ISO keyboard layout test

The ISO diagram shows the European-style board with an extra key beside the left Shift and a tall Enter key.

Key bench · ISO

Local only · no transmission

esc F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F8 F9 F10 F11 F12

` 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - = backspace

tab Q W E R T Y U I O P [ ]

caps A S D F G H J K L ; ' \ enter

shift \ Z X C V B N M , . / shift

ctrl win alt space alt win menu ctrl

Event sheet

Local only

event.key Waiting for a key press

event.code Not recorded

location Not recorded

repeat No repeat detected

stuck No stuck keys

modifiers None

Privacy: key events are processed only in this tab and are never sent anywhere. Some combinations are reserved by the operating system or browser and cannot be captured by any web page.

Identify the extra key next to Shift

Look at the main Enter key and the row above the space bar. A typical ISO keyboard has a tall Enter spanning two rows and a short left Shift with a separate key immediately to its right. These features still work as clues when the keycaps are printed in another language.

On a UK ISO board, press the key between left Shift and Z. With a UK input layout it usually types a backslash, and the Event sheet displays INTLBACKSLASH under event.code. Now press the key beside Enter on its left. The sheet displays that position as BACKSLASH. Compare the two codes even if your input language produces different characters. The diagram uses simplified rectangular keys.

Physical key positions in the W3C keyboard diagrams

Compare a keycap with the character you get

If a printed symbol and the typed character disagree, note your active input language. Press the extra ISO key on its own. Before pressing another key, copy the Event sheet’s event.key and event.code into a note. On a second line, record the same two fields while holding Shift and pressing the same physical key. Read the values while holding it so a later Shift event does not replace your observation.

For example, if both lines show INTLBACKSLASH but the characters differ, the browser identified the same position for both presses. The modifier changed the character. To compare two input languages, repeat the unmodified press after switching languages and record which language produced each character. Changing the language and holding Shift at the same time makes the cause harder to isolate. A matching position code alone cannot establish that the switch is electrically healthy.