ANSI, ISO and JIS Mac keyboards: how to tell which you have
Look at the Return key and the left Shift key. A wide Return key on one row and a long left Shift with nothing beside it means ANSI, the US shape. A tall Return key that spans two rows and a short left Shift with an extra key next to it means ISO, the shape sold in the UK and most of Europe. Two extra keys either side of a shorter space bar, marked 英数 and かな, mean JIS, the Japanese shape.
That is the whole test for most people. The rest of this post covers what else differs, how macOS knows which one you have, and why it matters as soon as you record a tutorial for people whose keyboards are not the same as yours.
The three shapes at a glance
ANSI, ISO and JIS describe the physical shape of a keyboard: how many keys it has and where the big ones sit. They say nothing about which letters are printed on the keys. That part is the layout, and it is a separate setting.
| ANSI | ISO | JIS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Return key | Wide, one row | Tall, two rows | Tall, two rows |
| Beside left Shift | Nothing, Shift is long | An extra key | Nothing, Shift is long |
| Beside the space bar | ⌘ and ⌥ | ⌘ and ⌥ | 英数 and かな as well |
| Typical for | United States | UK and most of Europe | Japan |
A quick count also works. On the bottom letter row of an ANSI keyboard, Z sits right next to left Shift. On an ISO keyboard there is one more key between them.
ANSI: the US shape
On an ANSI keyboard the Return key is a wide bar on the home row, level with A to L. The backslash key sits above it, at the end of the row that starts with Tab and Q. The key at the top left, left of 1, carries ` and ~. Left Shift is long and runs straight into Z.
MacBooks sold in the United States have this shape, as do Magic Keyboards with a US English layout. Most keyboard shortcut guides on the web are written with it in mind, which is worth remembering if yours is not.
ISO: the international shape
An ISO keyboard has one more key than ANSI. The Return key is tall, shaped like an upside-down L, and spans the Q row and the home row. Left Shift is shorter, and the space it gives up holds the extra key.
What that extra key types depends on the layout printed on it. On a British Apple keyboard it carries and ~, and the top-left key, which holds on a US keyboard, carries § and ± instead. On a German keyboard the extra key types < and >. Same shape, different legends.
The British layout moves a few other things that trip people up: Shift-3 types £, and the # sign is Option-3 (⌥3). If you have just moved from a US keyboard and cannot find #, that is where it went.
JIS: the Japanese shape
A JIS keyboard keeps the tall Return key but adds keys for typing Japanese. The two you notice first sit either side of a shorter space bar: 英数 (eisu) switches to typing Latin letters, and かな (kana) switches to Japanese input. There are also extra keys elsewhere, including a ¥ key in the number row and an underscore key beside right Shift.
If you write in Japanese, those two keys replace the habit of switching input sources from the menu bar: one press and you know which mode you are in, without looking.
Shape is not layout
This is where most confusion comes from. The shape (ANSI, ISO or JIS) is fixed by the hardware. The layout, which macOS calls an input source, decides which character each key types, and you can change it at any time in System Settings, Keyboard, Text Input.
So you can run the U.S. layout on an ISO keyboard, or a German layout on an ANSI MacBook. Letters still land where the layout puts them; only the printed legends stop matching. Switch keyboard layouts on a Mac: QWERTZ, AZERTY, Dvorak, Colemak covers adding and switching layouts.
Keyboard shortcuts follow the layout, not the shape. Command-Z is always the key that types Z in your current layout, wherever that key happens to be.
Telling macOS which keyboard you have
For a MacBook’s built-in keyboard and Apple’s own keyboards, there is nothing to do. macOS reads the type from the hardware.
Other keyboards are different. When you connect one that macOS cannot identify, Keyboard Setup Assistant opens by itself. It asks you to press the key immediately to the right of the Shift key on the left side, then the key immediately to the left of the Shift key on the right side. From those two presses it works out the shape, and it lets you pick ANSI (U.S.), ISO (International) or JIS (Japan) yourself if it guessed wrong.
If you skipped that step, or a key types the wrong character (the classic sign is the top-left key and the key beside left Shift swapping places), run it again. With the keyboard connected, open System Settings, choose Keyboard, and click Change Keyboard Type.
If you would like macOS’s own answer for an Apple keyboard, Terminal can show it:
ioreg -l | grep '"StandardType" = '
A 0 means ANSI, 1 means ISO and 2 means JIS. You may see the line several times, because macOS lists it for more than one device.
Why it matters when you record or teach
If you make tutorials, your viewers have all three shapes, and directions that rely on position break for some of them. “The key above Return” is backslash on an ANSI keyboard, but on an ISO keyboard that spot is part of the tall Return key itself. Command-(⌘), which moves between an app’s windows, uses the top-left key on a US keyboard and the key beside left Shift on a British one.
A few habits help:
- Name keys by what is printed on them, not by where they are. Say “Command and the backtick key”, then show it.
- Show the keyboard you are actually using. An on-screen keyboard that matches yours means the lit key is in the right place for viewers with the same shape, and obviously different for those without. How to show an on-screen keyboard on a Mac compares the built-in options.
- Say which layout you use in the description if it is not U.S. English. A viewer on a German keyboard will forgive a lot if they know why the keys look different.
Typebar draws its on-screen keyboard as a MacBook, a Magic Keyboard with or without a number pad, or a tenkeyless board, in ANSI, ISO or JIS, so the board on screen can match the one under your hands. Its keys also follow your input source, so a QWERTZ or AZERTY layout shows its own letters. Every key you press lights up, and the keystroke pill names each shortcut with the name it has in the app’s own menus, which viewers can find whatever keyboard they have. More on making recordings people can follow is in How to record a software tutorial people can actually follow on a Mac.
Typebar is $9 once for up to 5 Macs, and free for 24 hours with everything on.
Questions
Which keyboard shape does my MacBook have?
The one that came with the keyboard language chosen when it was bought. US English MacBooks are ANSI, British and most European ones are ISO, and Japanese ones are JIS. Look at the Return key to be sure.
Can I use a US layout on an ISO keyboard?
Yes. Choose U.S. or ABC as your input source and the letters and symbols follow the US layout. The extra ISO key still works; open the Keyboard Viewer to see what it types.
Do shortcuts change between ANSI and ISO?
No. Shortcuts follow the characters of your layout, not the shape. Only their physical position can change, as with Command-` on a British keyboard.
What is the Change Keyboard Type button for?
It reruns Keyboard Setup Assistant for a keyboard that is not made by Apple, so you can correct the shape macOS assumed when you first plugged it in.