The diagrams below illustrate the simplest ways to use the izKeys (ee-zee-keys) keyboard layout. The complete information may be extracted from the table summaries of layout of the Latin and Cyrillic personalities. For more information, see this.
Here, we completely ignore the questions how to enter math/IPA/UPA symbols (about a thousand is possible!), and exotic Latin letters (more than a thousand of them) — just mention that one can remember many of them via mogrification rules, GreenKeys and BlueKeys concepts. What we discuss here is only the most frequent Latin letters, as well as input of Cyrillic/Greek, and of Business symbols.
When a certain key or key combination is undefined, the keyboard produces the visible bell symbol ♪.
So one should not be surprised that this is the most frequent character in the diagrams below!
In all diagrams, yellow characters denote prefix keys. Characters with brown outlines are hopeless to guess using heuristics,
one must memorize them; characters with yellow outlines are non on the doubtlessly guessable positions, but are subject
to certain heuristics.
Trivia: to show this page correctly, one may need to install extra fonts (Deja vu, junicode; unifont has a very good coverage, but it also [as of 2011] has a special glyph for missing codepoints — which severely interacts with a choice of better fonts). Some fonts have some glyphs wrong (I have seen wrong directions of arrows, wrong choice of OXIA vs VARIA). Sometimes one should better zoom in (Control-MouseWheel, Control-+, or from menu; Control-0 to return back) in browser to see details/differences of diacritic marks.
Note that each colored diagonal contains exactly one vowel (outlined in blue); the diagonals guide in positioning the
¨,´,`-accented variants of these vowels. Trivia: Note that the other key \| (shown here to the left of SPACE) varies a lot between keyboards;
sometimes it is marked as < >; sometimes it is positioned to the left
of Z; on many US keyboards it is omitted altogether. These
variations in position and markup do not matter — if the key is present, it behaves
as indicated; the “important” characters are not put at this position.
AltGr is pressed All accented letters in this diagram are also available on easier-to-remember multi-key sequences (starting with yellow keys); so remembering positions of the most of characters in this diagram is not required: they are needed only to speed up the typing.
Pay attention to the difference between letters
and symbols — we call them characters when we do not care.
“Letters” are parts of words; all the other characters are “symbols”. Symbols with white outlines denote “no-nonsense variants”
of surrogate typewriter symbols ", ', `, - etc. (Trivia: With invention of typewriters,
many [tens?] of different symbols where jammed into one “surrogate” symbol to economize on the number of keyboard's keys;
essentially, surrogates make no sense standalone. For decades. we were forced to use surrogates and deduce
what was actually meant basing on context; nowadays, we can do better; see -This-,
“this”,
this′, this ″,
`that´,
‘that’ and T H A T.)
For this particular diagram: characters with green or blue outline are those for which people can immediately guess their position on
keyboard. Since easily-guessable,
these positions are a very valuable property, and are “set in stone” — they win in conflicts with other positioning heuristics.
(Possible exceptions on guessability are ºª§; but if you saw the diagram above once, you have a good chance to guess them anyway.
Trivia: compare with · and § on Blickensderfer No. 5 (1896).
This is convergence in action!) Euro € is at the position which
is etched on many keyboards nowaday.
On the opposite end of the guessability scale are letters with brown outlines: they take ad hoc positions which must be memorized. In between on the guessability scale are letters on the colored diagonals (two ⤡-diagonal on the left-hand side, and four ⤢-diagonals on the right-hand side) — they may be calculated using a simple rule. Each colored diagonal has one vowel on the “base” layer, and three ¨,´,`-accented variants of this vowel are put on 3 keys on the diagonal — from top to bottom.
Example: observe the red diagonal on the right with ü/ú/ù.
Unfortunately, this diagonal is the only “clean” example: the other diagonals contain letters which are “set in stone”,
so the latter rule loses. When a very important letter loses in playing chicken, it yellows (look for yellow outlines) and
is “bumped away” one position across the diagonal (preferably down, if possible). (Observe the red arrows!) The extremely rare letters ë,
ỳ and ï are just discarded; the more frequent ì withers and becomes brown-outlined.
Summary: How to type Blue/Green outlined characters may be guessed immediately. For no-outline characters on colored diagonals there is a very simple rule to locate them. If one also remembers the “bumped away” rule, one can locate 4 letters with yellow outlines. If one wants to quick-type the remaining 3 brown-outline letters (and no-outline symbols), one must memorize them.
Trivia: Did you notice ẞ = upper-cased ß? Unicode has many wonders...
Why ê is blue? It is the only set-in-stone accented vowel...
A remark on prefix key. The color on the diagram indicates that pressing AltGr-$ produces a prefix key.
It also shows that this prefix key is denoted as £; but keep in mind that this is just a notation!
By itself, a prefix key does not make any sense. What is important to know is how to describe succintly the semantic of “what
it does with the following letter/symbol/etc”; one may ask what happens when it is followed by space; and one may ask what
happens when it is pressed twice. The answers are: it finds business-symbol/currency-symbol which matches best the given letter,
or modifies the symbol by adding a vertical line; it produces £; it produces ¤. Hence the notation
above is quite appropriate.
In general, the prefix keys of this layout try to follow similar approach: when a prefix key is denoted by a diacritic
mark, following it by a letter (or AltGr-letter) produces the letter with an attached diacritic which is as close
to the notation as possible; following it by a symbol mogrifies the symbol in a way similar to the name of the diacretic
(say, acute may make “sharper corners” version of the symbol, and ring-above may produce a rounded
version); following it by space produces the standalone diacritic character; and typing it twice produces the corresponding
combining character.
The base layout of Cyrillic personality (BTW, it is the X11's standard cyrillic layer). Letters with brown outline must be memorized. Positions of letters with green outline can be guessed with two tries (but if forgotten, they may lead to a short-lived confusion):
The most important other thing to remember is that if a letter (say, Ю) replaces ASCII
symbols (such as ` and ~), the symbols are available via combination with AltGr.
And Ъ/Ё are available also by combining AltGr with Ь/Е.
(Compare with AltGr-combined diagram below, after the next diagram.)
Base Cyrillic layout as visible from Latin personality after Shift-Space (so “BlueKeys” replace shared
symbols; colors as in the previous diagram).
AltGr Cyrillic layoutHere is the base Cyrillic face (essentially, consisting of Russian letters) with
AltGr-bindings added in red (these quickiest-access positions are given in preference
to letters from modern Slavic Cyrillic-based languages, XIX century Russian, and Kazakh; for the
rest of Cyrillic letters, see below):
Color codes are as above; positions of the letters Ѣ,Є,Ә are artificial,
but still may be guessed on the third try, while positions of Ѓ and Ј must be memorized (heuristics:
Ѓ overflows down from Г=G; the position of Ј “is questionable”. For the rest of the letters,
if one knows that they are indeed on AltGr-bindings, one can immediately guess
on which key.
Prefix keys are in yellow. In addition to Greek and Business maps (same as on Latin face), two
Cyrillic-specific prefix keys are added: AltGr-' introduces “extra” Cyrillic letters
(and fractions), and AltGr-^ introduces titlo-forms and “exotic” Cyrillic characters.
Pressing the prefix twice produces the corresponding combining character: the stress mark and titlo.
AltGr-'):
Letters with yellow overline are not in the most obvious positions, but at least there is some hope to remember some heuristics. This includes ҼҾ (Abkhazian CHEs) and ҒӺ (stroked GHE's) which “slided to the left” from Ч and Г, and Komi Ԋ on comma.
The rules to enter fractions are very simple: AltGr-' DIGIT enters a fraction with
the digit in denominator; AltGr-' Shift-DIGIT does the same for numerator. If another
precomposed fraction with the same denominator/numerator is available in Unicode, add AltGr
modifier to access the other fraction. Example: there are four fractions with denominator 8: ⅛, ⅜, ⅝, ⅞
(in order of numerators). Now AltGr-' 5 accesses the first one, ⅛; pressing AltGr-' AltGr-5
accesses the second one, ⅜. All precomposed fractions can be entered this way (Example: ⅝, ⅞ may be entered via
digit-in-numerator). Trivia: there is another way to enter Unicode fractions: use superscript digits for the
numerator, subscript digits for the denominator, and separate them by FRACTION SLASH available via BlueKey Shift-SPACE /
to get something like ¹²⁄₃₅ (the very narrow “bounding box” of FRACTION SLASH ensures the nice look).
Titlo-forms, power-of-10 multipliers, and “exotics” (after pressing AltGr-^; note that titlo-forms
are not available in upper-case; then we bind the titlo-form of an “extra” letter (AltGr-' LTR-accessible)
to AltGr-^ Shift-LTR — see keys Ю and Я below):
Note exceptions: ◌ⷵ on S, titlo-Ꙉ (djerv) ◌ⷸ on D, ᴫ (small capital л) on L, and ᵸ on N (which is a “modifier letter”, not a
“combining letter”). Power-of-10
multipliers are available on the corresponding digit keys 3...8. (Trivia: all multipliers but “thousands” ҂ are combining.)
Ocular О's ꙨꙪꙬꙮ are on digits 1...3 (with or without AltGr). In addition to these exceptions, yellow outlines are
on heuristically good ZEMLYA/DZELO Ꙁ/Ꙃ on 0, Ҹ which “slided left”, and Komi letters NJE/ZJE/DZJE on comma ;-) (here — and on the “extra” layer).
Base Greek layout as visible from Latin Personality (currently on AltGr-= prefix, soon to be AltGr-SPACE)
Positions of Greek letters with brown outline must be memorized (heuristics: θ and Q are both O with an extra stroke; y is one half of ψ). The rest of base letters is guessable: either phonetically,
or, if conflicts appear, visually (the base letters coincide with the
Galaxy layout; the mixup of χ and ξ is unfortunate, but it is shared by many other
layouts). Two green-outline letters pre-combined with diaeresis must also be memorized if one wants to enter
monotonic Greek; ; and ? give the Greek flavors (Trivia: the latter is deprecated — use the Latin ;
instead).
Polytonic Greek is produced with 3 prefix keys \, [ and ].
Pay attention on vowels (blue outline) above, one on every color-tinted diagonal; compare with this AltGr-GREEK [ layout
(with AltGr-bindings added in red):
(For a moment, ignore the key 3#.) Observe that all characters have aspiration ῾ (visually similar to [),
that the other accents depend on the row and color, and the base letter depends on the (colored) diagonal.
The rule: Prefixing a key on a diagonal with \
produces an accented vowel: the vowel is the only vowel on the diagonal, and the accent depends on the vertical position:
the top letter row gives the polytonic variant ´ of acute accent (OXIA), the low letter row gives the grave accent ` (VARIA),
and the number row gives the circumflex accent ῀ (PERISPOMENI). The middle letter
row gives none of these 3 accents. Combine the letter with AltGr to obtain the combinations with diaeresis
(DIALYTIKA) or iotization (YPOGEGRAMMENI=ͺ/PROSGEGRAMMENI=ι — on lower/upper case). To combine with aspiration, replace
\ by one of [ and ] — depending on the shape of aspiration accent: ῾ (DASIA) and ᾿ (PSILI).
Rho ρ/Ρ takes aspiration signs as if it were a vowel; the corresponding “diagonal” contains the only key `.
AltGr-GREEK [ AltGr-@ produces ᾯ (currently, AltGr-GREEK is AltGr-=).
And here is why: @ is Shift-2; due to Shift, the result is in uppercase;
the key with 2 and
@ is on the green diagonal which contains the vowel ω/Ω; hence one gets an accented Ω. It is iotized (note ι-like diacritic below) since @ was combined with AltGr;
the key with 2 and @ is on the number row, which adds the circumflex (and in Greek it looks like ~);
finally, since we used [ “instead of” \, this adds the aspiration ῾ (DASIA) looking like [.
(The diagram above is as seen from Cyrillic personality — so the key # does not
access number-symbol ͵ as it does from the Latin personality.) Observe the red symbols on the rightmost red diagonal: they
are standalone polytonic diacritics!
Summary: to enter a standalone polytonic diacritic, pretend that you
put it on (non-existent) OMICRON-DIALYTIKA (in other words, the last key in the sequence should be AltGr- on
a key in the rightmost red diagonal — the diagonal of . DOT). What to do with DIALYTIKA/YPOGEGRAMMENI/PROSGEGRAMMENI which would require a “second”
AltGr modifier? Replace it by Shift! (Exceptions: removing this Shift converts
the standalone PROSGEGRAMMENI to (surprise!) YPOGEGRAMMENI; and Shift converts PSILI to CORONIS. By this rule,
CORONIS overrides DIALYTIKA AND VARIA; however, the latter is accessible by adding GRAVE to DIAERESIS via
AltGr-` AltGr-;. Trivia: Note also that there is no standalone DIALYTIKA symbol; use the standalone ¨ DIAERESIS via
AltGr-; SPACE instead.)
Numeral signs are accessible on keys 3 and #. On the prefix /
they are “as expected”: 3 gives the lower one, and # the “normal” one (duplicated on the prefix ]).
(On the prefix [ this pair is inverted, to fight with ъЪёЁ-confusion in access from the Cyrillic personality.)
To join them, standalone monotonic diacritics ΄,΅ are available on AltGr-3 and AltGr-#.
Macron and breve: Observe that by the rules above, AltGr-GREEK \ LTR with LTR from
the middle letter row would produce unaccented letter. To avoid waste, they instead produce either a vowel with breve (VRACHY)
or macron (vowels α/υ/ι may take them), or LUNATE variant symbol ϵ for ε (on d). To get breve, proceed as if
you want to get unaccented vowel; to get macron, do the same on the next key to the right or left (so a/j/k
produce ᾰ/ῠ/ῐ, s/h/l produce ᾱ/ῡ/ῑ, and d makes ϵ). To clarify, here is the diagram of AltGr-GREEK \
(observe also Zodiak symbols on Shift-NUMBERS row):
Trivia: Numeration of Zodiak constellations starts on
the spring equinox; so the first 20 days of Nth month is in
the Zodiak sign number N-3 or N+9. We put 10th,11th,12th signs on keys 0 ), - _
and = +.
Monotonic and “special” Greek letters can be accessed on the base face by combining with AltGr. On vowels, this adds
tonos ΄ (acute accent). On consonants, it produces special forms (final, scientific etc) and archaic letters. Moreover, on
digits it gives the subscript forms; on Shift-digits (and on combinations with AltGr) different
variants of dashes (and IPA/etc. tone marks). Here is the Greek face with AltGr-bindings added in red:
Observe kai ϗ — this is one of exceptional cases when a lower-case letter is put in a Shifted position.
(As a case pair, kai is available via the “Coptic prefix” `.) Note also that red letters with yellow outline
are guessable by simple heuristics (“one of the sounds” for stigma Ϛ, visual for the rest). (Moreover, digamma Ϝ is “on top of”
Ψ which “is a di-Y”.)
The prefix key ` allows one to enter Coptic (and multitude of others Greek-related symbols). Entering full
analogues of Greek letters does not require explanation (including SOU/so/su Ⲋ, SHIMA/tsheema/qima Ϭ, and SAMPI/none/psis
nše Ⳁ which are analogues of stigma Ϛ on AltGr-t, koppa Ϟ/Ϙ on AltGr-Z/C and sampi Ϡ on
AltGr-x); two empty slots are taken by genga/ḏanḏia/GANGIA Ϫ on j,
fay/fai/FEI Ϥ on v (or AltGr-f); the other letters without Greek analogue are on AltGr-LTR where the LTR
is the initial letter of the name on the Wikipedia page of 2012
(or the first letter of Unicode name for DEI/tee/ti Ⲇ and KHEI/khay/xai Ⲕ).
Here is the AltGr-GREEK ` layout (as seen from Cyrillic personality — so among dingbats, 3 of 4 card suits
are not accessible) with AltGr-bindings added in red:
Note the Coptic dash (plus more dashes), DOS' dingbats for Control-range characters (on Shift-DIGITs,
and AltGr--, AltGr-_), and (obsolete) Zhuang tone marks on AltGr-DIGITS (from 2 to 6),
and stroked + latinized ι/υ/λ as ᵼ/ᵿ/ƛ. Additional “semi-randomly assigned” AltGr-letters: Bactrian sho Ϸ on b; ½-H heta Ͱ/ͱ on 1;
yot ϳ on j; Pamphylian digamma Ͷ/ͷ
on g; san Ϻ/ϻ on m, ϒ on U, lunate sigmas ϲ/Ϲ on v, reversed lunate sigmas ͻ/Ͻ on o, reversed epsilon ϶
on e, kai's Ϗ/ϗ on q, (reversed) dotted lunate sigmas ͽ/Ͽ ͼ/Ͼ on r and y, and archaic sampi Ͳ/ͳ on n.
(inverted) Ohm Ω/℧ on W/w.
Trivia: Latin variants
of names of Coptic letters are not standartized; so we use 3 names: Unicode name in capital, and two lowercase names
from Wikipedia pages: of 2012/08 and of 2012/01. Since important for finding the positions, the remaining ones are:
SHEI/shy/šai ϣ, HORI/hoori/hori ϩ. (To simplify memorization, SAMPI/none/psis nše Ⳁ is also made available
on AltGr-p.)
“Business/Currencies/Hooks/Added Vertical Line/Not+mogrify” layout (as visible from Latin personality after AltGr-$):
Observe that all of ©®℠™℗ “Business” signs are in the obvious locations; so are Vietnamese ơ and ư (heuristic:
the $ sign has a hook on top right). All the currency signs of Unicode 6.1 can be entered by the first
letter of their name or the country name (but one may need to combine with Shift or AltGr).
Exceptions are YUAN[s],RIEL,RIAL which are entered by the second letter. (Trivia: there are 3 signs for YEN (one latin,
and 2 ideographic), and 2 (ideographic) signs for YUAN.) The “principal” sign for both of them is available on y/Y;
the remaining 2 signs for YEN are on AltGr-y/Y, and both signs for YUAN are on AltGr-u/U.
The remaining exceptions are the common currency symbols recognized by the shape, such as $
and £.
Here is the same layout with AltGr-bindings added in red (with letters outlined in green,
and business symbols in blue):
Note that zero-vowel Latin letters (schwa) are positioned on Z. This convention (considering Z and
0 as siblings) also influences other decisions made in design of this keyboard. Trivia: Do not confuse these Latin
letters between themselves (Azeri əƏ vs. African ǝƎ), or with similarly-shaped Cyrillic letter әӘ, or with IPA symbol
ə for schwa, or with THERE EXISTS math symbol ∃. As a minimum, they sort differently, have different capitalization
rules, and their surrounding may be typeset differently by a smart enough typesetter. Similarity (or even identity) of glyphs has
very little relationship to “sameness” of Unicode characters.