UniKey is the most popular third-party software and

input method editor An input method (or input method editor, commonly abbreviated IME) is an operating system component or program that enables users to generate characters not natively available on their input devices by using sequences of characters (or mouse ope ...

(IME) for encoding Vietnamese for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

. The core, ''UniKey Vietnamese Input Method'', is also the engine imbedded in many Vietnamese software-based keyboards in

, Android,

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

and

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

. UniKey is free and the

source code In computing, source code, or simply code or source, is a plain text computer program written in a programming language. A programmer writes the human readable source code to control the behavior of a computer. Since a computer, at base, only ...

for the UniKey Vietnamese Input Method is distributed under

GNU General Public License The GNU General Public Licenses (GNU GPL or simply GPL) are a series of widely used free software licenses, or ''copyleft'' licenses, that guarantee end users the freedom to run, study, share, or modify the software. The GPL was the first ...

. The official website of UniKey is unikey.org, which supports both English and Vietnamese.

Overview

UniKey supports: * Many Vietnamese character sets/encodings: ** TCVN3 (ABC), VN

Unicode Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 Char ...

VIQR Vietnamese Quoted-Readable (usually abbreviated VIQR), also known as Vietnet, is a convention for writing Vietnamese using ASCII characters encoded in only 7 bits, making possible for Vietnamese to be supported in computing and communication syste ...

** VNI, VPS,

VISCII VISCII is an unofficially-defined modified ASCII character encoding for Vietnamese language and computers, using the Vietnamese language with computers. It should not be confused with the similarly-named officially registered VSCII encoding. VI ...

, BK HCM1, BK HCM2, etc. ** Unicode

UTF-8 UTF-8 is a character encoding standard used for electronic communication. Defined by the Unicode Standard, the name is derived from ''Unicode Transformation Format 8-bit''. Almost every webpage is transmitted as UTF-8. UTF-8 supports all 1,112,0 ...

, Unicode NCR Decimal/Hexadecimal for Web editors * All 3 popular input methods:

TELEX Telex is a telecommunication Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communica ...

, VNI and

Win32 The Windows API, informally WinAPI, is the foundational application programming interface (API) that allows a computer program to access the features of the Microsoft Windows operating system in which the program is running. Programs can acces ...

platforms:

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. The successor to Windows 8.1, it was Software release cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on July 2 ...

, 8, 7, Vista, 2000, XP, 9x/ME UniKey is a minimalistic software and does not require additional library.

About UniKey

UniKey for Windows was released as a free program in 1999. It gained popularity for encoding Vietnamese thanks to its speed, simplicity, and reliability. It became the most popular keyboard program for inputting Vietnamese. The core engine, UniKey Vietnamese Input Method, is

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

and was first released as a part of the x-unikey Vietnamese keyboard for Linux in 2001. Since then, the engine has been integrated in input methods in different OSes and software frameworks. ''ibus-unikey'' (developed by Le Quoc Tuan, using UniKey engine) is widely used for

Linux distribution A Linux distribution, often abbreviated as distro, is an operating system that includes the Linux kernel for its kernel functionality. Although the name does not imply product distribution per se, a distro—if distributed on its own—is oft ...

s. From

Mac OS X Leopard Mac OS X Leopard (version 10.5) is the sixth software versioning, major release of macOS, Apple Inc., Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. Leopard was released on October 26, 2007, as the successor of Mac OS X Ti ...

onwards, released in 2007,

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

has integrated the UniKey Vietnamese Input Method to the built-in Vietnamese input of

Mac OS Mac operating systems were developed by Apple Inc. in a succession of two major series. In 1984, Apple debuted the operating system that is now known as the classic Mac OS with its release of the original Macintosh System Software. The system ...

. From 2010, the engine has also been integrated to the built-in Vietnamese keyboard in

(starting from iOS 4.0). The UniKey engine is also now running in

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

iPad The iPad is a brand of tablet computers developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple that run the company's mobile operating systems iOS and later iPadOS. The IPad (1st generation), first-generation iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010. ...

s, etc. that uses Vietnamese input. UniKey is developed by Pham Kim Long.

References

External links

* Vietnamese software Vietnamese character input Windows-only free software Free software programmed in C++ Software using the GNU General Public License {{Free-software-stub