Preeti keyboard layout: every key, with Shift and the Alt codes

Each key shows the English key in its corner, what it types with Shift at the top right, in orange, and what it types without Shift at the bottom. Download the layout as a PDF (A4, landscape, to print) or as a picture.

Preeti builds some letters from two or three keystrokes — the vowel signs and the m key join what came before them:

• ि (hrasva i): press l first, then the letter — l z for शि, as in l z I f f = शिक्षा.
• ी: Shift + L, after the letter.
• Half letters: Shift with the letter — S is क्, K is प्, G is न् — then the next letter: S t is क्त.
• ्र (the r below): | (Shift + \) after the letter — k | ] d is प्रेम.
• र् (reph, the r above): { (Shift + [) after the letter it sits on — s f o { is कार्य.
• ् (halant): \ on its own.
• ं ँ ः: Shift + = (ं), Shift + F (ँ), Shift + M (ः).

Shift and the number row: the number keys alone type conjunct letters, so the numerals sit on Shift.

Some Preeti letters are not on any key. On Windows, hold Alt and type the four digits on the number pad (not the row above the letters), with the document in the Preeti font. A Mac has no Alt codes; there, copy the character from a converter or a character map.

• The typing test has a Preeti mode: type with this layout on a normal keyboard and it converts and checks what you type, shows the Preeti keys for the next word, and needs no Preeti font installed.
• Preeti to Unicode turns a Preeti file's text into Unicode that works in Facebook, Gmail and online forms.
• Unicode to Preeti does the reverse, for a press or an office template that still expects Preeti.
• Nepali Unicode typing is the easier way when Preeti is not required: type in English letters, get नेपाली.