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NRSI: Computers & Writing Systems

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You are here: Input > Resources
Short URL: http://scripts.sil.org/UniIPAKeyboard

IPA Unicode Keyboards

Lorna A. Priest and Joan Wardell, 2008-06-18; 51959 reads

    Windows Keyboards
        IPA Keyman Keyboard
            Keyman Download
        IPA MSKLC Keyboard
            MSKLC Download
        Other Windows Keyboards
        Related Windows Resources
    Mac OS X Keyboards
        IPA Unicode 5.0c Macintosh Keyboard 1.2
            Download
            Old versions
        Other Mac OS X Keyboards
        Related Mac OS X Resources
        Page History for Mac OS X Keyboards
    Related Resources
    Page History

Note

The name and version number for the SIL keyboards have changed in order to comply with SIL’s PUA deprecation policy. To find out more, you can also read SIL PUA version — what is that?. Documentation for SIL’s Corporate PUA, along with version numbers, can be found here: SIL Corporate PUA Assignments

Windows Keyboards

IPA Keyman Keyboard

The “IPA Unicode 5.1 (ver 1.2) KMN” keyboard, developed by Martin Hosken, is a mnemonic compiled  Keyman 6  keyboard. It is intended to provide a text input method for Unicode-based applications, in order to access IPA characters. Although greatly expanded, the keyboard layout is similar to that provided for the old pre-Unicode SIL IPA93 fonts. Compiled with Keyman 6, this keyboard will also work with  Keyman 7.

The keyboard layout is included in the documentation which is a part of this package.

This software and documentation is copyright ©2002-2008 by SIL International. It is distributed under the X11 free software license; see SIL International X11-style License for more information.

Note

The keyboard in its present state is specific to the “Doulos SIL” and "Charis SIL" fonts, in that it references characters in the private use area. In future releases of Doulos SIL and Charis SIL, a number of these characters are expected to appear in standard positions according to the newest  Unicode specification, and the keyboard (and encodings of any documents using those characters) will have to be changed accordingly. This note does not, of course, affect standard (non-PUA) Unicode IPA characters. The keyboard supports up to Unicode 5.1.

Keyman Download

IPA Unicode 1.2

Beginning with version 1.1.4, this keyboard contains a fix for the problem of fast typing reordering keystrokes when using Keyman with TSF. The basic effect of this is to make Keyman do all text input using TSF, rather than a mixture of TSF and ordinary keyboard events. If you use  FieldWorks you should upgrade to this version of the keyboard.

This version includes support for Unicode 5.1 codepoints for upstep, downstep, hooked v (bilabial flap) and hooked w.
IPA Unicode 5.1 (ver 1.2) KMN Keyboard (Keyman installer)
Martin Hosken and Lorna A. Priest, 2008-05-06
Download "IPAUni12.kmp", Keyman keyboard package, 687KB [515 downloads]
If you download this package, you must have Keyman already installed. You can just double-click IPAUni12.kmp to install the keyboard package. The keyboard layout is available in the IPA Unicode 5.1 (ver 1.2) KMN.pdf and will be available from the Start menu once you have installed the package.
IPA Unicode 5.1 (ver 1.2) KMN Keyboard (zip file)
Martin Hosken and Lorna A. Priest, 2008-05-07
Download "IPAUni_12.zip", ZIP archive, 684KB [271 downloads]
Download this zip file if you prefer to download a zip file rather than a Keyman installer. Keyman must be installed and then you can double-click IPAUni12.kmx to install the keyboard. The keyboard layout is available in the IPA Unicode 5.1 (ver 1.2) KMN.pdf. Full installation instruction are available in welcome.htm (however, the method described in this document may not work if you have a non-US keyboard with an  Alt-Gr  key).
IPA Unicode 5.1 (ver 1.2) KMN Keyboard Source files
Martin Hosken and Lorna A. Priest, 2008-05-07
Download "IPAUni_Src12.zip", ZIP archive, 120KB [136 downloads]
You may also download the source files for this package in the event that you wish to modify the keyboard. If you plan to redistribute your modified keyboard you must rename it.
IPA Unicode 5.1 (ver 1.2) KMN documentation (pdf)
Martin Hosken and Lorna A. Priest, 2008-05-07
Download "IPA Unicode 5.1_ver 1.2_KMN.pdf", Acrobat PDF document, 911KB [325 downloads]
You may just download the documentation if you wish. In an appendix, this document contains a chart of all IPA characters, IPA numbers and, where available, their Unicode equivalences. It is made available as a separate download for those who wish to use this resource without the keyboard.

Old versions

IPA Unicode Windows Keyboards - old versions

IPA MSKLC Keyboard

This keyboard uses The Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator (MSKLC):  http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/tools/msklc.mspx

It was designed to be similar to SIL's IPA Unicode Keyman Keyboard, in that the keystrokes follow a similar layout. In many cases keystrokes are merely reversed. That is, instead of typing n> to get a U+014B , you would type >n. This system is not always possible to maintain using MSKLC since the Keyman keyboard often used more than two keystrokes and this is not allowed using MSKLC. Please read IPA Unicode 5.1 (ver 1.2) MSK.pdf (in the download package) for installation instructions and the keyboard layout. Make sure that you reboot after installing the keyboard.

There are two keyboards, one is based on the US English keyboard layout and the other is based on the UK English keyboard layout. If you are using a French or German keyboard (or something else), it should still work. You will need to relearn where keys are though.

Note

The keyboard in its present state is specific to the “Doulos SIL” and "Charis SIL" fonts, in that it references characters in the private use area. In future releases of Doulos SIL and Charis SIL, a number of these characters are expected to appear in standard positions according to the newest  Unicode specification, and the keyboard (and encodings of any documents using those characters) will have to be changed accordingly. This note does not, of course, affect standard (non-PUA) Unicode IPA characters. The keyboard supports up to Unicode 5.1.

MSKLC Download

This software and documentation is copyright ©2007-2008 by SIL International. It is distributed under the X11 free software license; see SIL International X11-style License for more information.

IPA Unicode 5.1 (ver. 1.2) MSK

Changes to this keyboard:

  • Changed the language association to Icelandic.
  • Changed underlying codepoints for upstep, downstep, hook v (bilabial flap) and hook w from PUA codepoints to Unicode 5.1 codepoints.
    • U+F19C U+A71B MODIFIER LETTER RAISED UP ARROW
    • U+F19D U+A71C MODIFIER LETTER RAISED DOWN ARROW
    • U+F21A U+2C73 LATIN SMALL LETTER W WITH HOOK
    • U+F25F U+2C71 LATIN SMALL LETTER V WITH RIGHT HOOK

IPA Unicode 5.1 (ver. 1.2 US)  MSK Keyboard
Lorna A. Priest, 2008-05-01
Download "IPAMSKLC_US_1.2.zip", ZIP archive, 1016KB [181 downloads]

or

IPA Unicode 5.1 (ver. 1.2 UK)  MSK Keyboard
Lorna A. Priest, 2008-05-01
Download "IPAMSKLC_UK_1.2.zip", ZIP archive, 1016KB [94 downloads]
Choose which download you wish, either the US or UK keyboard layout. Download and unzip the zip file to an easy-to-remember location on your hard drive (if you are uncertain what to do with a .zip file, see Decompression Utilities and Downloading & Installation Tips). Installation instructions and the keyboard layout are available in the IPA Unicode 5.1 (ver 1.2) MSK.pdf. If you installed IPA (Custom) 1.0 keyboard you must follow the uninstall instructions and reboot your computer before you install this keyboard.
IPA Unicode 5.1 (ver. 1.2) MSK Keyboard Sources for US and UK
Lorna A. Priest, 2008-05-01
Download "IPAMSKLC12_Src.zip", ZIP archive, 127KB [252 downloads]
You may also download the source files for this package in the event that you wish to modify the keyboard. If you plan to redistribute your modified keyboard you must rename it.
IPA Unicode 5.1 (ver. 1.2) MSK Keyboard documentation
Lorna A. Priest, 2008-05-16
Download "IPAMSKLC1.2.pdf", Acrobat PDF document, 999KB [141 downloads]
You may just download the documentation if you wish. In an appendix, this document contains a chart of all IPA characters, IPA numbers and, where available, their Unicode equivalences. It is made available as a separate download for those who wish to use this resource without the keyboard.

Old versions

IPA Unicode Windows Keyboards - old versions

Other Windows Keyboards

 Unicode Phonetic Keyboard from the Department of Phonetics and Linguistics at University College London. This is an installable keyboard for Windows which uses SAMPA key coding for the SIL Unicode Roman fonts.

Related Windows Resources

Some tools and resources for character input 2007-05-30; 48926 reads

Links to useful tools for character input.

Tavultesoft Keyman Joan Wardell, 2007-04-23; 88968 reads

Keyman is a keyboard management utility that makes it practical to input many different languages in almost any Windows application. Keyman allows you to have arbitrarily long input sequences and to have diacritics typed after the base character.

 Tavultesoft Keyman

 The Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator (MSKLC)

Mac OS X Keyboards

These downloads contain Macintosh keyboards for typing IPA characters, compatible with Unicode 5.0. These keyboards are for Mac OS X and above. Documentation is included in some packages.

IPA Unicode 5.0c Macintosh Keyboard 1.2

This software and documentation is distributed as freeware. You may modify it, but please change the filename(s).

Note

The IPA Unicode 5.0c Macintosh Keyboard 1.2 keyboard in its present state is specific to the “Doulos SIL” and "Charis SIL" fonts, in that it references characters in the private use area. In future releases of Doulos SIL and Charis SIL, a number of these characters are expected to appear in standard positions according to the newest  Unicode specification, and the keyboard (and encodings of any documents using those characters) will have to be changed accordingly. This does not, of course, affect standard (non-PUA) Unicode IPA characters. The keyboard supports Unicode 5.0.

Download

The IPA Unicode 5.0c Macintosh Keyboard 1.2 keyboard layout is based upon the IPA MSKLC Keyboard layout found here: IPA Unicode Keyboards.

IPA Unicode 5.0c Macintosh Keyboard 1.2
Joan Wardell, 2007-08-20
Download "IPA-MACkbd.dmg", Mac OS X disk image, 591KB [4843 downloads]

Below are the source files if you wish to adapt the Macintosh keyboard or documentation for your own use. The application for creating the keyboard is KeyLayoutMaker: or Ukelele. See Related Packages.

IPA Unicode 5.0c(v1.2) MAC keyboard sources
Joan Wardell, 2007-08-20
Download "IPA-MACSource.dmg", Mac OS X disk image, 201KB [1115 downloads]

Old versions

Version 0.6 (alpha) with characters in the private use area, pre-Unicode 4.0.

IPA-SIL keyboard 0.6 (alpha)
Fraser Bennett, 2004-03-17
Download "IPA-SIL keyboard 0.6.dmg", Mac OS X disk image, 418KB [7584 downloads]

Other Mac OS X Keyboards

Dvorak layout of the above keyboard. Unzip and drop in ~/Library/Keyboard Layouts/. No documentation. Use the Macintosh Show Keyboard Viewer to see layout.

IPA Unicode 5.0c(v1.2) Dvorak.keylayout
Joan Wardell, 2008-04-01
Download "IPA_Dvorak.zip", ZIP archive, 5KB [130 downloads]

 IPAkeys IPA Unicode keyboard layout for Mac OS X.

 IPA Palette IPA Unicode Input Method for Mac OS X 10.2 (‘Jaguar’) and later. A free Unicode character palette input method for the International Phonetic Alphabet. This palette is compatible with the Hiragino font shipped with Mac OS, the (Doulos SIL) font supplied by SIL, and other IPA Unicode fonts. The software enables point-and-click character entry into Unicode-compliant software under Mac OS X.

Related Mac OS X Resources

KeyLayoutMaker: Jonathan Kew, 2006-06-01; 18878 reads

KeyLayoutMaker is a Perl script designed to create Mac OS X keyboard layout files, based on simple lists of keystrokes and required Unicode characters. It is particularly suited to creating layouts for syllabic scripts.

Ukelele Jonathan Kew, 2008-03-12; 255377 reads

Ukelele is a Unicode keyboard layout editor for Mac OS X versions 10.2 and later. A beta release of Ukelele version 1.8 (universal binary) is now available for download. This version should work on Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) as well as earlier versions.

Page History for Mac OS X Keyboards

2008-04-01 JW: added Lane Schwartz' Dvorak keyboard
2007-08-20 JW: v1.2 corrected documentation for right hook to \[
2007-08-17 JW: v1.2 corrected =# to match documentation
2007-06-15 JW: v1.1 corrected |z |Z to match documentation, installation instructions
2007-06-04 LP: removed version number of IPA MSKLC
2004-03-17 JK: Page creation

Related Resources

IPA Transcription with SIL Fonts SIL Linguistics Department and NRSI staff, 2007-05-30; 620544 reads

SIL International has produced several font sets over the years that allow for the transcription of linguistic data using the International Phonetic Alphabet. This page should help the user to decide whether to use Unicode fonts or whether to use the SIL IPA or SIL IPA93 fonts. It provides links to many relevant resources with regard to the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Some tools and resources for character input 2007-05-30; 48926 reads

Links to useful tools for character input.

Page History

2008-06-18 LP: included mac keyboards on this page
2008-05-16 LP: updated IPA KMN and IPA MSK packages for Unicode 5.1
2008-02-12 LP: updated IPA KMN US and IPA MSK US packages
2007-10-16 JW: added IPA MSKLC UK keyboard and source packages
2007-09-24 LP: updated IPA Unicode 5.0c (ver 1.1.4) KMN keyboard package
2007-09-14 LP: Reverted back to IPA Unicode 5.0c (ver 1.1.2) KMN keyboard package as the previous "fix" broke the keyboard.
2007-09-10 LP: updated IPA Unicode 5.0c (ver 1.1.3) KMN keyboard package
2007-06-18 LP: updated IPA Unicode 5.0c (ver 1.1.2) KMN keyboard package
2007-05-30 LP: updated IPA Unicode 5.0c (ver 1.0) MSK keyboard package
2007-05-23 LP: added UK keyboard information
2007-05-14 LP: added information to IPA MSKLC regarding non-US English keyboard use
2007-05-03 LP: added IPA MSKLC 0.6 keyboard
2007-04-09 LP: updated documentation in IPA MSKLC 0.5 keyboard package
2007-04-03 LP: moved old downloads to a separate page
2007-03-30 LP: added IPA MSKLC 0.5 keyboard
2007-03-06 LP: updated to IPA Unicode 1.1.1 Keyman 6 Keyboard
2007-01-30 LP: updated to IPA Unicode 1.1 Keyman 6 Keyboard
2006-04-10 LP: updated to IPA Unicode 1.0.6 Keyman 6 Keyboard
2004-10-11 - added IPA Unicode 1.0.5 Keyman 6 Keyboard


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