A Persian (Farsi) Keyboard on the Standard Iranian Layout
Persian — فارسی (Fārsi) to the people who write it — runs right to left in a cursive, joined-up form of the Perso-Arabic script. This on-screen keyboard puts all 32 Persian letters, the harakat (short-vowel marks), Persian punctuation, and the Persian digits in one place, so you can send a message to family in Tehran, draft an essay, or run a search without hunting for characters your Latin keyboard has never had.
The key arrangement here is the standard Persian layout that computers across Iran use, based on the national keyboard standard (ISIRI 9147). Letters land where Iranian typists already reach for them, and the four sounds Persian added to the Arabic alphabet each have a home key.
Typing Persian in Four Steps
Choose how you input
The Persian keys are on screen and aligned right-to-left as soon as the page opens. Click them with a mouse or finger, or click into the text box and use your physical keyboard — each physical key sends the Persian letter printed in that position.
Type letter by letter
Persian is cursive, so the tool joins the letters and picks the right initial, medial, and final shapes for you — you just enter each letter in order. The live character counter keeps a running tally.
Hold Shift for the second character
Every key carries a second glyph. Shift reaches the harakat, the Arabic-shaped letterforms, the guillemet quotation marks, and symbols such as the rial sign ﷼.
Copy or clear
Press Copy to send everything to your clipboard, Backspace to fix the last letter, or Clear to empty the box and start again.
The Second Layer: Harakat, Persian Punctuation, and Symbols
Nearly every key on this layout does double duty. A plain tap gives the letter or number printed on the key; holding Shift gives the mark or symbol paired with it. Three groups of characters live on that Shift layer:
- Harakat (short-vowel and helper marks) run along the top letter row. Shift + ع adds fatha (بَ), Shift + غ adds kasra (بِ), Shift + ف adds damma (بُ), Shift + ه adds shadda (بّ) for a doubled consonant, and Shift + ض adds sukun (بْ).
- Persian punctuation replaces the Latin marks. Shift + ۷ types the Persian comma ،, Shift + گ the semicolon ؛, Shift + / the question mark ؟, and Shift + ن / Shift + م the guillemets » « that Persian uses for quotation marks.
- Arabic letterforms and hamza carriers — ة, ؤ, ئ, أ, إ, ء — sit on the Shift layer so they are on hand for names and loanwords without crowding the base keys.
Why the numbers look different
The number row types Persian digits — ۱ ۲ ۳ ۴ ۵ ۶ ۷ ۸ ۹ ۰ — by default, because that is what Persian text uses. There are no Latin 1–0 on these keys; their Shift positions hold typographic symbols instead, such as the rial sign ﷼ on Shift + ۴, the percent sign ٪ on Shift + ۵, and multiplication × on Shift + ۶. The division sign ÷ is the base character on the top-left key.
Right-to-left behaviour
The text box aligns to the right and grows leftward as you type. When you drop a Latin word or a string of digits into a Persian line, each run keeps its own direction, so mixed text stays readable without any manual switching.
The Four Persian Letters and the Arabic Look-Alikes
If you already type Arabic, most of this keyboard will feel familiar — but Persian parts ways in a few important spots. Three of the four Persian-only letters are on the base layer, right under your fingers; only one hides behind Shift.
پ — pe
The p sound, on the base bottom row. As in پدر (pedar, “father”).
چ — che
The ch in “church”, at the far end of the base top row. As in چای (chāy, “tea”).
گ — gaf
A hard g, on the base home row beside ک. As in گل (gol, “flower”).
ژ — zhe
The zh in “measure” — the one Persian letter on the Shift layer. Hold Shift and press the ز (ze) key. As in ژاله (zhāle, “dew”).
Persian ی and ک versus their Arabic twins
The everyday Persian ye ی and kāf ک are on the base home row and are what you want for normal writing. Their Arabic-shaped cousins ي and ك live on the Shift layer (Shift + ی and Shift + ظ) for when you quote Arabic exactly. Sticking to the base forms is what makes text look natively Persian rather than Arabic — and keeps search and spell-check behaving.
Alef forms and the kashida
The plain alef ا is on the home row; hold Shift over it for آ (alef with madda, the opening sound of آب, āb, “water”), and Shift over its neighbours for the hamza-bearing أ and إ. Shift + the hyphen key inserts the kashida ـ, the connecting stroke used to stretch a word for justified or decorative text.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do I find the ژ (zhe) letter?
It is the only Persian-specific letter kept on the Shift layer. Hold Shift and press the ز (ze) key. The other three added letters — پ, چ, and گ — are all on the base layer.
Why does the number row type ۱ ۲ ۳ instead of 1 2 3?
Because Persian text conventionally uses Persian digits, the number keys are set to them by default. The Shift positions on that row hold symbols — the rial sign, percent, and multiplication — rather than Latin numerals, so this layout does not carry Western digits. If you specifically need 1–0, type them elsewhere and paste them in.
What is the difference between ی and ي, or ک and ك?
The base-layer ی and ک are the Persian letters used in everyday writing. The Shift-layer ي and ك are the Arabic forms. For Persian, use the base keys — mixing in the Arabic shapes can throw off searching and spelling even though the words look nearly identical.
How do I add short-vowel marks like fatha and kasra?
Type the consonant first, then hold Shift and press the matching key on the top letter row: fatha on Shift + ع, kasra on Shift + غ, damma on Shift + ف, and shadda on Shift + ه. The mark attaches to the letter before it. Persian usually leaves harakat out, but they are useful for names, dictionaries, and teaching material.
How do I type آ (alef with madda)?
Hold Shift and press the ا (alef) key. It is the long “ā” that opens words such as آب (āb, “water”) and آسمان (āsmān, “sky”).
My cursor sits on the right side of the box — is that normal?
Yes. Persian is a right-to-left script, so the box aligns to the right and each new letter appears to the left of the previous one. Latin words and numbers you paste in keep their own left-to-right order inside the Persian line.
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