IPAbet — a fast and memorable keyboard for the International Phonetic Alphabets⇧Hi⇧Hp
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IPAbet is an extended US keyboard . Unshifted keys type plain US letters, digits, punctuation, and shortcuts, so you can leave it on all day. IPA is typed with Shift and Option: s⇧H→ʃ 5⇧H→ə ⌥nn→ñ . Every symbol is one or two keystrokes, and all of them are on the chart.<br>Works in every app
A real input method, not a website or a palette: type IPA directly into Word, Praat, ELAN, LaTeX, Slack, or your browser. Runs offline.
Nothing to memorize
Digraphs follow familiar spellings (sh, th, zh). Diacritics are on Option, where the Mac's accent keys already are. Glyphs with no Latin letter start from the number row (5 ⇧H → ə).
Your keyboard stays yours
Unshifted keys are plain US, and Caps Lock disables transforms, so PATH types as PATH. Every key types something, and everything the IPA layer claims has an escape.
The full reference<br>The chart lists every symbol with its keystrokes and audio, on one printable page. /learn is a guided course that drills them, real words from the first lesson.<br>Install<br>Download IPAbet.pkg and run the installer.<br>Log out and back in. macOS registers new input methods at login.<br>Pick IPA in the input menu, or add it under System Settings → Keyboard → Input Sources → + → English → IPA .<br>Or build from source. Bug reports and feature requests: GitHub issues.<br>From the blog<br>2026-07-24Introducing IPAbetDesigning a better way to type the International Phonetic Alphabet