Alt-Latin Keyboard
The Alt-Latin keyboard comes in versions for either Macintosh or Windows operating
systems, and is the simplest, most transparent method we have found for entering
special characters, diacritics, and symbols not found on the standard keyboard.
These keyboard layouts were created by Kino, and are made available for download
here with his permission.
Installation is simple and usage even simpler. For instructions, see our Unicode
page.
Using the Alt-Latin keyboard does not require making any changes to the physical
keyboard connected to your computer; it is simply a piece of software that tells
the computer what to do when you press a key or a combination of keys. As long
as you are typing in the Latin alphabet (i.e. in English or most other European
languages) you will not have to change from Alt-Latin to another layout. As
can be seen in the diagrams below, Alt-Latin's key layout is identical to the
standard U.S. QWERTY keyboard.
The LatinTL keyboard for Macintosh OS X (also created by Kino) is almost identical to Alt-Latin, with a few differences (see the bottom of this page for the differences).
Downloads
Download Alt-Latin for Macintosh OS X
Downlaod Alt-Latin for Windows
Download LatinTL for Macintosh OS X
After downloading, follow the installation instructions on our Unicode page.
The following diagrams are intended to illustrate
the usefulness of the Alt-Latin keyboard.
Return to the Mamluk Encyclopedia Unicode page.
Links to downloadable PDF's of these images--in color or black and white--are at the bottom of this page.
If you would like to print these diagrams for easy reference while typing, download any (or all) of the following pdf files:
Maps of the entire Alt-Latin keyboard--click on either image to download that pdf.
Maps of the most useful key combinations for transliterating Arabic--click on either image to download that pdf.
The differences between Alt-Latin (mapped above) and LatinTL:
In LatinTL option+5 is 0/00 (instead of a dagger).
In LatinTL option+6 is a combining circumflex (instead of the s-over-s symbol).
In LatinTL shift+option+5 is a dagger (instead of the fi ligature).
In LatinTL shift+option+6 a non-combining circumflex (instead of the fl ligature).
In LatinTL option+i is a dotless lowercase i (instead of circumflex).
In LatinTL shift+option+i is capital I with dot (instead of circumflex).
(Because of these last two, LatinTL may be better for those who need to use
Turkish.)
To type the dotless lower case i or the capital I with dot using the Alt-Latin keyboard: type option+w followed by either i or I.