AltGr key
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (April 2017) |
AltGr (also Alt Graph) is a modifier key found on many computer keyboards (rather than a second Alt key found on US keyboards). It is primarily used to type characters that are not widely used in the territory where sold, such as foreign currency symbols, typographic marks and accented letters. On a typical, Windows-compatible PC keyboard, the AltGr key, when present, takes the place of the right-hand Alt key: if not engraved as such, that key may still be remapped to behave as though it is,[1] (or emulated using a chord such as Ctrl+Alt). In macOS, the Option key has functions similar to the AltGr key.
AltGr is used similarly to the Shift key: it is held down while another key is struck in order to obtain a character other than the one that the latter normally produces. AltGr and Shift can also sometimes be combined to obtain yet another character. For example, on the US-International keyboard layout, the C key can be used to insert four different characters:
- C → c (lower case — first level)
- ⇧ Shift+C → C (upper case — second level)
- AltGr+C → © (copyright sign — third level)
- AltGr+⇧ Shift+C → ¢ (cent sign — fourth level)
Meaning[]
IBM states that AltGr is an abbreviation for alternate graphic.[2][3]
AltGr was originally introduced as a means to produce box-drawing characters in text user interfaces.[4] In modern usage, these characters are technically obsolescent and are no longer readily available from the keyboard. The AltGr key is used today as an additional 'shift' key, to provide a third and a fourth range of graphemes for most keys – especially the accented variants of the letters on the keys but also some additional typographical symbols and punctuation marks. Some languages such as Bengali uses this key when the number of alphabet cannot fit a standard keyboard.
Function by default national keyboard[]
In most of the keyboard diagrams the symbol you get 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[]
Belgium[]
On Belgian keyboards, AltGr enables the user to type the following characters (the first or only one shown is without ⇧ Shift; when two characters are mentioned, the second one is with ⇧ Shift). Those shown in bold are printed on the keys, and common to all systems; the others may be more variable, or specific to Unix-like systems. For travellers who want to use hotel PCs or cybercafés in Belgium, it is important to know that @ in email addresses is generated by a combination of AltGr + é (unshifted 2).
- Digits row
- AltGr+² → ¬
- AltGr+1 → | and ¡ (inverted exclamation mark, for Spanish)
- AltGr+2 → @ and ⅛
- AltGr+3 → #
- AltGr+4 → ¼
- AltGr+5 → ½ and ⅜
- AltGr+6 → ^ and ⅝ — the ^ is not dead here
- AltGr+7 → { and ⅞ — { is duplicate of AltGr+9, see below
- AltGr+8 → [ and ™ — [ is duplicate of AltGr+^, see below
- AltGr+9 → { and ±
- AltGr+0 → }
- AltGr+) → \ and ¿ — \ is duplicate of AltGr+<, see below
- AltGr+- → dead cedilla and dead ogonek, as in ç and ę
- Top letters row
- AltGr+A → @ and Ω — @ is duplicate of AltGr+2, see above
- AltGr+Z → ł and Ł — both duplicates of AltGr+L, see below
- AltGr+E → € and ¢ — for ¢ see also AltGr+C below
- AltGr+R → ¶ and ®
- AltGr+T → ŧ and Ŧ
- AltGr+Y → ← and ¥
- AltGr+U → ↓ and ↑
- AltGr+I → → and ı (right arrow and Turkish dotless i)
- AltGr+O → œ and Œ
- AltGr+P → þ and Þ (Icelandic thorn)
- AltGr+^ → [ and dead ball, as in å
- AltGr+$ → ] and dead macron, as in ō
- Middle letters row (Home row)
- AltGr+Q → æ and Æ
- AltGr+S → ß (German eszett aka sharp s)
- AltGr+D → ð and Ð (Icelandic edh)
- AltGr+F → đ and ª ("feminine" exponent-a for Spanish etc.)
- AltGr+G → ŋ and Ŋ
- AltGr+H → ħ and Ħ
- AltGr+K → ĸ
- AltGr+L → ł and Ł — see also AltGr+Z, above
- AltGr+M → dead acute and dead double-acute, as in ó and ő
- AltGr+ù → dead acute and dead caron, as in ć and č
- AltGr+µ → dead grave and dead breve, as in ì and ŭ
- Note: Depending on the hardware, the latter key may also be two rows higher, with ← Backspace narrower and ↵ Enter wider to compensate.
- Bottom letters row
- AltGr+< → \
- AltGr+W → «
- AltGr+X → »
- AltGr+C → ¢ and © — for ¢ see also AltGr+⇧ Shift+E above
- AltGr+V → “ and ‘ — "shape 6 above" quotation marks (opening in English, closing in German)
- AltGr+B → ” and ’ — "shape 9 above" quotation marks (closing in English)
- AltGr+, → dead cedilla, as in Ç
- AltGr+; → (nothing) and × (multiplication sign)
- AltGr+: → · and ÷ (middle dot as in Catalan col·lega "colleague", and division sign)
- AltGr+= → dead tilde and dead dot above, as in ñ and İ
Brazil[]
Some notes[]
- The AltGr+C combination results in the (obsolete) symbol ₢ for the former Brazilian currency, the Brazilian cruzeiro.
- The AltGr+Q, AltGr+W, AltGr+E 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 AltGr+R to ® and AltGr+T to ™, but this is not standard behavior and was likely an accident owing to the fact that the combinations Ctrl+Alt+R and Ctrl+Alt+T were intended. Windows interprets Ctrl+Alt as AltGr.[5]
France[]
On AZERTY keyboards, AltGr enables the user to type the following characters:
|
|
Germany[]
On German keyboards, AltGr enables the user to type the following characters, which are indicated on the keyboard:
|
|
|
Windows 8 introduced the ability of pressing AltGr+⇧ Shift+ß 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 (ß → "ß", ⇧ Shift+ß → "?", and, as shown above, AltGr+ß → "\")—, 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 fixed assignment Alt+++H → ẞ.)
Greece[]
On Greek keyboards, AltGr enables the user to type the following characters:
- Digits row
- AltGr+2 → ²
- AltGr+3 → ³
- AltGr+4 → £
- AltGr+5 → §
- AltGr+6 → ¶
- AltGr+8 → ¤
- AltGr+9 → ¦
- AltGr+0 → °
- AltGr+- → ±
- AltGr+= → ½
- Top letters row
- AltGr+Ε → €
- AltGr+Ρ → ®
- AltGr+Υ → ¥
- AltGr+[ → «
- AltGr+] → »
- AltGr+\ → ¬
- Middle letters row
- AltGr+; → ΅(a dead key:AltGr+; then i → ΐ)
- Bottom letters row
- AltGr+Ψ → ©
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 following characters:
|
There are several combinations using AltGr that activate Hebrew vowels.
Yiddish[]
Using a Hebrew keyboard, one may write in Yiddish as the two languages share many letters. However, Yiddish has some additional digraphs and a symbol not otherwise found in Hebrew which are entered via AltGr.
|
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:
|
|
|
The Netherlands[]
- Digits row
- AltGr+1 → ¹ and ¡
- AltGr+2 → ²
- AltGr+3 → ³
- AltGr+4 → £ and ¤
- AltGr+5 → €
- AltGr+6 → ¼
- AltGr+7 → ½
- AltGr+8 → ¾
- AltGr+9 → ‘
- AltGr+0 → ’
- AltGr+- → ¥
- AltGr+= → × and ÷
- Top letters row
- AltGr+Q → ä and Ä
- AltGr+W → å and Å
- AltGr+E → é and É
- AltGr+R → ®
- AltGr+T → þ and Þ (Icelandic and Old English thorn)
- AltGr+Y → ü and Ü
- AltGr+U → ú and Ú
- AltGr+I → í and Í
- AltGr+O → ó and Ó
- AltGr+P → ö and Ö
- AltGr+[ → «
- AltGr+] → »
- AltGr+\ → ¬ and ¦
- Middle letters row (Home row)
- AltGr+A → á and Á
- AltGr+S → ß (German eszett aka sharp s) and §
- AltGr+D → ð and Ð (Icelandic edh)
- AltGr+L → ø and Ø
- AltGr+; → ¶ and °
- AltGr+' → ´ and ¨
- Bottom letters row
- AltGr+Z → æ and Æ
- AltGr+C → © and ¢
- AltGr+N → ñ and Ñ
- AltGr+M → µ
- AltGr+, → ç and Ç
- AltGr+/ → ¿
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:
|
|
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).[6][7]
Poland[]
Typewriters in Poland used a QWERTZ layout specifically designed for the Polish language with accented characters 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 special Polish characters available. An established method was to use AltGr in combination with the relevant Latin base letter to obtain a precomposed character with a diacritic; note the exceptional combination using x instead of the base letter z, as the Latin base letter has been reserved for another combination:
- AltGr+A → ą
- AltGr+C → ć
- AltGr+E → ę
- AltGr+L → ł
- AltGr+N → ń
- AltGr+O → ó
- AltGr+S → ś
- AltGr+U → €
- AltGr+X → ź
- AltGr+Z → ż
At the time of the political transformation and opening of commercial import channels this practice was so widespread that it was adopted as the de facto standard. Nowadays most PCs in Poland have standard US keyboards and use the AltGr method to enter Polish diacritics. This layout is referred to as Polish programmers' layout (klawiatura polska programisty) 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 (klawiatura polska maszynistki). 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:
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:
- AltGr+8 → ₽ (Ruble sign)
South Slavic Latin[]
On South Slavic Latin keyboards (used in Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia), the following letters and special characters are created using AltGr:
|
|
|
Turkey[]
In Turkish keyboard variants the AltGr can be used to display the following characters:
- AltGr+a → æ
- AltGr+s → ß
- AltGr+e → €
- AltGr+t → ₺
- AltGr+q → @
- AltGr+ı → i
- AltGr+ü a → ã
- AltGr+ğ a → ä
- AltGr+ş a → á
- AltGr+, a → à
United Kingdom and Ireland[]
|
|
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 foreign characters and international symbols, e.g. ¹²³€½{[]}@łe¶ŧ←↓→øþæßðđŋħjĸł«»¢“”nµΩŁE®Ŧ¥↑ıØÞƧЪŊĦJ&Ł<>©‘’Nº×÷· (If reconfigured as a compose key, an even larger repertoire is available).
With the UK extended keyboard setting (below), Chrome OS offers a large repertoire of symbols and precomposed characters.
Scotland and Wales[]
For the diacritics used by Welsh (ŵ and ŷ) and Scots Gaelic (à, è, ì, ò and ù), the UK extended keyboard setting is needed. This makes available AltGr+6 (for circumflex accent) and AltGr+` (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 or dead keys in combination with others.
| ¬ ◌ ◌ ¦ |
! ¡ 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 |
{ ◌ [ ◌ |
} ◌ ] ◌ |
|
|