How do I type Russian letters without a Russian keyboard?

Click the Cyrillic keys, or select a layout and enable Use Russian key positions for my physical keyboard. Standard ЙЦУКЕН gives Q → й, A → ф and Z → я. XKB phonetic gives Q → я, A → а and V → ж. The English labels show the selected positions. Physical Shift and CapsLock control letter case; in phonetic mode Shift+3 gives ё, Shift+4 gives Ё, Shift+5 gives ъ and Shift+6 gives Ъ. IME composition and Ctrl, Command or Alt shortcuts use native input. Turn the option off to type normally. The on-screen Shift button changes clicked keys to capitals. Copy and Download preserve Unicode text.

Why is my keyboard in Russian?

If physical typing in this text box produces Russian letters, check Use Russian key positions for my physical keyboard. Turn that option off to use your normal input method. If Russian also appears in other apps, your device may have Russian selected as its input language. Check the device input-language indicator or keyboard settings and choose the language you intended. This page does not change device settings; language-switching controls depend on your device and configuration.

Can I convert a whole draft between English and Russian key positions?

Choose Russian, then use Whole-draft Standard key-position conversion. English positions → Russian letters changes Ghbdtn to Привет; Russian letters → English positions changes Привет to Ghbdtn. Both actions use Standard ЙЦУКЕН regardless of the selected typing layout. The map covers English letters, backquote, brackets, semicolon, apostrophe, comma and period, plus their shifted English forms for capitals. Unmapped characters, including digits, spaces, other punctuation and other scripts, stay unchanged. The separate result can be copied without replacing your draft or changing Undo history. Editing the draft clears the result. This remaps letter positions and does not translate words, transliterate spelling or convert another script.

Does this translate English into Russian?

No. Both Russian choices map fixed key positions, without translating words or expanding letter sequences. Standard ЙЦУКЕН maps Q to й; XKB phonetic maps Q to я and V to ж. The phonetic choice uses the XKB Russian (phonetic) layout, which differs from Microsoft Russian Mnemonic. With physical mapping off, privet stays privet. Other keys and your native input method keep their normal behavior.

Is anything I type sent to a server?

No. The five layouts are part of the page and the typing happens in your browser, so there is nothing to upload and no account to make. Once the page has loaded it keeps working with no connection. Your draft and the language you picked are kept in this browser alone so the page opens where you left it, and the Start over button at the top of the page forgets both. The box holds up to 100,000 characters; past that a key press is refused with the limit named, rather than the text being quietly cut.

Which other scripts are here, and why those four?

Greek has final sigma ς, monotonic accent keys and optional polytonic breathing and accent marks. Clicked Greek combinations become single characters where Unicode provides a precomposed form; other combinations keep their combining marks. Ukrainian has і, ї, є, ґ and the apostrophe, with no Russian ы, э, ъ or ё. Persian has right-to-left text, Persian ی and ک, digits and a zero-width non-joiner key. Its letter rows show Persian Standard positions left to right with English labels. Thai supplies all 44 consonants, vowels, tone marks and Thai digits in a grouped palette, plus a separate two-layer Kedmanee position guide. Switching script keeps your text.

Is the Thai section a real Thai keyboard layout?

Choose ไทย to use the grouped palette and the separate Thai Kedmanee position guide. The guide labels English key positions on Unshifted and Shift layers from the Unicode CLDR Windows 8 reference. Click D, J and K on the unshifted layer to enter ก่า; Shift+7 inserts ฿. Clicking inserts at the cursor while physical typing remains native. The optional ISO extra key repeats the backslash position. Pattachote, device-specific layouts and layout PDF export are not supplied.

What is the ZWNJ key on the Persian layout for?

It inserts U+200C, the zero-width non-joiner, which stops adjacent letters from joining without adding a visible space. On the Persian board it is labelled ZWNJ because it has no visible glyph. Copy and download preserve it in the order you inserted it, with no direction marks added.

Why does one backspace sometimes remove two characters?

Because a character and the marks sitting on it are one thing to delete. Backspace on this page removes a whole grapheme: a Thai consonant leaves with its tone mark, a Greek letter leaves with its diaeresis, and a Persian letter leaves with the non-joiner that followed it. The alternative, taking one code point at a time, leaves an orphan mark that jumps onto the character in front of it and looks like a bug in the font. Undo works the same way round: it restores the text and the cursor position together, up to a hundred steps back, so a mistaken click is one press away from being fixed.

Can I use this Russian keyboard on Android, iPhone, iPad, Mac or Windows?

Use this page in a browser and tap or click its keys. On a phone or tablet, the on-screen keys let you enter Cyrillic without changing the device keyboard. On a computer, you can mix clicks with normal typing in the box. Copy carries your text into another app. This page does not install an Android or iOS keyboard, download a native program, or change system keyboard settings.

Can I type ancient or polytonic Greek here?

Choose Ελληνικά, then Polytonic Greek to show breathing marks, acute and grave accents, the circumflex, diaeresis and iota subscript. Click a vowel first, then its breathing mark, accent and subscript. A breathing and acute accent on α compose ἄ; the marks stay as Unicode combining characters when no precomposed form exists. The keyboard inserts your chosen spelling and does not check Ancient Greek grammar or pronunciation.

Which Russian phonetic keyboard layout is used?

Select XKB phonetic for the fixed Russian (phonetic) layout from xkeyboard-config. W types в, X types ь, V types ж, backquote types ю, equals types ч and backslash types э. Type priwet with physical mapping enabled to get привет. The board includes all 33 Russian letters, with ё and ъ on shifted number positions. It maps these letter keys inside this text box and does not install an operating-system keyboard or implement Microsoft Russian Mnemonic sequences. The layout and physical-input choice last only for this page visit.

Russian Keyboard

Type Russian with Standard ЙЦУКЕН or XKB phonetic letter positions. Click keys, enable physical mapping, or convert a whole draft using Standard positions. Copy Unicode text, or choose Greek, Ukrainian, Persian or Thai.

The ЙЦУКЕН layout, the one printed on a Russian keycap set, with ё on a key of its own.

Use Russian key positions for my physical keyboard

Your text0 / 100,000 characters

Yo, on its own key

Click a key, or type in the box with your own keyboard.

Language

Case

Characters

0 / 100,000

Whole-draft Standard key-position conversion

Convert the whole draft using Standard ЙЦУКЕН letter positions, regardless of the selected typing layout. English letters and the letter-producing punctuation positions map to Russian letters; shifted English symbols map to capitals. For example, Ghbdtn becomes Привет, and Привет becomes Ghbdtn. Unmapped characters, including digits, spaces and other scripts, stay unchanged. This does not translate or transliterate words.

Click a key and the character lands where the cursor is, so you can click, type, click again and it stays in order. Your own keyboard types normally unless you enable Russian key positions. That option reads physical letter positions for Standard ЙЦУКЕН or XKB phonetic, whichever you selected. English labels show those positions. It does not transliterate multi-letter spellings. Shift stays on until you press it again, and Thai and Persian have no case, so the control is not offered there. Backspace here removes a character together with the marks sitting on it, and Undo puts back the last hundred steps, text and cursor together.

What comes out

привет, key by keyeach key lands at the caret, in order
привет
Greek καλημέραthe accented letter is one composed character
καλημέρα
Ukrainian українськаі, ї, є and ґ, not Russian substitutions
українська
Thai กา and ก่าthe tone mark keeps its own codepoint
กา ก่า
Persian متن‌فارسیthe zero-width non-joiner is kept
متن‌فارسی

Exact about characters: Every key inserts the character it shows, encoded as ordinary Unicode, at the cursor: this types text and does not translate or transliterate it. Clicked Greek accents are composed into single characters where Unicode supplies a precomposed form; other clicked combinations remain combining sequences. Persian keeps the zero-width non-joiner, and deletion removes a character with its combining marks rather than leaving one behind. Nothing you type leaves the browser. Your draft and the language you picked are kept in this browser alone, and the Start over button at the top of the page forgets them. Sub-pages open in their own script without changing the language you chose here.

Common questions

How do I type Russian letters without a Russian keyboard?: Click the Cyrillic keys, or select a layout and enable Use Russian key positions for my physical keyboard. Standard ЙЦУКЕН gives Q → й, A → ф and Z → я. XKB phonetic gives Q → я, A → а and V → ж. The English labels show the selected positions. Physical Shift and CapsLock control letter case; in phonetic mode Shift+3 gives ё, Shift+4 gives Ё, Shift+5 gives ъ and Shift+6 gives Ъ. IME composition and Ctrl, Command or Alt shortcuts use native input. Turn the option off to type normally. The on-screen Shift button changes clicked keys to capitals. Copy and Download preserve Unicode text.
Why is my keyboard in Russian?: If physical typing in this text box produces Russian letters, check Use Russian key positions for my physical keyboard. Turn that option off to use your normal input method. If Russian also appears in other apps, your device may have Russian selected as its input language. Check the device input-language indicator or keyboard settings and choose the language you intended. This page does not change device settings; language-switching controls depend on your device and configuration.
Can I convert a whole draft between English and Russian key positions?: Choose Russian, then use Whole-draft Standard key-position conversion. English positions → Russian letters changes Ghbdtn to Привет; Russian letters → English positions changes Привет to Ghbdtn. Both actions use Standard ЙЦУКЕН regardless of the selected typing layout. The map covers English letters, backquote, brackets, semicolon, apostrophe, comma and period, plus their shifted English forms for capitals. Unmapped characters, including digits, spaces, other punctuation and other scripts, stay unchanged. The separate result can be copied without replacing your draft or changing Undo history. Editing the draft clears the result. This remaps letter positions and does not translate words, transliterate spelling or convert another script.
Does this translate English into Russian?: No. Both Russian choices map fixed key positions, without translating words or expanding letter sequences. Standard ЙЦУКЕН maps Q to й; XKB phonetic maps Q to я and V to ж. The phonetic choice uses the XKB Russian (phonetic) layout, which differs from Microsoft Russian Mnemonic. With physical mapping off, privet stays privet. Other keys and your native input method keep their normal behavior.
Is anything I type sent to a server?: No. The five layouts are part of the page and the typing happens in your browser, so there is nothing to upload and no account to make. Once the page has loaded it keeps working with no connection. Your draft and the language you picked are kept in this browser alone so the page opens where you left it, and the Start over button at the top of the page forgets both. The box holds up to 100,000 characters; past that a key press is refused with the limit named, rather than the text being quietly cut.
Which other scripts are here, and why those four?: Greek has final sigma ς, monotonic accent keys and optional polytonic breathing and accent marks. Clicked Greek combinations become single characters where Unicode provides a precomposed form; other combinations keep their combining marks. Ukrainian has і, ї, є, ґ and the apostrophe, with no Russian ы, э, ъ or ё. Persian has right-to-left text, Persian ی and ک, digits and a zero-width non-joiner key. Its letter rows show Persian Standard positions left to right with English labels. Thai supplies all 44 consonants, vowels, tone marks and Thai digits in a grouped palette, plus a separate two-layer Kedmanee position guide. Switching script keeps your text.
Is the Thai section a real Thai keyboard layout?: Choose ไทย to use the grouped palette and the separate Thai Kedmanee position guide. The guide labels English key positions on Unshifted and Shift layers from the Unicode CLDR Windows 8 reference. Click D, J and K on the unshifted layer to enter ก่า; Shift+7 inserts ฿. Clicking inserts at the cursor while physical typing remains native. The optional ISO extra key repeats the backslash position. Pattachote, device-specific layouts and layout PDF export are not supplied.
What is the ZWNJ key on the Persian layout for?: It inserts U+200C, the zero-width non-joiner, which stops adjacent letters from joining without adding a visible space. On the Persian board it is labelled ZWNJ because it has no visible glyph. Copy and download preserve it in the order you inserted it, with no direction marks added.
Why does one backspace sometimes remove two characters?: Because a character and the marks sitting on it are one thing to delete. Backspace on this page removes a whole grapheme: a Thai consonant leaves with its tone mark, a Greek letter leaves with its diaeresis, and a Persian letter leaves with the non-joiner that followed it. The alternative, taking one code point at a time, leaves an orphan mark that jumps onto the character in front of it and looks like a bug in the font. Undo works the same way round: it restores the text and the cursor position together, up to a hundred steps back, so a mistaken click is one press away from being fixed.
Can I use this Russian keyboard on Android, iPhone, iPad, Mac or Windows?: Use this page in a browser and tap or click its keys. On a phone or tablet, the on-screen keys let you enter Cyrillic without changing the device keyboard. On a computer, you can mix clicks with normal typing in the box. Copy carries your text into another app. This page does not install an Android or iOS keyboard, download a native program, or change system keyboard settings.
Can I type ancient or polytonic Greek here?: Choose Ελληνικά, then Polytonic Greek to show breathing marks, acute and grave accents, the circumflex, diaeresis and iota subscript. Click a vowel first, then its breathing mark, accent and subscript. A breathing and acute accent on α compose ἄ; the marks stay as Unicode combining characters when no precomposed form exists. The keyboard inserts your chosen spelling and does not check Ancient Greek grammar or pronunciation.
Which Russian phonetic keyboard layout is used?: Select XKB phonetic for the fixed Russian (phonetic) layout from xkeyboard-config. W types в, X types ь, V types ж, backquote types ю, equals types ч and backslash types э. Type priwet with physical mapping enabled to get привет. The board includes all 33 Russian letters, with ё and ъ on shifted number positions. It maps these letter keys inside this text box and does not install an operating-system keyboard or implement Microsoft Russian Mnemonic sequences. The layout and physical-input choice last only for this page visit.

Every key inserts the character it shows, encoded as ordinary Unicode, at the cursor: this types text and does not translate or transliterate it. Clicked Greek accents are composed into single characters where Unicode supplies a precomposed form; other clicked combinations remain combining sequences. Persian keeps the zero-width non-joiner, and deletion removes a character with its combining marks rather than leaving one behind. Nothing you type leaves the browser.