How to Type Arabic on a Mac: Keyboard Layouts, Harakat and Numbers

A new Mac types in one language - the one you picked during setup. Adding Arabic takes about a minute. What trips people up comes after: macOS offers six ways to type Arabic, the default layout puts a dozen letters on different keys than a Windows keyboard, and the number row types ١٢٣ instead of 123.

Here's how to add Arabic, which layout to pick, and where the characters you'll go looking for actually are.

Adding the Arabic keyboard

1. Open System Settings → Keyboard.
2. Next to Input Sources, click Edit.
3. Press + at the bottom left.
4. Find Arabic in the list, pick a layout (more on that below), click Add.

The layout is in your rotation now. If you don't see the input menu in the top-right corner, turn on "Show Input menu in menu bar" in the same window. With a right-to-left language in the mix, always seeing which layout is active saves a lot of retyping.

Arabic keyboard layouts on Mac: which one to pick

The list shows these:

• Arabic - Apple's own layout, and the one macOS suggests first. The top two letter rows mostly match Windows, but the bottom row is rearranged: ر is on N, د on V, ز on B, و on M.
• Arabic – PC - matches the standard Windows Arabic keyboard key for key, including لا on the B key. If you learned to type Arabic on Windows, or switch between a Mac and a PC, this is the one.
• Arabic – 123 - Apple's Arabic layout with Western digits (1 2 3) on the number row instead of Eastern Arabic ones (١ ٢ ٣).
• Arabic – QWERTY - phonetic: letters sit on the Latin keys that sound alike, so س is on S, ب on B, م on M. Handy if you never learned the standard layout.
• Arabic – AZERTY - for French AZERTY keyboards, common in North Africa.
• Arabic – Transliteration - not a layout but an input method: you type Arabic words in Latin letters and macOS suggests the Arabic spelling.

The practical advice: Arabic – PC for anyone who has typed Arabic on Windows, Arabic – QWERTY for anyone starting from scratch on a Mac. Nothing stops you from adding two and keeping the one that wins.

Arabic vs Arabic – PC: what moves

If you added the default Arabic and your fingers keep missing, it isn't you. These letters sit on different keys:

Letter	Arabic – PC	Arabic (Apple)
ر	V	N
د	]	V
ز	.	B
و	,	M
ة	M	]
ط	'	X
ظ	/	Z
ذ	`	C
ى	N	Shift+D
ء	X	Shift+V
ؤ	C	Shift+M
ئ	Z	Shift+C
لا	B	G, then H
أ	Shift+H	Shift+B
إ	Shift+Y	Shift+N
آ	Shift+N	Shift+H

Everything else is in the same place on both: ض ص ث ق ف غ ع ه خ ح ج along the top row, ش س ي ب ل ا ت ن م ك in the middle.

Harakat

The short vowels and other marks live on Shift, but the two layouts spread them differently. Type the letter first, then the mark - it attaches to the letter before it.

Mark	Arabic – PC	Arabic (Apple)
Fatha (بَ)	Shift+Q	Shift+Q
Fathatan (بً)	Shift+W	Shift+W
Damma (بُ)	Shift+E	Shift+T
Dammatan (بٌ)	Shift+R	Shift+Y
Kasra (بِ)	Shift+A	Shift+E
Kasratan (بٍ)	Shift+S	Shift+R
Sukun (بْ)	Shift+X	Shift+U
Shadda (بّ)	Shift+`	Shift+I

On Apple's layout they run in one line from Shift+Q to Shift+I, which is easier to memorize. Tatweel (ـ) is Shift+J on Arabic – PC and the ` key on Apple's Arabic.

Numbers: ١٢٣ or 123

On Arabic and Arabic – PC the number row types Eastern Arabic digits: ١ ٢ ٣. For prices, phone numbers and dates many people want 1 2 3 instead, and there are two ways to get them:

• Turn on Caps Lock. On both layouts, Caps Lock switches the number row to 1 2 3 while letters stay Arabic. Turn it off and ١ ٢ ٣ are back. One catch: if you've turned on "Use the Caps Lock key to switch to and from ABC", a short tap switches the layout instead - hold the key to toggle Caps Lock.
• Use Arabic – 123. It's Apple's Arabic layout with Western digits on the number row all the time. If you rely on Boomkey's auto-correction (more on that below), stick with Arabic or Arabic – PC and the Caps Lock route: auto-correction supports those two.

Punctuation

• Arabic comma ، - the , key on Arabic, Shift+K on Arabic – PC.
• Arabic semicolon ؛ - the ' key on Arabic, Shift+P on Arabic – PC.
• Arabic question mark ؟ - Shift+/ on both.
• Arabic percent sign ٪ - Shift+5 on both.

For everything else, look at the live layout: click the input menu, choose Show Keyboard Viewer, switch to Arabic, and hold Shift or Option to see what's on each level. Thirty seconds there beats a week of guessing.

Right-to-left text

macOS handles direction on its own: a paragraph that starts with Arabic runs right to left, one that starts with English runs left to right. Mixed lines are where it gets confusing - an English word or a number at the end of an Arabic sentence can make the period jump to the "wrong" side. That's display, not a typo in your text.

If a paragraph picks the wrong direction, you can set it by hand: in TextEdit it's Format → Text → Writing Direction, and Pages and Word have their own paragraph direction controls.

Turn on Arabic spellcheck

Adding the layout doesn't make macOS check Arabic spelling. Go to System Settings → Keyboard → Text Input → Edit → Spelling and pick Arabic, or "Automatic by Language" if you write in both languages all day.

How to switch now

Out of the box it's Ctrl+Space (previous input source) and Ctrl+Option+Space (next one), plus the 🌐 Globe key on recent Apple keyboards - here's every way to switch keyboard language on a Mac. If Ctrl+Space clashes with something, or you'd rather switch with Caps Lock like on Windows, see how to change the keyboard layout shortcut.

When a word comes out in the wrong layout

Switching is still manual. You start an Arabic message with English still active and get sghl instead of سلام. Or the other way round: "hello" typed on the Arabic layout comes out as اثممخ.

That's what our app Boomkey is for. With English ↔ Arabic auto-correction on (beta), you hit space and the wrong-layout word is rewritten on the spot - on both Arabic and Arabic – PC, لا included. Already have a whole line of gibberish? Select it and double-tap Shift, and it converts between any two layouts you have installed. The Arabic layout page has the full key map.

It's a native menu bar app, everything runs locally on your Mac, one-time purchase with a 7-day trial - no card, no account.

FAQ

Which Arabic keyboard layout on a Mac matches Windows? Arabic – PC. It puts every letter where the standard Windows Arabic keyboard does, including لا on the B key. Apple's default "Arabic" layout moves about a dozen letters, mostly on the bottom row.

How do I type English numbers on the Arabic keyboard on a Mac? Turn on Caps Lock: on Arabic and Arabic – PC the number row then types 1 2 3 instead of ١ ٢ ٣, and letters stay Arabic. Or add the Arabic – 123 layout, which always types Western digits.

Where is lam-alef (لا) on a Mac keyboard? On Arabic – PC it's the B key. Apple's Arabic layout has no separate key for it - type ل (G) and then ا (H), and they join into لا on their own.

How do I type harakat on a Mac? Type the letter, then hold Shift and press the mark's key. On Apple's Arabic layout the marks run from Shift+Q to Shift+I; on Arabic – PC they're on Shift+Q, W, E, R, A, S, X and `.

What does sghl mean? It's سلام typed with the US layout active - each key gave its Latin letter instead. Select it and double-tap Shift with Boomkey, or switch to Arabic and retype it.