AltGr key

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File:AltGr - Lenovo.jpg

The AltGr key is the first key to the right of the space bar.

AltGr (also Alt Graph) is a modifier key found on computer keyboards. It is primarily used to type characters that are used less frequently in the language that the keyboard is designed for, such as foreign currency symbols, typographic marks and accented letters.^[1] The AltGr key is used to access a third and a fourthTemplate:Efn grapheme for most keys. Most are accented variants of the letters on the keys, but some are additional symbols and punctuation marks. For example, when the US-International keyboard mapping is active, the Template:Keypress key can be used to insert four different characters:

Template:Keypress → c (lowercase — first level)
Template:Keypress → C (uppercase — second level)
Template:Keypress → © (copyright sign — third level)
Template:Keypress → ¢ (cent sign — fourth level)

Some languages, such as Bengali, use this key when the number of letters of their alphabet is too large for a standard keyboard. On keyboard layouts that do not include an AltGr key, such as US keyboards, the key position is labelled as a right-hand Alt key. When a relevant keyboard mapping is chosen in the operating system, this key will function separately as AltGr (despite being marked identically to the left-hand Alt key).^[2] In macOS, the Option key has functions similar to the AltGr key.

History

Script error: No such module "anchor". IBM states that AltGr is an abbreviation for alternate graphic.^[3]

File:Compose key on Sun Type 5c keyboard.jpg

Sun Microsystems keyboard, which labels the key as Alt Graph

A key labelled with some variation of "Alt Graphic" was on many computer keyboards before the Windows international layouts. On early home computers the alternate graphemes were primarily box-drawing characters.^[4]

This likely was the intended purpose of the Alt key on PC keyboards, however software quickly used this as a combination key for shortcuts, requiring a new key for producing additional characters.

Ctrl+Alt

Windows interprets Template:Keypress as Template:Keypress, to accommodate some compact keyboards like those of netbooks which have neither the AltGr key nor a right-hand Alt key. Thus Template:Keypress has the same effect as Template:Keypress. Because of this feature, Microsoft advises that Template:Keypress not be used as part of any application keyboard shortcut, as it would prevent typing the matching Template:Keypress character on such keyboards.^[5]Template:Efn

Function by default national keyboard

In most of the keyboard diagrams the symbol one gets when holding down AltGr is in blue in the lower-right of the corner. If different, the symbol for Shift+AltGr is shown in the upper-right.

Bangladesh

File:KB-Bengali-Jatiyo.svg

Jatiya layout (Alt Gr activated characters in blue)

Belgium

File:Belgian Linux keyboard.svg

Belgian keyboard under Linux (Ubuntu 9.10)

The Windows version of the Belgian keyboard may only support a subset of these characters. Several of the AltGr combinations are themselves dead keys, which are followed by another letter to produce an accented version of that letter.

Brazil

File:KB Portuguese Brazil.svg

ABNT complying keyboard layout (Alt Gr activated characters in blue)

File:KB Portuguese Brazil ABNT2.svg

ABNT2 complying keyboard layout (Alt Gr activated characters in blue)

Some notes

The Template:Keypress combination results in the (obsolete) symbol ₢ for the former Brazilian currency, the Brazilian cruzeiro.
The Template:Keypress, Template:Keypress, Template:Keypress combinations are useful as a replacement for the "/?" key, which is physically absent on non-Brazilian keyboards.
Some software (e.g. Microsoft Word) will map Template:Keypress to ® and Template:Keypress to ™.

Finland

File:KB Finnish Multilingual.svg

The original design for the Finnish Multilingual Keyboard, dead keys in red; Icelandic and Faroese Ð/ð is on the D key, the Sámi Đ/đ available using the AltGr diacritic on L

The new Finnish keyboard standard of 2008 (SFS 5966) was designed for easily typing 1) Finnish, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian; 2) Nordic minority languages and 3) European Latin letters (based on MES-2, with emphasis on contemporary proper nouns), without needing engravings different from those on existing standard keyboards of Finland and Sweden. AltGr and dead diacritic keys are extensively used, although letters of Finnish and Swedish are mostly provided as normal keys.^[6]

France

On AZERTY keyboards, AltGr enables the user to type the following characters:

File:KB France.svg

French AZERTY keyboard

Germany

On German keyboards, AltGr enables the user to type the following characters, which are indicated on the keyboard:

File:KB Germany.svg

German keyboard layout "T1" according to DIN 2137-1:2012-06

Windows 8 introduced the ability of pressing Template:Keypress to produce ẞ (capital ß). Even though this is usually not indicated on the physical keyboard—potentially due to a lack of space, since the ß-key already has three different levels (Template:Keypress → "ß", Template:Keypress → "?", and, as shown above, Template:Keypress → "\")—, it can be seen in the Windows On-Screen Keyboard by selecting the necessary keys with the German keyboard layout selected. Some newer types of German keyboards offer the assignment Template:Keypress → capital ß.

Greece

A Greek keyboard layout

Some of these key combinations also result in different characters if the polytonic layout is used.

Israel

Hebrew

On Hebrew keyboards, AltGr enables the user to type the Hebrew vowels and pronunciation marks. In addition, there are several combinations for special characters:

Yiddish

Using a Hebrew keyboard, one may write in Yiddish as the two languages share many letters. However, Yiddish has some additional digraphs not otherwise found in Hebrew, which are entered via AltGr:

Template:Keypress‎ → <templatestyles src="Script/styles_hebrew.css" />ײ‎
Template:Keypress‎ → <templatestyles src="Script/styles_hebrew.css" />ױ‎
Template:Keypress‎ → <templatestyles src="Script/styles_hebrew.css" />װ‎

Italy

On Italian keyboards, AltGr enables the user to type the following characters:

There is an alternate layout, which differ just in disposition of characters accessible through AltGr and includes the tilde and the curly brackets.

Latvia

The following letters can be input in the Latvian keyboard layout using AltGr:

Lowercase letters

Uppercase letters

North Macedonia

On Macedonian keyboards, AltGr enables the user to type the following characters:

Netherlands

Script error: No such module "Hatnote".

Digits row
- Template:Keypress → ¹ and ¡
- Template:Keypress → ²
- Template:Keypress → ³
- Template:Keypress → £ and ¤
- Template:Keypress → €
- Template:Keypress → ¼
- Template:Keypress → ½
- Template:Keypress → ¾
- Template:Keypress → ‘
- Template:Keypress → ’
- Template:Keypress → ¥
- Template:Keypress → × and ÷

Top letters row
- Template:Keypress → ä and Ä
- Template:Keypress → å and Å
- Template:Keypress → é and É
- Template:Keypress → ®
- Template:Keypress → þ and Þ (Icelandic and Old English thorn)
- Template:Keypress → ü and Ü
- Template:Keypress → ú and Ú
- Template:Keypress → í and Í
- Template:Keypress → ó and Ó
- Template:Keypress → ö and Ö
- Template:Keypress → «
- Template:Keypress → »
- Template:Keypress → ¬ and ¦

Middle letters row (Home row)
- Template:Keypress → á and Á
- Template:Keypress → ß (German eszett aka sharp s) and §
- Template:Keypress → ð and Ð (Icelandic edh)
- Template:Keypress → ø and Ø
- Template:Keypress → ¶ and °
- Template:Keypress → ´ and ¨

Bottom letters row
- Template:Keypress → æ and Æ
- Template:Keypress → © and ¢
- Template:Keypress → ñ and Ñ
- Template:Keypress → Template:Not a typo
- Template:Keypress → ç and Ç
- Template:Keypress → ¿

Nordic countries and Estonia

The keyboard layouts in the Nordic countries Denmark (DK), Faroe Islands (FO), Finland (FI), Norway (NO) and Sweden (SE) as well as in Estonia (EE) are largely similar to each other. Generally the AltGr key can be used to create the following characters:

Other AltGr combinations are peculiar to just some of the countries:

Template:Keypress → \ (EE, FI, SE)
Template:Keypress → | (EE, FI, SE)
Template:Keypress → \ (DK, FO)
Template:Keypress → | (DK, FO)
Template:Keypress → ´ (NO)
Template:Keypress → ~ (FO)
Template:Keypress → ¨ (FO)

Template:Keypress → ^ (FO)
Template:Keypress → € (NO, DK, FO, SE, sometimes FI)
Template:Keypress → š (EE, sometimes FI)
Template:Keypress → ž (EE, sometimes FI)
Template:Keypress → § (EE)
Template:Keypress → ½ (EE)

Finnish multilingual

The Finnish multilingual keyboard standard adds many new characters to the traditional layout via the AltGr key, as shown in the image below (the blue characters can be written with the AltGr key; several dead key diacritics, shown in red, are also available as an AltGr combination).^[7]^[8]

Finnish multilingual keyboard layout

Poland

Typewriters in Poland used a QWERTZ layout specifically designed for the Polish language with accented letters in the Polish alphabet obtainable directly. When personal computers became available worldwide in the 1980s, commercial importing into Poland was not supported by its communist government, so most machines in Poland were brought in by private individuals. Most had US keyboards, and various methods were devised to make available the accented Polish letters. An established method was to configure the [[Alt key|rightTemplate:NbspAlt]] key as an AltGr key and to use it in combination with a Latin base letter to obtain the equivalent precomposed character (accented form of the letter).

(Because there are two types of "z with diacritic" (Template:Char and Template:Char), Template:Keypress is a special case.)

At the time of the Fall of communism and opening of commercial import channels this practice was so widespread that it was adopted as the de facto standard. Nowadays nearly all PCs in Poland have standard US keyboards and use the AltGr method to enter Polish diacritics. This keyboard mapping is referred to as the Polish programmers' layout (Script error: No such module "Lang".) or simply Polish layout.

Another layout is still used on typewriters, mostly by professional typists. Computer keyboards with this layout are available, though difficult to find, and supported by a number of operating systems; they are known as Polish typists' layout (Script error: No such module "Lang".). Older Polish versions of Microsoft Windows used this layout, describing it as Polish layout. On current versions it is referred to as Polish (214).

Romania

The keymap with the AltGr key: < Romanian standard

+ the signs mostly pressed with Template:Keypress prints the US keyboard signs Romanian standard>

 â  ß  €  r  ț  y  u  î  o  §  „  ”
  ă  ș  đ  f  g  h  j  k  ł  ;
    z  x  ©  v  b  n  m  «  »

Russia

Since release 1903, versions of Windows 10 have the binding:

Template:Keypress → ₽ (Ruble sign)

South Slavic Latin and Czech keyboards

On South Slavic Latin (used in Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia) and on Czech keyboards, the following letters and special characters are created using AltGr:

Slovenian/Croatian/Serbian (Latin) keyboard layout

South Slavic cyrillic keyboards use a different layout.

Switzerland

On Swiss keyboards, AltGr in combination with the following keys types the following characters:

Template:Keypress / Template:Keypress → [ (See explanation below)
Template:Keypress → ]
Template:Keypress / Template:Keypress → { (See explanation below)
Template:Keypress → }

Switzerland has four national Languages (German, French, Italian, and Romansh). The Swiss keyboard layout is therefore designed with compatibility in mind for all four languages. In German-speaking and Romansh-speaking Switzerland (as well as the Czech Republic), the Swiss German layout is used, while in the French-speaking and Italian-speaking Switzerland, the Swiss French layout is used. The two layouts only differ on three keys—OEM1, OEM5, and OEM7. On the Swiss German layout, these three keys are labelled Template:Keypress, Template:Keypress, and Template:Keypress, respectively, while on the Swiss French layout, the labels are inverted as Template:Keypress, Template:Keypress, and Template:Keypress; namely, the base layer and the Template:Keypress layer are swapped. However, with respect to the Template:Keypress layer, the region-specific layouts are irrelevant.

Swiss German: Template:Keypress → {

Swiss French: Template:Keypress → {

Turkey

In Turkish keyboard variants the AltGr can be used to display the following characters:

Ukraine

In Ukrainian (enhanced) keyboard, added in Windows Vista, combination Template:Keypress (or as it is written in Cyrillic keyboards Template:Keypress gives letter ґ and Ґ.

United Kingdom and Ireland

Template:Broader United Kingdom keyboard layout

Template:Keypress → á and Á
Template:Keypress → é and É
Template:Keypress → í and Í
Template:Keypress → ó and Ó
Template:Keypress → ú and Ú

In UK and Ireland keyboard layouts, only two alternative use symbols are printed on most keyboards, which require the AltGr key to function. These are:

€ the euro sign. Located on the "4/$" key.
¦ the broken bar symbol. Located on the "`/¬" key, to the immediate left of "1".

Using the AltGr key on Linux produces many other characters and symbols, e.g. Template:Not a typo (If reconfigured as a compose key, an even larger repertoire is available).

With the UK extended keyboard setting (below), ChromeOS offers a large repertoire of symbols and precomposed characters.

Scotland and Wales

For the diacritics used by Welsh (ŵ and ŷ) and Scottish Gaelic (à, è, ì, ò and ù), the UK extended keyboard setting is needed. This makes available Template:Keypress (for circumflex accent) and Template:Keypress (for grave accent) as dead keys.

UK extended keyboard layout

The UK-Extended keyboard mapping (available with Microsoft Windows, Linux and ChromeOS) allows many characters with diacritical marks (including those used in other European countries) to be generated by using the AltGr key, dead keys or a compose key, in combination with others.

UK extended layout under ChromeOS
¬ ◌ ◌ ¦	! ¡ 1 ¹	" ½ 2 ◌	£ ⅓ 3 ³	$ ¼ 4 €	% ⅜ 5 ½	^ ⅝ 6 ◌	& ⅞ 7 {	* ™ 8 [	( ± 9 ]	) ° 0 }	_ ¿ - \	+ ◌ = ◌
tab	Q Ω q @	W Ẃ w ẃ	E É e é	R ® r ¶	T Ŧ t ŧ	Y Ý y ý	U Ú u ú	I Í i í	O Ó o ó	P Þ p þ	{ ◌ [ ◌	} ◌ ] ◌
◉	A Á a á	S § s ß	D Ð d ð	F ª f đ	G Ŋ g ŋ	H Ħ h ħ	J ◌ j ◌	K & k ĸ	L Ł l ł	: ◌ ; ◌	@ ◌ ' ◌	~ ◌ # ◌
shift	\| ¦ \ \|	Z < z «	X > x »	C Ç c ç	V ‘ v “	B ’ b ”	N N n n	M º m Template:Not a typo	< × , ─	> ÷ . ·	? ◌ / ◌

Notes: Dotted circle (◌) is used here to indicate a dead key, invoked using AltGr. The Template:Keypress (grave accent) key is the only one that acts as a free-standing dead key and thus does not respond as shown on the key-cap. (For a complete list of the characters generated using dead keys, see QWERTY#ChromeOS.)
Template:Keypress (°) is a degree sign; Template:Keypress (º) is a masculine ordinal indicator. Template:Keypress is an em-dash; there is no provision for en-dash.

United States

Most keyboards sold in the US do not have an (engraved) Template:Keypress key. However, if there is a right-hand Template:Keypress key it will act as Template:Keypress if a layout using it is installed (conversely a foreign keyboard Template:Keypress will act like the right-hand Template:Keypress if the standard US keyboard layout is installed).

US-International

Template:Broader Microsoft provides a US-International keyboard layout that uses Template:Keypress (or right-hand Template:Keypress or Template:Keypress) key to produce more characters:

US-International keyboard layout

Red characters are dead keys; for example ä can be entered with Template:Keypress.

Other operating systems such as Linux and ChromeOS follow this layout but increase the repertoire of glyphs provided.

X Window System

In the X Window System (Linux, BSD, Unix), AltGr can often be used to produce additional characters with almost every key on the keyboard. Furthermore, with some keys, AltGr will produce a dead key; for example on a UK keyboard, semicolon can be used to add an acute accent to a base letter, and left square bracket can be used to add a trema:

Template:Keypress followed by Template:Keypress → é
Template:Keypress followed by Template:Keypress → Ö

This use of dead keys enables one to type a wide variety of precomposed characters that combine various diacritics with either uppercase or lowercase letters, achieving a similar effect to the Compose key.

Keyboard maps

Below are some diagrams and examples of country-specific key maps. For the diagrams, the grey symbols are the standard characters, yellow is with Template:Keypress, red is with Template:Keypress, and blue is with Template:Keypress.

Danish keyboard

The Danish keymap features the following key combinations:

Italian keyboard

The Italian keymap includes, among other combinations, the following:

Template:Keypress → ħ
Template:Keypress → ~

Template:Keypress → `
Template:Keypress → ×

Norwegian keyboard

File:Norwegian X Window key map with its AltGr combinations.png

The complete Norwegian X Window key map with its AltGr combinations

Polish keyboard

The Polish keymap on X-based systems features changed combination for € sign:

Template:Keypress → €

Template:Keypress results in ↓ instead. It also introduces several symbols and characters from different languages, including among others:

Swedish keyboard

File:KB Sweden AltGr.svg

The complete Swedish X Window key map with its AltGr combinations

Notes

Template:Notelist

References

Template:Reflist

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Esc	F1	F2	F3	F4	F5	F6	F7	F8	F9	F10	F11	F12	PrtScn/ SysRq	Scroll Lock	Pause/ Break

Error: Image is invalid or non-existent.													Insert	Home	PgUp	Num Lock	∕	∗	−
													Delete	End	PgDn	7	8	9	+
																4	5	6	+
														↑		1	2	3	Enter
													←	↓	→	0 Ins		. Del	Enter

Template:Keyboard keys

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