Page Content
- An IPA keyboard layout for linguists (usable only in Windows) This is an IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) keyboard layout, made for linguists by linguists. There are very few tools for comprehensive IPA input available, some of those are strictly online, some of them cost money, and others yet are difficult to install and operate.
- IPA Keyboard - For Mac and Windows. Transcription of any language using the international phonetic alphabet. Use predefined layouts or make your own. Download on Mac App Store or Microsoft Store.
Smart Keyboard Folio for iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th. Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad - US English - Previous Gallery Image. Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad - US English.
Other Pages on Phonetics
Phonetic Fonts for Unicode
The following Unicode fonts include a comprehensive set of phonetic characters and are free for academic use.
- Windows – Arial Unicode MS
- Macintosh – Lucida Grande, several of the 'Pro' Japanese fonts
- Microsoft Office (Win/Mac) – Cambria (serif), Calibri (sans-serif)
- SIL Fonts – The SIL has created multiple fonts with IPA characters including:
- Andika – Designed for new readers. It could be suitable for some students with reading disorders.
- Doulos SIL – Includes Greek, Cyrillic
- Charis SIL – Font family and includes Greek, Cyrillic
- Gentium – From SIL. Very readable
- Junicode – Includes characters for medieval languages
- Aboriginal Serif and Aboriginal Sans Serif
- Quivira – Modelled on Garamond and includes ancient language, basic Cyrillic/Armenian/Georgian and math/astronomical symbols
Text Text for Browsers
IPA Unicode Test Text
θɪs ɪz ə ənʌðər tɛst
Note on Encoding and Fonts
If these sites are not displaying correctly, see the Browser Setup page for set up information.
It’s important that your browser encoding be set to display Unicode (UTF-8). In some cases, you may need to set the default font to one that includes phonetic characters.
Input Palettes For Phonetics
These programs provide a pop-up window which allows you to insert different phonetic characters. See pages for installation and usage instructions.
- Online
- Macintosh –IPA Palette (Mac) – freeware from Brian Hall, Pitt Windows – IPA Character Map (Windows) – freeware from David Montero
Note: Requires .NET and may not work on new Windows systems
You can also use
Get Phonetics Keyboards
If you need to type phonetic symbols often, you may want to install phonetic keyboard utilities designed to work with the SIL Doulos and SIL Charis fonts.
- SIL Unicode IPA Keyboards (Win/Mac/Linux)
- UCL Unicode Phonetic Keyboard (Win)
Web Development
Declare Unicode
No matter which method you use to create the document, the HTML page must be declared as a Unicode page with the following meta-tag.
<head>
<meta http-equiv='Content-Type'>
…
</head>
Unicode Numeric Entity Codes
If you cannot use a Unicode phonetics input utilitiy or keyboard, then you can substitute numeric
entity codes instead. For example:
- upside down R – ɹ(ɹ)
- upside down capital R – ʁ(ʁ)
- retroflex t (t-dot) – ṭ(ṭ)
See the Main Numeric Entity Code Chart and the Diacritic
Chart for details.
Specifying Phonetic Font Styles
Although it is generally not recommended to specify fonts for a language,
it may a good option to make display consistent across browsers.
Below are the CSS style classes listing some suggested
font specifications.
.serifipa {font-family: 'Doulos SIL', 'Gentium', 'Junicode', 'Cardo', 'Aborigonal Serif','Arial Unicode MS'}
.ipa {font-family: 'Lucida Grande','Arial Unicode MS'}
Links
Third Party Fonts
The following fonts are availble free for educational use and include all encoded phonetic symbols.
Mac Ipa Keyboard Symbols
- Junicode – Includes characters for medieval languages
- Aboriginal Serif and Aboriginal Sans Serif
- Quivira – Modelled on Garamond and includes ancient language, basic Cyrillic/Armenian/Georgian and math/astronomical symbols
IPA Unicode Char Maps/Palettes and Keyboards
These keyboards can either be used to type text into an HTML editor or cut and pasted from a text editor. See the Web tips section for more details.
Mac Os Ipa Keyboard
Windows
Macintosh OS X
- IPA Palette (Brian Hall, Pitt)
Online Keyboards
These utilities let you type a character on a virtual keyboard, then cut and paste the symbols into a document.