Virtual keyboard
software component that allows a user to enter characters
A virtual keyboard is a software component that allows the input of characters without the need for physical keys. Interaction with a virtual keyboard happens mostly via a touchscreen interface, but can also take place in a different form when in virtual or augmented reality.
Types
On a desktop computer, a virtual keyboard might provide an alternative input mechanism for users with disabilities who cannot use a conventional keyboard, for multi-lingual users who switch frequently between different character sets or alphabets, which may be confusing over time, or for users who lack a traditional keyboard.
Virtual keyboards may utilize the following:
Virtual keyboards with touchscreen layouts or sensors
Character variants, punctuation, and other special characters accessible through a menu, key/mouse combinations, or double/triple/long presses on sensors
Number pad feature to facilitate typing numbers.
Optically projected keyboard layouts or similar arrangements of "keys" or sensing areas
Optically detected human hand and finger motions
Multiple language sets that don't require a settings change
Various JavaScript virtual keyboards have been created on web browsers, allowing users to type their own languages on foreign keyboards. Multitouch screens allow the creation of virtual chorded keyboards for tablet computers, touchscreens, touchpads, and wired gloves.
Mobile devices
Virtual keyboards are commonly used as an on-screen input method in devices with no physical keyboard where there is no room for one, such as a pocket computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), tablet computer, or touchscreen-equipped mobile phone. Text is commonly inputted either by tapping a virtual keyboard or finger-tracing. Virtual keyboards are also featured in emulation software for systems that have fewer buttons than a computer keyboard would have.
Historical development
PDA
The four main approaches to entering text into a PDA were: virtual keyboards operated by a stylus, external USB keyboards, handwritten keyboards, and stroke recognition.
“Virtual keyboard” enters the record as software component that allows a user to enter characters. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Virtual, keyboard and software can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Virtual keyboard” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Virtual, keyboard and software provides the most credible route into that argument.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q861170. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Virtual keyboard” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.