Smart and Visual Arabic Keyboard: Type Arabic Online

Type Arabic without an Arabic keyboard. This free smart Arabic keyboard turns Latin letters and arabizi, such as salam, mar7aba or 3arabi, into Arabic script as you type. Prefer clicking? The visual keyboard lets you pick Arabic letters and harakat (حركات, short-vowel marks) one by one.

Smart Arabic keyboard: type Latin letters, get Arabic

1. In Smart mode, type in the Latin field. Each word is written in Arabic as you go, with suggestions for the current word, the most common first.
2. Press Space to keep the highlighted suggestion. To pick another spelling, highlight it with ↑ and ↓ and press Space, or click it; the keyboard remembers your choice. Backspace in the empty Latin field brings back the last word so you can change it.

The smart keyboard reads plain spellings like shukran as well as arabizi digits, writes the article ال for al- or el-, and turns ? into ؟ and , into ،. Use it for English-to-Arabic transliteration, typing names as they sound (jeyms gives جيمس), or as an arabizi-to-Arabic converter for whole sentences: kayf 7alak? becomes كيف حالك؟.

Visual Arabic keyboard: click letters and harakat

This virtual Arabic keyboard follows the standard Arabic 101 layout. Each key shows its letter and, in the opposite corner, the character it gives with Shift: a haraka, a hamza form or a symbol. Click a key to type its character at the cursor in the Arabic text. Press Shift for one haraka, or Marks to keep them on. Hamza forms are there too: ء ئ ؤ on the keys, أ إ آ with Shift. On a narrow screen, keys show only their letter: press Shift to see the marks.

Prefer typing Arabic directly? Switch to Direct mode. An Arabic system keyboard works as usual. With a Latin keyboard, each key types the Arabic letter found at the same place on an Arabic keyboard: the first key of the top letter row (Q on a QWERTY keyboard) gives ض, and Shift + that key gives fatha.

In both modes, choose a font and a text size to preview the result, then press Copy.

Examples

FAQ

What do the numbers mean in arabizi?

Arabizi uses digits for Arabic sounds that have no Latin letter. The keyboard reads them this way: 2 = ء (hamza; أ at the start of a word) or, as in Egypt and Lebanon, ق; 3 = ع (ayn); 5 = خ (kha); 6 = ط (ṭa, emphatic t); and 7 = ح (ḥa, breathy h). Add an apostrophe for the dotted variant: 3' gives غ and 6' gives ظ. The “?” button in the toolbar opens a quick guide with the full chart.

The digits 8 and 9 do not mean the same thing everywhere, so the keyboard reads each in several ways. The 9 is ص (sad) in the Gulf and ق (qaf) in the Maghreb; of the two readings, the more common word comes first: 9alb gives قلب (heart) and suggests صلب, while 9aba7 gives صباح (morning). With an apostrophe, 9' gives ض.

The 8 is غ (ghayn) in Egypt, Lebanon and Tunisia, ه (ha) in Algeria and Morocco, and ق in parts of the Gulf. The keyboard reads it first as ق, then as غ, and finally as ه: 8ali gives قالي and suggests غالي (expensive). For غ, type gh or 3' instead. For where these numbers come from and a country-by-country chart, read Arabizi explained.

How do I add harakat?

Click in the Arabic text just after a letter (to its left, since Arabic runs right to left), press Shift on the on-screen keyboard, then click the key that shows the mark: fatha, damma, kasra, sukun, shadda or a tanwin. Shift works for one mark; press Marks to keep them on while you add several. In Direct mode, you can also hold Shift on your own keyboard.

Does it translate English into Arabic?

No. It changes letters, not meaning: type how an Arabic word sounds, such as shukran, and you get شكرا. Typing thank you only spells those English sounds in Arabic letters, and the first suggestion may be an unrelated Arabic word, so check the list. To translate, use a translation tool, then paste the Arabic into the text area here to preview it in a font.

Can I paste the text into Word, WhatsApp or Instagram?

Yes. Press Copy and paste anywhere that accepts Unicode text: Word, Google Docs, email, Instagram, WhatsApp. On a phone, open this page in your browser, type, copy, then paste into the app. In Word, set the paragraph direction to right-to-left so punctuation lands on the correct side.

Which font should I preview?

Try Amiri for classical book text, Tajawal for a clean modern look, or Aref Ruqaa for a handwritten Ruq’ah feel. All three are free to download.