Arabic Keyboard Online

It is Arabic (101), the standard Arabic keyboard of Windows and the layout printed on most Arabic–English keyboards sold in the Middle East. The letters sit on the same keys as on Apple’s “Arabic – PC” layout. A few keys type two characters: b gives the lam-alef ligature لا, and Shift+B, Shift+G and Shift+T give لآ, لأ and لإ. Shift+9 and Shift+0 send the parentheses the Windows way, so they appear the right way round in right-to-left text.

Type the letter first, then the mark. On the layout the harakat are on Shift: Shift+Q fatha َ, Shift+E damma ُ, Shift+A kasra ِ, Shift+X sukun ْ, Shift+` shadda ّ, and the tanween on Shift+W ً, Shift+R ٌ and Shift+S ٍ. The tashkeel row above the keyboard types the same marks with one tap, plus the superscript alef ٰ, maddah ٓ and tatweel ـ. With shadda and a vowel together, type the shadda first: د + ّ + َ gives دَّ.

Windows 11: Settings → Time & language → Language & region → Add a language → Arabic (choose your country); for most countries it adds the Arabic (101) keyboard used here — Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia get Arabic (102) AZERTY — and Windows key + Space switches between keyboards. Mac: System Settings → Keyboard → Text Input → Edit → + → Arabic, then pick Arabic – PC for this layout or Arabic for Apple’s own; switch with Control + Space or the Globe key. Android: in Gboard open Settings → Languages → Add keyboard → Arabic. iPhone and iPad: Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards → Add New Keyboard → Arabic, then switch with the globe key.

Arabic-Indic digits (٠١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩) are the numerals used with Arabic script in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states, Iraq, Sudan and elsewhere in the eastern Arab world; North Africa uses the Western digits 0 to 9. Both are written left to right, even inside Arabic text. Tick the Arabic-Indic digits box and, in the Arabic (101) layout mode, the number row and the on-screen keys type Arabic-Indic digits instead of Western ones; digits already in the text are left as they are.

Arabizi is the way Arabic is written in chats with Latin letters, using digits for sounds English has no letter for: hamza ء is 2, ayn ع is 3, kha خ is 5, ta ط is 6, ha ح is 7, qaf ق is 8 and sad ص is 9. Phonetic mode converts each word when you press space: 7abibi → حبيبي, marhaba → مرحبا and al-kitaab → الكتاب, and a final -ah becomes ة. Short vowels are left out, as in normal Arabic writing, and letters that sound alike are chosen by case — S ص, D ض, T ط, Z ظ, H ح — so check the result and fix a letter with the keyboard where needed. A number on its own stays a number.

Arabic is written right to left, so the text box is right-to-left: the line starts at the right edge and the Right arrow key moves back towards the start. English words and numbers inside an Arabic sentence still run left to right, so the cursor jumps when it crosses between the two directions. That is how every app handles mixed text; the characters are stored in the order you typed them. If punctuation lands on the wrong side of an English word, add a right-to-left mark (RLM) from the tashkeel row after it.