IAST Keyboard Layout · macOS

Type Sanskrit transliteration the way you already type.

A native macOS keyboard layout that puts every IAST diacritic and Vedic accent mark behind a single ⌥ Option combination — no input method, no font hacks, no copy-pasting from a chart.

Option-key map — hover a key

← swipe to see the rest of the keyboard →

1◌̍
2◌̎
3◌̱
4
5
6
7gͫ̄
8
9
0
-
=
Tab
Q
W
Eē
R
T
Y
Uū
Iī
Oō
P
[
]
\
Caps
Aā
Sś
D
F
G
H
Jñ
K
L
;
'"
Return
Shift
Z
X
C◌̐
V
B
N
M
,
.
/
Shift
Space

Brass keys carry an IAST or Vedic mapping. Toggle above to preview the shifted (capital) form where one exists.

Installation

Three steps, five minutes. The layout installs like any other macOS keyboard — nothing runs in the background, nothing to configure afterward.

01 · Download

Get the bundle

Grab the latest IAST.bundle from the Releases page. It looks like a single file in Finder but is actually a folder.

02 · Install

Copy it into place

Move it to ~/Library/Keyboard Layouts/ for just your account, or /Library/Keyboard Layouts/ for every user on the Mac. Then log out and back in.

03 · Enable

Add the input source

Open System Settings → Keyboard → Input Sources, click Add Input Source, and select IAST Keyboard.

Full reference

Every combination the layout supports. Hold ⌥ Option for the base row, add ⇧ Shift for the capital or alternate form.

IAST characters
Symbol Key combination Unicode
ā ⌥ + a U+0101
Ā ⌥ + ⇧ + a U+0100
⌥ + d U+1E0D
⌥ + ⇧ + d U+1E0C
ē ⌥ + e U+0113
Ē ⌥ + ⇧ + e U+0112
⌥ + h U+1E25
⌥ + ⇧ + h U+1E24
ī ⌥ + i U+012B
Ī ⌥ + ⇧ + i U+012A
ñ ⌥ + j U+00F1
Ñ ⌥ + ⇧ + j U+00D1
⌥ + k U+1E39
⌥ + ⇧ + k U+1E38
⌥ + l U+1E37
⌥ + ⇧ + l U+1E36
⌥ + v U+006C + U+0324
⌥ + ⇧ + v U+004C + U+0324
⌥ + m U+1E43
⌥ + ⇧ + m U+1E42
⌥ + g U+1E45
⌥ + ⇧ + g U+1E44
⌥ + n U+1E47
⌥ + ⇧ + n U+1E46
ō ⌥ + o U+014D
Ō ⌥ + ⇧ + o U+014C
⌥ + r U+1E5B
⌥ + ⇧ + r U+1E5A
⌥ + f U+1E5D
⌥ + ⇧ + f U+1E5C
ś ⌥ + s U+015B
Ś ⌥ + ⇧ + s U+015A
⌥ + x U+1E63
⌥ + ⇧ + x U+1E62
⌥ + t U+1E6D
⌥ + ⇧ + t U+1E6C
ū ⌥ + u U+016B
Ū ⌥ + ⇧ + u U+016A
Vedic signs
Symbol Key combination Unicode
◌̐ ⌥ + c U+0310
◌̐ ⌥ + ⇧ + c U+0310
◌̍ ⌥ + 1 U+030D
◌̎ ⌥ + 2 U+030E
◌̱ ⌥ + 3 U+0331
⌥ + 4 U+1E2B
⌥ + 5 U+1E96
⌥ + 6 U+0067 + U+036B
gͫ̄ ⌥ + 7 U+0067 + U+036B + U+0304
Punctuation
Symbol Key combination Unicode
⌥ + . U+2026
" ⌥ + ' U+201C
" ⌥ + ⇧ + ' U+201D
⌥ + - U+2014
⌥ + ⇧ + - U+2014
· ⌥ + ⇧ + . U+00B7