In programmable keyboards, we can actually use this key to assign different functions here.

ISO Keyboards get an additional key right next to the Left Shift Key. The right Alt key is also replaced with an Alt Gr key. Have a look at the reference image for ISO layouts below.Īs depicted in the image above, the Backslash key is taken from above the Enter key and it is placed right next to the Enter key. Primary differences include an L-shaped Enter key, a Shorter left Shift key, a changed Backslash location, and a few more changes. Commonly used in some European countries, ISO Keyboards bring a few physical changes to the table. ISO refers to Internation Organisation for Standardisations. In other layouts(ISO and JIS) this number gets very limited and we don’t get many options to choose from. The best benefit of using ANSI keyboards is that since it is widely used, we get plenty of options for replacing the Keycaps. In an ANSI layout, the left and right Alt keys are also the same. The backslash key is placed right above the enter key, Left and Right shift keys have the same rectangular form. Check out a reference image of the ANSI layout below.Īs you can see ANSI Layouts have a regular-sized Rectangular Enter key.

They have our traditional layout with 87-keys in the TKL Layout, and 104 keys in the full-sized layout. Let’s dive into the world of these physical layouts for Keyboards.Īs stated earlier, ANSI stands for the American National Standards Institute. Most keyboards worldwide use the ANSI layout, ISO is found in some European countries, and JIS is usually found in the Japanese regions. ANSI is short for American National Standards Institute, ISO is short for International Organisation for Standardisation, and JIS stands for the Japanese Industrial Standard. These three actually stand for three different standard organizations. You might find the ANSI layout to be available worldwide while JIS and ISO are specific to only a few locations. ANSI, ISO, and JIS are the three most widely used Keyboard Layouts. Each layout has a different size, shape, and position of a few keys. Each layout will have something slightly different from the other, the primary difference is with the Enter Key, Left Shift Key, Right Alt Key, and a few more keys. Physical Layout refers to the actual positioning of the keys on the keyboard. What is Keyboard Layout?Ī keyboard layout refers to the arrangement of the keys and legends. So let’s start with today’s blog without wasting any more time. Understanding a keyboard layout helps us in understanding the arrangements of keys on our keyboard better. These are different than the logical QWERTY, Dvorak layouts. Today, we are going to discuss physical keyboard layouts like ANSI, ISO, JIS, and more. No, we are not talking about form factors ( 65%, 75%, TKL, Full-Sized, and more), we have already covered different form factors for keyboards all around that you can check out here. Mechanical Keyboards come in different layouts and we need to understand them pretty well in order to make our purchase decisions easier.

Japanese keyboard layout image