I assigned “ك”, the Arabic version of “kaaf”, to “alt+ctrl”+“k”.This is convenient because it is the same key as the Urdu/Persian version of “kaaf”, in a different state. Plus, it makes use of every key, allowing for more special characters and punctuation marks.Īs I mentioned, this keyboard is also compatible with Arabic, which requires different variations of certain letters. It includes characters specific to Arabic, making this keyboard easily usable for typing in both Urdu and Arabic. Although there is an accessible keyboard layout for Urdu that follows this phonetic approach (“CRULP Urdu Phonetic Keyboard Layout”), mine has a few advantages. For a few letters, I simply had to pick whichever keys were still left, but the majority of keys are intuitively placed. I followed an analogous pattern for retroflex “d” and “r”. Thus, “t” corresponds to “ت” but “shift”+“t” corresponds to the less common retroflex “ٹ”. Being able to assign more letters to the “shift” state helps with this because we don’t have to worry about upper and lower cases for languages that use the Arabic script.
Of course, there cannot be a perfect correspondence between Urdu and English because some letters exist in both languages that don’t have an equivalent in the other. Therefore, “p” corresponds to “پ” (“pe”), “k” corresponds to “ک” (“kaaf”), “l” corresponds to “ل” (“laam”), etc.
The main idea behind my keyboard design is to make it easy for someone who already knows how to type in English.
I used it to create an optimized and comprehensive layout for Urdu, which also has the full capacity to type in Persian, Punjabi (Shahmukhi), Arabic, and other languages. As one of those people, I downloaded the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator (MSKLC), a really useful tool that allows users to design custom keyboard layouts by assigning different Unicode characters to each key. Some people adjust to the standard layout of the language, but others may prefer an alternative that is more convenient and easier to learn based on their experience using a QWERTY keyboard. The same applies to many of the speakers of languages that use variations of the Arabic script. Many Urdu speakers first learn how to type in English, and therefore have trouble adjusting to the standard Urdu keyboard layout.