Tibetan Keyboards

Downloads

The following keyboards were created by Chris Walker of the University of Chicago.

Other Resources

Tibetan construction worker (Derge).

Keyman Keyboards for Entering Tibetan Script

A series of keyboards for entering Tibetan script in Windows applications has been created by Chris Walker from the University of Chicago, who has graciously agreed to make them available through THDL. These keyboards use Tavultesoft Keyman, which is free for personal use. Installation is simple, and the keyboards can be invoked either through a keyboard shortcut or an icon. They enable the user to enter Tibetan script using either a Unicode Tibetan font or the Tibetan Machine font.

Unicode Keyboards

The following keyboard layouts are available for entering Unicode Tibetan:

  1. Sambhota Keymap #1 to Unicode
  2. Sambhota Keymap #2 to Unicode
  3. THDL Extended Wylie to Unicode

Legacy Font Keyboards

The following keyboard layouts are available for entering Tibetan using the Tibetan Machine font:

  1. Sambhota Keymap #1 to Tibetan Machine
  2. THDL Extende Wylie to Tibetan Machine

These keyboards can be downloaded individually or in a combined package. For installation instructions, see below.

For another set of Keyman keyboards for entering Unicode Tibetan, see the following page.

We welcome feedback on any or all of these keyboards, please contact Chris at with any suggestions, comments, enhancement requests, or bugs.

Installation Instructions

There are three simple steps to installing the Keyman keyboards:

In order to use any of these keyboards, the proper Tibetan font needs to be installed. For these keyboards this is either the Unicode font, Tibetan Machine Uni, or the legacy font, Tibetan Machine. See our Tibetan Fonts page for more details.

The next step is to download the personal-use version of Keyman 6.0 from Tavultesoft Keyman's download page. The downloaded file is a self-installing .exe file. One simply has to double-click on this file and follow the installation instructions. When Keyman has been installed, one can activate it through the Start menu under All Programs > Tavultesoft Keyman. If one wishes to have Keyman always active, one can go to All Programs > Tavultesoft Keyman and choose the Keyman Configuration option. In the resulting window choose the option tab and click on "Start Keyman with Windows" box to activate it. Then, click o.k. When Keyman is active, a small icon of a keyboard key with a "K" in it will appear in one's icon tray:

The final step is to download the desired keyboard(s). Using the download links in the highlight box on the left of this page, download the desired keyboard. Unpack the .zip file that has been saved to your hard drive. One simply has to double click on the resultant keyman file to install the keyboard

Once Keyman and the keyboards have been installed a small icon of a keyboard key with the letter "K" on it will appear in one's icon tray at the lower right corner of one's screen. Clicking on this icon will produce a list of available (i.e., installed) keyboards from which to choose. Clicking on an option activates the keyboard.

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