This page allows you to easily type phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). You can edit your text in the box and then copy it to your document, e-mail message, etc.
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Press Alt with the appropriate letter. For example, to type β, ɓ or ʙ, hold Alt and press B one, two or three times.

Stop the mouse over each button to learn its keyboard shortcut.

Alt + click a button to copy a single character to the clipboard.

If some of the symbols do not display correctly, you need to install an IPA font.

You can select text and press Ctrl + C to copy it to your docu­ment. In your target document, press Ctrl + V, or, if you want to paste the text without formatting, try Ctrl + Shift + V.

After pasting, you may need to choose the right font in your target application to see all characters (see below for font recommendations).

more help

Type IPA phonetic symbols for all languages?  

       






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This IPA keyboard allows you to type phonetic transcriptions of words in all languages. It provides all the official symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet (including those for tones) and a few non-IPA symbols commonly used in phonology, such as ˀ, → or ʳ. In addition, it includes most symbols of the Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet (extIPA) – however, only characters available in Unicode are included.

  • After you copy text from the above box and paste it into your word processor or e-mail message, make sure you choose a Unicode font with IPA symbols in your word processor or e-mail application. Otherwise, phonetic symbols may not display correctly.
  • Recommended IPA fonts available on various platforms:
    • Windows: Segoe UI, Cambria, Calibri, Arial, Times New Roman, Tahoma or Lucida Sans Unicode (incomplete)
    • MacOS: Lucida Grande, Arial, Times New Roman, Tahoma
    • Linux: depends on the distro, but Linux Libertine, Linux Biolinum and DejaVu Sans are good bets.
  • The toolbar does not include IPA symbols that are simply letters of the Latin alphabet, such as a, f or k. To type these symbols, use your keyboard. (If I added buttons for regular Latin letters, the toolbar would need at least 2 additional rows. The clutter would make it much harder to locate the symbol you’re looking for, and the editing area would have to be smaller.)
  • This keyboard is optimized for quick IPA input with buttons or keyboard shortcuts. It works best if you generally know what symbols to use to transcribe a given language. If you would rather find phonetic symbols based on the place of articulation (dental, palatal, back, open, etc.), try the utilities from Richard Ishida and Weston Ruter, which allow you to input symbols by clicking on an IPA chart.
  • Any buttons you click will be highlighted, so you can find them again easily. Highlights fade gradually. If you click a button regularly, the highlight on that button will become more permanent, i.e. it will fade more slowly. (If you’re curious, the algorithm used is inspired by spaced repetition software.)
  • As in all of TypeIt, frequently used IPA symbols are typed with simple shortcuts, while less common symbols require several keypresses.
  • If you’re learning foreign languages, please check out my other popular online editors, e.g. Russian keyboard, French keyboard, etc.