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Short URL: https://scripts.sil.org/UniIPAKeyboard
IPA Unicode Keyboards
Note:
We no longer maintain any of the keyboards on this page. The Keyman program is cross-platform (works on Windows, macOS, Linux) and the IPA (SIL) keyboard is our recommended keyboard for typing IPA: 
IPA (SIL)
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
On Windows, three keyboarding options are available: an IPA Keyman keyboard and keyboards which work through the Windows keyboarding system (MSKLC) for US, UK, FR, DE and PT (Portuguese) keyboard layouts.
IPA Keyman Keyboard
This keyboard requires Keyman: https://keyman.com/
The “SIL IPA” keyboard, developed by Martin Hosken, is a mnemonic compiled Keyman 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.
The keyboard layout is included in the documentation which is a part of this package.
Keyman Download
The Keyman IPA (SIL) keyboard is now available on the Keyman site: https://keyman.com/keyboards/sil_ipa
Old versions
IPA Unicode Windows Keyboards - old versions
IPA MSKLC Keyboard
Note:
This keyboard will no longer be maintained. Since Keyman is freely available and now works on all platforms, we encourage people to use the IPA (SIL) Keyman keyboard available here: https://keyman.com/keyboards/sil_ipa
This keyboard uses The Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator (MSKLC): https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/823010/the-microsoft-keyboard-layout-creator
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 6.2 (ver 1.4) MSK.pdf (in the download package) for installation instructions and the keyboard layout. Make sure that you reboot after installing the keyboard.
There are five keyboards, one is based on the US English keyboard layout, another is based on the UK English keyboard layout, another is based on the Brazil Portuguese keyboard, a fourth on the FR French keyboard layout and a fifth on the DE German keyboard layout. The FR and DE keyboards are new and have only been minimally tested. We welcome feedback.
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 6.2.
Although the documentation does not mention Windows 8, this keyboard should work fine on Windows 8.
Please note
If you are using Word 2007 (and presumably later), you may not be able to type the @1, @2, @3 keystrokes. If that is the case you will need to disable sequence checking ().
MSKLC Download
This software and documentation is copyright ©2007-2015 by SIL International. It is distributed under the X11 free software license; see SIL International X11-style License for more information.
Note
Although these files have a new date on them, there is no change to the ver. 1.4 keyboard. The only change is in the documentation. Africanist upstep and downstep documentation was fixed.
| IPA Unicode 6.2 (ver. 1.4) MSK | Changes to this keyboard:
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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, Downloading & Font Installation Tips). Installation instructions and the keyboard layout are available in the IPA Unicode 6.2 (ver 1.4) MSK.pdf. If you installed an older version such as, keyboard you must follow the uninstall instructions and reboot your computer before you install this keyboard. | ||||
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We now provide a Brazilian Portuguese IPA keyboard. The documentation is in Portuguese and the keyboard itself is associated with PT Portuguese (Brazil) language. 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, Downloading & Font Installation Tips). Installation instructions and the keyboard layout are available in the IPA Unicode 6.2 (ver 1.4 BR).pdf. | ||||
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We now provide a French IPA keyboard. The FR keyboard is new and has only been minimally tested. We welcome feedback. The documentation is in English (we welcome volunteers to help us translate the documentation!) and the keyboard itself is associated with IU Inuktitut (Latin, Canada) language. 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, Downloading & Font Installation Tips). Installation instructions and the keyboard layout are available in the IPA Unicode 6.2 (ver 1.4 FR).pdf. | ||||
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We now provide a German IPA keyboard. The GE keyboard is new and has only been minimally tested. We welcome feedback. The documentation is in English (we welcome volunteers to help us translate the documentation!) and the keyboard itself is associated with Icelandic language. 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, Downloading & Font Installation Tips). Installation instructions and the keyboard layout are available in the IPA Unicode 6.2 (ver 1.4 DE).pdf. | ||||
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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. | ||||
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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. | ||||
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This is a one-page keyboard reference that is also a quick IPA reference chart. It's organized and color-coded by place of articulation. For serious use, please see the home page: http://tiki.lingtransoft.info/ipa. That page contains English, Indonesian and Spanish charts as well as source files. |
Old versions
IPA Unicode Windows Keyboards - old versions
Note:
This keyboard will no longer be maintained. Since Keyman is freely available and now works on all platforms, we encourage people to use the IPA (SIL) Keyman keyboard available here: https://keyman.com/keyboards/sil_ipa
IPA FreeKey Keyboard (using AutoHotkey)
The Free Keyboard System is based on “AutoHotkey” ( http://www.autohotkey.com) which is an open source project, therefore, it can be used and distributed free of charge.
 | FreeKey SIL IPA keyboard (based on AutoKey) Hans Schaumberger, 2009-06-02 Download "FreeKey SIL IPA setup.exe", Windows application, 619KB [15738 downloads] |
This documentation file is a part of the IPA FreeKey package, but is available as a separate download in case you wish to read about it before installing the package.
 | Free Keyboard System Hans Schaumberger, 2009-06-04 Download "FreeKeyDocumentation.pdf", Acrobat PDF document, 96KB [15882 downloads] |
Other (non-SIL) 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.
http://www.rejc2.co.uk/ipakeyboard/ this is a Windows keyboard layout (using MSKLC) for typing all the characters from the International Phonetic Alphabet.
Related Windows Resources
Some tools and resources for character input
Links to useful tools for character input.
The Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator (MSKLC)
Ubuntu (Linux) Keyboards
Note:
This keyboard will no longer be maintained. Since Keyman is freely available and now works on all platforms, we encourage people to use the IPA (SIL) Keyman keyboard available here: https://keyman.com/keyboards/sil_ipa
This keyboard uses Keyboard Mapping for Linux (KMFL): http://kmfl.sourceforge.net/ which needs to have the iBus input method system turned on and configured.
It uses the same .kmn source file as SIL's IPA Unicode Keyboard. The keystrokes for both packages are the same.
This software and documentation is Copyright © 2002-2013 SIL International. It is distributed under the permissive X11 license.
Ubuntu package  |
This keyboard is packaged and available in the SIL software repository for Ubuntu on http://packages.sil.org. Ubuntu users can subscribe to this software repository and get current versions as well as any updates automatically. See the detailed instructions about using the SIL software repository for Ubuntu. For detailed information about how to configure the keyboard for usage with Ubuntu please see Installing KMFL on Ubuntu. |
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 6.2.
Note:
We no longer maintain any of the keyboards on this page. The Keyman program is cross-platform (works on Windows, macOS, Linux) and the IPA (SIL) keyboard is our recommended keyboard for typing IPA: IPA (SIL)
Mac OS X Keyboards
These downloads contain Macintosh keyboards for typing IPA characters, compatible with Unicode 5.1. These keyboards are for Mac OS X and above. Documentation is included in some packages.
IPA Unicode Macintosh Keyboard
This software and documentation is distributed as freeware. You may modify it, but please change the filename(s).
Note
The IPA Unicode Macintosh 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 now supports Unicode 6.2.
Download
The IPA Unicode Macintosh Keyboard layout is based upon the IPA MSKLC Keyboard layout found here: IPA Unicode Keyboards. Double-click and drop .keylayout file in ~/Library/Keyboard Layouts/.
 | IPA Unicode 6.2 Macintosh Keyboard v1.5 Joan Wardell, 2013-03-07 Download "IPA-MACkbd.dmg", Mac OS X disk image, 346KB [106100 downloads] |
The Keyboard layout is available as a separate download below. It is the same as the Windows MSKLC keyboard:
| IPA Unicode 6.2 (ver. 1.4) MSK US/UK Keyboard documentation (also same layout as required for IPA Unicode 6.2 Macintosh Keyboard v1.5) Lorna Evans, 2015-01-28 Download "IPAMSKLC1.4.pdf", Acrobat PDF document, 684KB [27832 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 6.2(v1.5) MAC keyboard sources Joan Wardell, 2013-03-07 Download "IPA-MACSource.dmg", Mac OS X disk image, 169KB [18658 downloads] |
Other Mac OS X Keyboards
Dvorak layout of v1.4 of above keyboard. Unzip and drop in ~/Library/Keyboard Layouts/. No documentation. Use the Macintosh Show Keyboard Viewer to see layout.
| IPA Unicode 5.1(v1.4) Dvorak.keylayout Joan Wardell, 2009-06-02 Download "IPA_Dvorak.dmg", Mac OS X disk image, 34KB [13973 downloads] |
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:
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
Ukelele is a Unicode keyboard layout editor for Mac OS X versions 10.2 and later. The latest beta release version, 3.4b2, is available for download, and can be used on Mac OS X 10.9 and later. The previous stable releases of Ukelele, version 3.3 (for macOS 10.9 and later), version 3.2.7 (for Mac OS X 10.8 and later), version 2.2.8 (universal binary, for Mac OS 10.4 and later) and version 1.8.4 (universal binary, for Mac OS X 10.2 and later) are still available for download. This version works on Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) and later.
Page History for Mac OS X Keyboards
2013-03-07 JW: updated kbd and sources (incl doc) to Unicode 6.2. Doc is now docx.
2009-06-02 JW: both v1.4 updated 4 PUA characters to Unicode 5.1 and corrected to add barred-o on =O. Dvorak now has barred-o on ~s
2008-12-12 JW: v1.3 updated for Leopard
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
IPAChartApp for iOS 8 and above
IPAChartApp for iOS 8 and above — International Phonetic Alphabet in your email, tweet or Facebook post! IPAChartApp gives you an International Phonetic Alphabet keyboard you can use on any iOS app. Organized according to the 7 official IPA charts, it will be immediately familiar. Stack diacritics to your heart's content!
Related Resources
IPA Transcription with SIL Fonts
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 decide to use Unicode fonts. It provides links to many relevant resources (choosing fonts, finding keyboarding solutions, figuring appropriate Unicode codepoints, data conversion, etc) with regard to the International Phonetic Alphabet.
Some tools and resources for character input
Links to useful tools for character input.
Page History
2014-02-26 LE: updated IPA KMN ver. 1.4
2013-06-06 VG: Removed IPAKeys
2009-06-04 LP: added FreeKey Windows package
2008-10-6 LP: added debian package
2008-10-1 LP: fixed typo in pdf for both KMN and MSK packages (no other changes)
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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