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Accented capitals
Type É, È, À, Ç directly with Caps Lock. No more copy-pasting or Alt codes.
What is AZERTY Global?
The French keyboard, fixed — not reinvented.
Have you ever tried to type É or Ç on your keyboard? On the Windows AZERTY, it's simply impossible without obscure Alt codes or copy-pasting. Same for the œ in "cœur" or the French quotation marks « ». And the period, the most frequent character after letters, requires pressing Shift.
This keyboard hasn't changed since 1984. AZERTY Global fixes that — for free, without changing your physical keyboard.
99% of your keystrokes preserved — with the 1% that changes everything.
What actually changes
5 improvements targeted at real everyday problems.
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French typography
French quotation marks « », em dashes, œ Œ, æ Æ, nonbreaking spaces — everything is easily accessible.
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Direct-access period and at sign
The period . no longer needs Shift. The at sign @ is at the top left on the ² key, like on macOS.
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Friendly to developers
The symbols { } [ ] \ | are on the home row with AltGr.
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Foreign languages
Spanish ñ, German ß, Danish ø, and many more — thanks to directly accessible dead keys.
Already adopted
Quick questions
Is it free?
Yes, 100% free and open source. The code is available on GitHub under the EUPL 1.2 license.
Do I need to buy a new keyboard?
No. AZERTY Global is a purely software solution. It works with your current keyboard.
Is it compatible with games (ZQSD)?
Yes. The physical Z, Q, S, D keys don't move. Your games work exactly as before.
Available on Mac and Linux?
Yes! AZERTY Global is available on Windows (10 and 11 recommended; earlier versions supported on a legacy basis, depending on the channel), macOS (10.12+) and Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch...).
How long does it take to adjust?
A few hours. Only 5 changes, less than 1% of your keystrokes will be different.
Who created AZERTY Global?
Antoine Olivier. He created AZERTY Global in 2017 when he was a student in a French preparatory class, frustrated by the impossibility of typing correctly in French on his keyboard. The project is now carried by the AMCF (Association pour la Modernisation du Clavier Français) and remains volunteer-run.
Who runs the project
Since 2026, AZERTY Global has been run by the Association pour la Modernisation du Clavier Français (AMCF), a French nonprofit association under the loi 1901, founded in Clermont-Ferrand and registered in the Journal officiel des associations. The association publishes the layout, the tools and the educational resources, free of charge and under a free license. It is entirely volunteer-run.
The foundations of AZERTY Global
AZERTY Global didn't come out of nowhere. Its design draws on several sources:
- AFNOR public survey from June 2017 — Feedback from thousands of French people on AZERTY keyboard problems shaped the development priorities.
- Study of foreign layouts — Inspiration from international best practices, such as dead keys on the number row (Hungarian layout) or Smart Caps Lock (Spanish QWERTY).
- Intuition and daily practice — 9 years of continuous use and improvement of the layout by its creator.
- Community feedback — Feedback from early users has shaped the successive versions.
Building an AI agent, QA test or RPA workflow? Use the machine-readable layout to turn supported Unicode text into physical key sequences.
Ready to try?
Download AZERTY Global and finally type É, œ, « » effortlessly.