The everyday keyboard
Traditional Windows AZERTY is still the majority layout, even though it makes É, Ç, À, œ and French quotation marks harder to type.
Press & Media
Press kit, visual resources, an online trial and a media contact for anyone covering AZERTY Global.
In 30 seconds
AZERTY Global 2026 has been available as a final version since June 15, 2026: a free and open-source keyboard layout for Windows, macOS and Linux that fixes the historical flaws of the traditional Windows AZERTY with no new hardware. You can finally type É, È, À, Ç directly with Caps Lock, use French quotation marks « » (in French), and reach programming symbols (in French), including { } and [ ] easily. All without upsetting your habits: only five changes.
The five changes
The letters A to Z stay in place: AZERTY Global mainly fixes the access the French keyboard was missing.
Smart Caps Lock
Accented capitals in one press: É, È, Ç, À without any shortcut.
Direct period
The period and the semicolon are swapped, in favor of the more frequently used sign.
Accessible at sign and hash
On the top-left key: @ for email addresses, # with Shift.
Accents on the ù key
Acute ´ and grave ` accents together, to type more languages easily.
Key figures
2,500+
Installs since April 2026 (Microsoft Store and SourceForge)
99%
of keystrokes in a French text unchanged (1.01% affected, AFNOR corpus, method)
3
Platforms (Windows, macOS, Linux)
More than 1,000
Unicode characters
Nearly 300
Languages covered
EUPL 1.2
Free and open source
Detailed download statistics per channel (Microsoft Partner Center, SourceForge, website) are available on request.
Press kit
A complete package for preparing an article on the final version of AZERTY Global.
AZERTY Global 2026 press kit
The official ZIP gathers the documents, visuals and videos useful for covering the final version of AZERTY Global 2026.
Download the press kit (in English, ZIP, 11 MB)Documents
Press release and project sheet in English (Word), ready to hand to a newsroom.
Visuals
Seven images: AZERTY Global logos (square and circular) and the AMCF logo, simplified and full keyboard maps, an app screenshot and an editorial visual.
MP4 videos
Six short demos: email address, general demonstration, foreign languages, programming, French typography and Smart Caps Lock.
Notes
Two README files, with the image credit to use.
Ready-to-use quote
“AZERTY Global improves the French AZERTY without reinventing it: your habits stay, but accented capitals, French typography and international characters become easily accessible.”
The story of AZERTY Global
In late 2015, the French Ministry of Culture asked AFNOR, the French standards body, to create a new keyboard standard. In January 2016, it published the report « Vers une norme française pour les claviers informatiques » (“Towards a French standard for computer keyboards”), which establishes that it is impossible to type French correctly on an AZERTY keyboard. No accented capitals in one press, no French quotation marks, no œ…
In 2019, the NF Z71-300 standard (in French) was published. But this official solution moves 31 characters compared with traditional Windows AZERTY, only partly meets developers’ needs, and struggles to catch on: very few compatible keyboards are on sale and adoption remains marginal.
Without waiting for the standard, Antoine Olivier, then a student in a preparatory class for France’s grandes écoles, co-founded AZERTY Global in 2017 with Robert Hodge, a retired American engineer, and has developed it since 2018. A keen enthusiast of ergonomic keyboards and keyboard layouts, he had had enough of the flaws of traditional AZERTY. He has kept the project moving ever since.
The goal: a layout based on traditional Windows AZERTY, to ease the transition, but fixing its major flaws and adding many characters, to type French perfectly and nearly 300 languages in all. AZERTY Global has been through several versions since 2017. The 2026 version is by far the most polished, the result of continuous improvement.
The foundations of the project
- AFNOR public survey of June 2017 (in French): feedback from the public on the problems of the AZERTY keyboard shaped the development priorities.
- Study of foreign layouts: inspiration from international good practice, such as dead keys on the number row (Hungarian layout) or Smart Caps Lock (Spanish QWERTY).
- Intuition and daily practice: daily use and continuous improvement of the layout by Antoine Olivier, who has developed it since 2018.
- Community feedback: feedback from the first users shaped the successive versions.
About the AMCF
The AMCF (Association pour la Modernisation du Clavier Français, the Association for the Modernization of the French Keyboard) is an association under the French loi 1901, created in March 2026 and published in the Journal officiel des associations (JOAFE) on April 7, 2026.
- Mission: to design, maintain and freely distribute open keyboard layouts for French
- Identifiers: RNA W632015664, SIREN 104121082
- President: Antoine Olivier
- Project: the AMCF carries AZERTY Global, a free and open-source layout distributed under the EUPL 1.2 license
Why this story matters to newsrooms
For a news outlet, the keyboard is not a technical detail: it is the tool that produces every headline, every quote and every article.
A gentle transition
The letters A to Z stay in place, and AZERTY Global requires no new hardware.
An open project carried by an association
The project is free, open source, distributed under EUPL 1.2 and run by the AMCF, with Windows, macOS and Linux versions.
In the press
Numerama (French tech news site), April 2, 2019 (updated June 12, 2023): « Clavier AZERTY amélioré : qu’est-ce qui va changer ? » (“Improved AZERTY keyboard: what will change?”), by Julien Lausson. The article presents the AFNOR NF Z71-300 standard and devotes a section to AZERTY Global, « Une disposition proche de l’AZERTY Global » (“A layout close to AZERTY Global”), with explanations from Antoine Olivier and a chart of the layout.
Testimonials
“Truly packed with good changes that improve the keyboard day to day. I don’t understand why this isn’t the default AZERTY.”
“This is a much-needed project. I use it for Italian and German on top of French — it has really simplified my work.”
“It barely differs from the classic AZERTY, so adjusting is super fast. But it improves everything else: Smart Caps Lock, foreign-language accents, accessible symbols… 2 days and I had adopted it.”
“I’ve been using it for years. I realize how irreplaceable it is whenever it accidentally gets turned off.”