This is an edited version of the default ‘US’ QWERTY keyboard layout available on OS X for US-style hardware Apple keyboards. (See the difference between UK and US QWERTY keyboards made by Apple.)

The following special characters are now available through key combinations:

• ⌥ + Y = →
• ⌥ + ⇧ + Y = ←
• ⌥ + H = ♥
• ⌥ + ⇧ + H = ♡
• ⌥ + 3 = 𝌆 (U+1D306 tetragram for centre)
• ⌥ + 4 = 💩 (U+1F4A9 pile of poo)
• ⌥ + ⇧ + X = ×
• ⌥ + ⇧ + C = ⌘
• ⌥ + ⇧ + S = ⇧
• ⌥ + ⇧ + O = ⌥
• ⌥ + ⇧ + R → ↪ instead of ‰
• ⌥ + C = © instead of ç
• ⌥ + G = ç instead of ©
• ⌥ + O = ಠ_ಠ instead of ø
• ⇧ + ⌥ + Space = zero width space

1. Copy the .keylayout file to the Keyboard Layouts folder within /Library. In command form:

   # Install the keyboard layout system-wide
   cd /Library/Keyboard\ Layouts; sudo curl -O# https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mathiasbynens/custom.keylayout/master/qwerty/qwerty.keylayout

2. Reboot, or log out and log in again.

3. Enable the new keyboard layout via System Preferences › Keyboard › Input Sources › QWERTY.

To use the custom layout for the login screen, you need to set it as the system default.

1. Run the following command:

   sudo curl -#o /Library/Preferences/com.apple.HIToolbox.plist https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mathiasbynens/custom.keylayout/master/qwerty/tmp.plist

2. Reboot.

You can remove any default OS X keyboard layout (that you won’t be using anymore) from the Input menu as follows:

1. Make sure the current input source is your custom keyboard layout.

2. Open ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.HIToolbox.plist. (If needed, you can convert the plist to XML by running plutil -convert xml1.)

3. Remove the input source or input sources you want to disable from the AppleEnabledInputSources dictionary. If there is an AppleDefaultAsciiInputSource key, remove it.

4. Reboot.

OS X has supported .keylayout files since version 10.2 (Jaguar).

Created using Ukelele.app.

Mathias Bynens

This keyboard layout is available under the MIT license.