The Latin International keyboard layout is a keyboard layout defined in the international standard ISO/IEC 9995-3:2026 âÂÂLatin International keyboard layoutâÂÂ, which was published in January 2026. It enables the input of a large set of characters including diacritical marks, special Latin letters and punctuation marks used in other languages than English, and symbols needed for quality typography.
This standard defines several variants which apply to different hardware key arrangements with different placing of the function keys, while the keys assigned to character input are placed identically as far as possible. The variant âÂÂLatin International-Aâ resembles the common US keyboard layout as defined in the US standard ANSI INCITS X3.154-1988 (the widespread âÂÂANSI QWERTYâ layout), with the only exception that the key to the right of the space bar is used as an AltGr key instead of an Alt key, as it is common for many European and other keyboard layouts.
Thus, anyone familiar with the âÂÂANSI QWERTYâ layout can use the Latin International layout without having to learn new things, especially when touch-typing. They only have to learn new key combinations for the âÂÂnewâ characters that they actually want to use that were not on the âÂÂANSI QWERTYâ layout.
The characters at the lower left of the keytop depictions are produced by pressing the key without pressing a special key simultaneously.<br /> The characters at the upper left are produced by pressing the key together with (the Shift key). <br />The characters at the lower right (in black) are produced by pressing the key while holding down .<br />The characters at the upper right (depicted in blue) are entered using the âÂÂExtra Selectorâ key (i.e. , see the following subsection).
The characters shown at the upper right of the keytop depictions are entered using the special âÂÂExtra Selectorâ key combination , which has the symbol (the AltGr key is explained below). If a letter is shown that has uppercase and lowercase variants, only the lowercase variant is shown on the keytop. If two characters are shown in the upper right quadrant of the keytop depiction, the first (upper left) one is to be entered using the Shift key on the second input key.
Examples:
Explanations for some of these characters and symbols:
The AltGr key (usually placed right of the space bar instead of the right Alt key) is to be pressed together with any key to input the character (or function) shown (or symbolized) at the lower right of the keycap. E.g., pressing together with yields the Yen/Yuan sign âÂÂÃ¥âÂÂ. Especially, this applies for the following special characters represented by symbols:
Moreover, for the following characters, explanations are given here:
The following functions can be selected by the key:
Dead keys for diacritical marks are marked by narrow horizontal rectangles, which also indicate the position of the diacritical mark relative to the base letter (this is according to ISO/IEC 9995-11). First, the dead key is to be pressed and released, then the base letter. According to ISO/IEC 9995-11, this only has to work for combinations for which individual code points are defined in Unicode (precomposed characters), as the Microsoft Windows keyboard driver model only allows this (as of December 2025). However, this covers the common use cases for widely used languages.
To be able to enter diacritical characters independently of this restriction, you can also enter them after the base character by actuating the dead key twice.
Examples:
The dead key âÂÂbreveâ () puts the breve above of the character for all characters (e.g. ÃÂ, ÃÂ), except for H and h where it is put beneath (as the characters Ḫ and ḫ are common in transliteration systems).
All dead keys are entered using the key. The characters ` (grave accent) and ^ (circumflex accent) typed without pressing behave like the according keys of the standard US ANSI keyboard, generating spacing characters (as appropriate e.g. for the input of programming code). Note that the dead key variant of ~ (the tilde) is placed on another key () than the spacing tilde, as the -place there already is occupied by the grave accent as dead key.
Dead keys also can be chained, in particular for Vietnamese. This works for result characters available as precomposed characters in Unicode (as it is the case for all common Vietnamese characters).
For example, to enter á»± (u with horn and underdot), press (i.e. ) for the horn, release these keys, then press (i.e. ) for the underdot, release these keys, then press . (The order in which the diacritical marks are entered is irrelevant.)
To enter a Ẹà(E with acute accent and underdot) for Yoruba (as an example of a character not available in Unicode as a precomposed character), press , release these keys, then (i.e. ), then the same key combination again, then (i.e. ), then the same key combination again.
The circumflex (i.e., ) applied on a digit (i.e., pressed and released before typing the digit) yields the superscript version of the digit (as indicated by the arrow in the keyboard symbol). Likewise, the caron (i.e., ) yields the subscript version of the digit. Besides digits, the same applies for the parentheses and , the plus sign and the hyphen-minus , the latter yielding a superscripted or subscripted minus sign.
Applying a diacritical mark on the space yields a spacing variant of the mark (i.e., a character showing the mark on its own instead of being applied onto a letter) whenever such a character is contained in Unicode.<br />For instance, the input sequence (i.e. ) â yields âÂÂèâÂÂ.
For some diacritical marks for which no spacing variant is contained in Unicode, such sequences yield a spacing character similar to the diacritical mark, especially:
The special dead key () applies the horizontal crossbar onto letters. As any dead key, it is to be entered before the letter to which it applies. Especially, it is used to enter the following letters:
It is not to be used to enter à Â/à  (as used for Polish, Sorbian, Venetian, and several North American indigenous languages), as the bar is not horizontal. Also, it is not suited for Icelandic Eth (ÃÂ/ð), since this is a different letter than the àwith horizontal bar (although the uppercase forms look identical). These letters are entered with the âÂÂExtra Selectorâ (see above) followed by L/l resp. D/d.
The key ( acts as a dead key to enter currency symbols. To enter such a symbol, enter first and then a letter according to the following table (uppercase for symbols in the first line, lowercase for those in the second line).
Note: The currency symbols at W, u, and Z are scheduled for inclusion in Unicode version 18.0, expected for September 2026.
Some additional characters can be entered by pressing a key together with (Shift) + . These are not displayed on the keytops, according to ISO/IEC 9995-1:2026. These are diacritical marks (and a special character combination on the key) used for transliterations of non-Latin script systems and other special purposes, related to the ones shown in the lower right part of the keytops (which are accessed by without ).
The diacritical marks marked by narrow horizontal rectangles are dead keys.<br /> The ones marked by a dotted circle are to be entered after the base letter on which they are to be applied.<br /> (on the key) denotes the âÂÂcircumflex belowâ used in Vená¸Âa, a language spoken in South Africa and Zimbabwe.<br /> (on the key) is the âÂÂopen markâ used in some orthographies of Low German.<br /> The overline on the key and the underline on the key yield connecting lines when applied to consecutive characters.
The âÂÂIPA Special Selector keyâ () can be used to enter all phonetic symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), as listed in the 1999 edition of the Handbook of the International Phonetic Association (the current edition as of February 2026), excluding some of the symbols listed there in the Appendix 3: Extensions to the IPA. This repertoire is supplemented by three symbols ô, õ, and ö used in sinology. To enter such characters, press the key followed by a letter and a number. (Thus, this key acts like a compose key, with the exception that the result does not visually resemble a composition of the two following characters.) This pair identifies the IPA character according to the following tables (upper table: enter the letter first, followed by the digit; lower table: reverse order).
The diacritical characters entered in this way according to the lower table are always applied to the previously entered letter (or, in the case of subsequent entry, to the character to the left of the cursor).
The following tables correspond to those in the international standard ISO/IEC 9995-9.
Examples:
The following common IPA special characters can be entered using shorter key sequences:
The âÂÂSuperselect keyâ () allows inputting a large set of special characters. Its symbol is named âÂÂsquare sunâÂÂ. It works similar to a compose key, with the exception that the result does not visually resemble a composition of the two following characters. This key (including its name) is defined in its own international standard, and, based on this, can be included into any keyboard layout. Therefore, some characters which can be entered by this mechanism are duplications of ones which can be entered with the Latin International keyboard directly. According to that standard, the keyboard symbol may be used instead of as long as the former symbol is not used for another purpose.
The characters selectable by the âÂÂSuperselectâ are listed in the following table. To enter one of the characters listed there, enter âÂÂSuperselectâ followed by:
The table contains three rows for each group:
Note: In the âÂÂqâ group, the lowered Latin letters w, y, and z are scheduled for inclusion in Unicode version 18.0, expected for September 2026. In the âÂÂcâ group, the same applies to the currency symbols at W, u, and Z.
The symbols shown in gray in the last group âÂÂPunctuation marksâ are the ones defined in ISO/IEC 9995-7 and 9995-10 for the following invisible characters and special hyphens and dashes:
The standard ISO/IEC 9995-3:2026 defines several variants based on different key arrangements. The set and arrangement of the character keys is identical for all variants (with the exception of the placement of the key which varies with the shape of the return key), while the placement of the key varies. Additional keys present in some key arrangements are used:
Some layout variants use the Shift Lock / Caps Lock key as âÂÂleft AltGrâ key. For these variants, pressing that key together with a Control key () shall cause the Shift Lock or Caps Lock function. This has the additional ergonomic anvantage that an inadvertent touch of that key alone has no effect.
For example, the layout âÂÂLatin International-Sâ is based on the hardware key arrangement of the Korean Dubeolsik layout. Thus, it is considered to pose no specific challenges on manufacturers of keyboard hardware. It utilizes the additional keys left and right of the space bar as âÂÂleft and right AltGr keysâÂÂ, and has a dedicated âÂÂExtra selectorâ key instead of a right Alt key. Moreover, its large shift keys and its large return key are considered as an ergonomic advance.
German extended keyboard layout