time. Sometimes only a small part of keyboard is different from what we have in our database. This way, the longer we run this business, the less tedious work we have to make.

2. I'm importing and positioning the background artwork. In fact, I have actions for this. Each artwork importing and placement is saved as a separate action. Some actions include also some rotations and resizing to fit the template. That's the automation #1.

3. Then I have to put our logo on spacebar. There are two versions of it - for dark and bright background. In the beginning, I had them placed in template file sitting outside of the artboard, ready for use. Now I use two separate actions - one to include white logo, second to include the black one. That's the automation #2.

4. Then I'm changing the name of the sticker, so customer can check if he/she got the right design. I didn't find any way to automate this, but variables is a promising feature to try in the future.

Type automations

5. I almost always have to change the color of keyboard letters and icons. There's no one-click way to do this. My solution is to select all content of the layer with keyboard text (called "litery_cyfry" - I'm Polish by the way) and then click in Actions panel on BIALE LITERY action (it's WHITE LETTERS in english).

I use - and totally love - Button Mode in Actions panel. This way I get quickly what I want. This is a better way than using default view mode, because with buttons you only need to click on them to run actions. To switch Actions panel to this mode, click on options icon in top right corner and choose Button Mode.

The action converts all text objects to outlines (shortcut: cmd+shift+O) and converts all strokes to fills. I made my own shortcut for this: cmd+opt+O, because there wasn't one by default. Why this is needed? Because when you select fills, strokes and text objects, you can't change their color - you will get question marks in the Stroke panel, both on fill and stroke thumbnails.

After converting everything to fills I can change the color easily by clicking on fill and change it to white (or other tone). Of course, in case of white, it is done in action already to minimize manual steps. This is automation #3.

6. In some stickers the text must be stroked to increase readability. For example - you can't put either white or black text over a photo with small flowers (or any other complex texture). There will be areas where the text is not visible enough in both cases. You also can't do this by simply adding a stroke to the text. Such stroke will be added both on the inside and outside of each letter, and believe me, it doesn't look good. You could use stroke placement feature in Stroke panel, but sometimes it produce unnatural effects. Besides, my solution turns all text and stroke into two objects, which make selecting and changing them easy.

The way I figured out how to do this, is to transform all text into single object, then offset the path of such object, and then change the color of expanded object. Here's how it works in details:

6a. Select all text (I do this by selecting all contents of layer), ungroup it by using cmd+shift+G shortcut (in your case that might not be necessary, in my case it is as I have icons created from groups of objects), and then create compound path (psst... that's the secret). Shortcut for this is cmd+8. Now you have one object.

6b. Now go to menu Object > Path > Offset Path (I assigned cmd+shift+opt+O shortcut for convenience). I usually use 0,25 mm offset.

6c. Select the outer edge of text object - you should be selecting the offset version - and change its color to something contrasting with the inner text color. I have this whole sixth step process saved as action. On the illustration below you can see how good the effect is (bottom letters) in comparison with just stroking text (upper letters). That's the automation #4.

Prepress and PDF cooking

7. The next automation comes from the fact that in order to properly print something in external printing house, you need to convert all texts to outlines and all strokes to fills. This is because printing house may not have the fonts you used in your project, and some printing machines don't support stroke thickness and other properties. Yes, you can embed fonts in PDFs but I had issues with this feature and I don't want to waste my time in the future.

To do all this I hit cmd+A to select all objects, then I convert them to outlines, and then I convert them to fills. Negative side to this is minimal editability of final PDF, but I'm not worried about that. It has to be just printed, not messed around in printing house.

Now it's time to save the project to PDF. My PDF settings are based on High Quality Print default preset. I changed the following options: from General tab I turned off Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities (since my printing house works in Corel Draw that's not needed), I also turned off Optimize for Fast Web View. From Marks and Bleeds tab I have Trim Marks checked on (needed by printing house to cut vinyl roll into pieces) and I use 2 mm bleed. In Output tab I have Color Conversion set to Convert to Destination (Preserve Numbers) and Destination set to Coated FOGRA39, since I'm in Europe. If you are in America you would probably use US Web Coated.

I have saved these settings in custom preset. In the top right corner of Save Adobe PDF window click on disk icon. Type a name for your preset and click OK. Now you can access your settings by choosing your preset from Adobe PDF Preset list. That's the automation #6.

8. This step is optional. When I'm preparing sticker with existing template, I can skip it. When I'm designing a new template, I must also export PDF with outlines for cutting plotter. Plotter needs to know when and how to kiss-cut the vinyl, and that file serves this purpose. 

I turn off and delete all layers except one with key outlines. My printing house requires these outlines to be 0.25 mm thick and have C0 M100 Y0 K0 color. All these steps is saved in yet another action. That's the final automation #7.

That's all folks :-) Hope you enjoyed this article and learned something new. If you have any questions or thoughts on Illustrator automation, or business automation in general, don't hesitate to use comments below. Also don't forget to share this article :-)

Great addition to such setup are our bilingual keyboard stickers with two languages printed on them. You can then easily write in two languages without the need to learn letters placement in mind.

So, how to add and change languages?

Mac OS X

Adding keyboard language

1. Open Spotlight (Cmd + space) and type "system", then click on System Preferences, or click on Apple in top left corner of the screen and choose System Preferences from menu.

2. Click on Keyboard.

3. Switch from Keyboard to Input Sources tab, and then click on + (plus) button in bottom left corner of the window.

4. From popup choose desired language from left list, and then choose particular layout for this language from right list. Finally, click on Add button to add this language to your system.

5. You're done :)

Switching keyboard language

There is no quick method of doing this out of the box in Mac OS X. You need to manually assign keyboard shortcut to the "switching" action.

1. Go to Keyboard in System Preferences.

2. From Keyboard switch to Shortcuts tab.

3. Click on Input Sources on the left list and check Select next source in Input menu. You'll see a little warning, because this keyboard shortcut is already used by Spotlight.

4. Click on Spotlight on the left list and uncheck Show Finder search window. Now the warning is gone.

5. That's it. Now you can switch languages by using Cmd + Opt + Space shortcut :)

Windows Vista

Adding keyboard language

1. Click on Start menu and choose Control Panel.

2. Click on Clock, Language and Region.

3. Switch to Keyboards and languages tab and click on Change keyboards button.

4. Under Installed services, click Add button.

5. Double-click on language you want to add, then double-click on text services you want to add, and - finally - select the text services options you want to add. Click OK button.

6. That's it :)

Switching keyboard language

To set this up, right-click on the taskbar (the gray bar at the bottom on screen) and from menu choose Toolbars, and then click Language Bar. Language Bar will show up on the taskbar. Now, to switch language click on language name next to little keyboard icon and from list, select desired language.

Windows 7

Adding keyboard language

1. Click on Start menu and choose Control Panel.

2. Click on Clock, Language and Region.

3. Switch to Keyboards and languages tab and click on Change keyboards button.

4. Under Installed services, click Add button.

5. Double-click on language you want to add, double-click the keyboard you want to add, and select text services options you want to add. Click OK button.

6. That's it :)

Switching keyboard language

To set this up, right-click on the taskbar (the gray bar at the bottom on screen) and from menu choose Toolbars, and then click Language Bar. Language Bar will show up on the taskbar. Now, to switch language click on language name next to little keyboard icon and from list, select desired language.

Windows 8

Adding keyboard language

1. Use Windows + W keyboard shortcut to bring Search. In the search field type "language", then from the search results, on the left, click on Language.

2. In the Language window, click on Add a language link.

3. In the Add languages window find desired language from the list, select it, and click Add button. Some languages are expandable, so select particular language layout you want to use.

4. You're done :)

Switching keyboard language

To switch keyboard languages simply use Windows + Space shortcut.

Windows 10/11

Adding keyboard language

1. Use Windows + W keyboard shortcut to bring Search. In the search field type "language", then from the search results, on the left, click on Language.

2. In the Language window, click on Add a language link.

3. In the Add languages window find desired language from the list, select it, and click Add button. Some languages are expandable, so select particular language layout you want to use.

4. You're done :)

Switching keyboard language

To switch keyboard languages simply use Windows + Space shortcut.

That's it! If this article was helpful or you simply like what we do, please use buttons on the right to share this article with the world :-) Thanks!

If you don't have a Mac, please click here.

MacBook Keyboard Localizations Throughout the World

US English Layout

Used in the US, Canada, Australia, Puerto Rico, Guam, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and many other countries. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

(US) English International Layout

It has identical characters layout as US English but uses ISO (European) key shapes. This is the most common layout in Poland. We also advise our customers to choose this layout, if they want to switch from any European language to English keyboard. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

UK (British) English Layout

Used in the United Kingdom and Ireland. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

Arabic Layout

Used in Arabic-speaking countries: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, etc. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

Armenian (Western) Layout

Used in Armenia. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Azeri/Azerbaijani Layout

Used in Azerbaijan. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Belgian Layout

Used in Belgium. It's identical to the French layout on a Mac. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

Bengali Layout

Used in Bangladesh and India. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Bosnian Layout

Used in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It's identical to Croatian, Slovene, and Serbian Latin layouts. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

Bulgarian Layout

Used in Bulgaria. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

Burmese Layout

Used in Myanmar. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Cherokee Layout

Used by Cherokee people in the United States. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Chinese (Taiwanese) Layout

Used in Taiwan and Hong Kong. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

Colemak Layout

Used by writers and programmers as a faster alternative to standard QWERTY. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Croatian Layout

Used in Croatia and Montenegro. It is identical to Bosnian, Slovene and Serbian Latin layouts. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

Czech Layout

Used in the Czech Republic. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

Danish Layout

Used in Denmark, Greenland and Faroese Islands. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

Dvorak Layout

Used by writers and programmers as a faster alternative to standard QWERTY. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Dutch Layout

Dutch layout is a modified English International with euro sign added. It is used in the Netherlands. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

Estonian Layout

Used in Estonia. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Finnish Layout

Used in Finland. It's identical to the Swedish layout. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

French Layout

Used in France, Belgium, Morocco, Algeria, French Guyana, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire. It's also used in parts of Luxembourg and Switzerland. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

French Canadian Layout

This is a QWERTY variant of French layout, used by French-speaking citizens of Canada, mainly in the Quebec region. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

Georgian Layout

Used in Georgia (country). This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

German Layout

Used in Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, and can also be found in Switzerland. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

Greek Layout

Used in Greece. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

Greek Polytonic Layout

An alternative to standard Greek layout, with more language-specific symbols. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Gujarati Layout

Used mainly in the Indian state of Gujarat. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Hebrew Layout

Used in Israel. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout. Kudos to Hila M. for corrections :-) 

Hindi (Devanagari) Layout

Used in India. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Hungarian Layout

Used in Hungary. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

Icelandic Layout

Used in Iceland. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

Inuktitut (Nunavut) Layout

Used by peoples speaking Inuktitut, Cree, Ojibwe, and Blackfoot languages in parts of Canada. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Italian Layout

Used in Italy. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

Japanese Layout

Used in Japan. It has distinct key shapes, with additional keys next to space, and changed placement of Caps Lock, Control, and Fn keys. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

Kannada Layout

Used mainly in the Indian state of Karnataka. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Kazakh Layout

Used in Kazakhstan. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Khmer Layout

Used in Cambodia and Vietnam. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Korean (2-Set) Layout

Used in South Korea. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

Kurdish (Sorani) Layout

Used in parts of Iraq and Iran. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Latvian Layout

Used in Latvia. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Lithuanian Layout

Used in Lithuania. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Macedonian Layout

Used in Macedonia. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Malay (Jawi) Layout

Used in Malaysia. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Malayalam Layout

Used mainly in the Indian state of Kerala. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Maltese Layout

Used in Malta as an alternative to widely used UK English or Italian layouts. This layout features symbols specific to the Maltese language. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Nepali Layout

Used in Nepal and northern India. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Northern Sami Layout

Used in northern parts of Norway, Sweden, and Finland. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Norwegian Layout

Used in Norway and Svalbard. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

Oriya (Odia) Layout

Used mainly in the Indian state of Odisha. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Pashto Layout

Used in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Persian (Farsi) Layout

Used in Iran. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Polish Layout

Used in Poland, although the newer Polish Pro layout is much more popular. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Polish Pro Layout

A modern version of Polish layout that is used in Poland almost exclusively. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout (Apple sells Macs with US International layout in Poland).

Portuguese Layout

Used in Portugal and Brazil. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

Portuguese (Brazilian ABNT2) Layout

Used in Brazil. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Punjabi (Gurmukhi) Layout

Used mainly in the Indian state of Punjab and Pakistan. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Romanian Layout

Used in Romania, although Romanian - Standard, US English, and English International layouts are more popular.

Russian Layout

Used in Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Belarus. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

Russian Phonetic Layout

Used mainly by foreigners who learn Russian. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Serbian Layout

Used in Serbia. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Serbian (Latin QWERTY) Layout

Used in Serbia. Identical to the Croatian, Bosnian, and Slovene layouts. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

Sinhala (QWERTY) Layout

Used in Sri Lanka. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Slovak Layout

Used in Slovakia. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

Slovene/Slovenian Layout

Used in Slovenia. Identical to the Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian Latin layouts. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

Spanish ISO (Spain) Layout

Used in Spain and Latin American countries: Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Cuba, Belize, Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Surinam, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Paraguay. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

Spanish (Latin America) Layout

Used in the US, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Cuba, Belize, Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Surinam, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Paraguay. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Swedish Layout

Used in Sweden and Finland. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

Swiss Layout

Used in Switzerland. Matches both Swiss German and Swiss French layouts. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

Tamil Layout

Used mainly in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Telugu Layout

Used mainly in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Thai Layout

Used in Thailand. You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

Tibetan (QWERTY) Layout

Used by Tibetan people all around the world. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Turkish F Layout

Used in Turkey by enthusiasts and fast-typists. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Turkish Q Layout

This is a modern, widely used version of Turkish layout which utilizes QWERTY key placement (Turkish-Q). You can buy a MacBook or Apple keyboard with this layout.

Ukrainian Layout

Used in Ukraine. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Urdu Layout

Used in Pakistan and India. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Uyghur Layout

Used in western China, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Uzbek Layout

Used in Afghanistan and western parts of China. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

Vietnamese Layout

Used in Vietnam. This layout is available through Mac OS keyboard settings. You can't buy a Mac with this layout.

How to physically switch layouts or to have a multilingual keyboard

During the years we run Keyshorts we learned how many people need to change their keyboard layout or to have multiple layouts on the same keyboard. Unfortunately, purchasing and replacing the keyboard is expensive and hard, and - in the case of quite a few layouts - impossible.

Keyboard stickers are a great solution for this. They are relatively cheap and easy to apply and come with many different layouts. You can even customize their caption and background colors.

If you simply want to switch your keyboard to another layout, we can suggest choosing our Simple Black stickers or language stickers.

If you want to have two languages on one keyboard, try our bilingual stickers. If you need even more, our trilingual stickers and quadrilingual stickers will be the perfect solution.

Conclusion

If this article was helpful or you simply like what we do, please use buttons below to share this guide with the world 😀

Thanks!