Ukelele for Mac
Unicode keyboard-layout editor.
Free
In English
Version 3.6.0When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission
Ukelele overview
Ukelele is a Unicode keyboard layout editor for the XML-format keyboard layout files in OS X (".keylayout" files). It provides a graphical interface to the layout files with support for drag-and-drop character assignments, creation of dead keys, and assignment of multi-character strings.
Ukelele is not able to reassign modifier keys (Option, Shift, Command, Control, caps lock), or change the function of special keys (Return, arrow keys, function keys, etc). Rather, it is for creating keyboard layouts for different languages or other needs.
By the way, the name of this software is intentionally misspelled (try pronouncing it "You-KEY-lay-lay"). Call it an instance of 'artistic license'.
What’s new in version 3.6.0
- Printing has been reworked, and is now much more efficient and reliable.
- The way that on-screen keyboards are defined has been revised. Instead of a binary format, the definitions are now XML.
- It is now possible to create your own keyboard types for display on screen. Unfortunately, the XML format is not very user-friendly, but you can adjust an existing keyboard definition, basically one of those that comes with Ukelele, and import it for your own use. There is a separate document on the install disk image that describes the format of the XML file.
- The display font now scales independently of the keyboard scale.
- Instead of “Fit width”, there are now two options: Fit window and Fit screen. The first will shrink the displayed keyboard to fit in the current window, while the second adjusts the zoom so that the window uses the full width of the screen.
- If you try to open an installed keyboard layout for editing, Ukelele will make a copy so that you do not cause system instability.
- The modifiers table has been simplified, and is hopefully easier to understand.
- There is a new command, Export Output Inventory, to produce a CSV file containing all the possible outputs of the keyboard layout and the keystrokes that lead to each output.
- Installing for all users is no longer supported from within Ukelele. It must be done manually in the Finder, as Apple has blocked the method that Ukelele used, for security reasons.
- Updated the Unicode database to Unicode 16.0.
- The language database is current as of version 2025-08-25.
- A variety of bugs have been fixed.
Ukelele for Mac
Free
In English
Version 3.6.0
Write a detailed review about Ukelele
(41 Reviews of Ukelele)
Comments
User Ratings
Aug 12 2025
Version: 3.5.12
v3.6 is in beta. The current beta is v3.6b5 from Jun 19, 2025.
May 24 2021
Version: 3.5.2
i have an issue. my (physical) keyboard have 'menu / application' key (it's only for windows keyboard layout). can i switch to modifier key ?
Oct 10 2020
Version: 3.4.2
Save as... doesn't work. I deleted one saved file and wanted to resave it as a bundle.... I was lost and 1 h work to. Crap GUI programming here.
Nov 19 2019
Version: 3.4b3
It's a wonderful little app helping enormously to customize the keyboard mainly for layouts with uncommon diacritics. Thanks a lot!
Jan 19 2019
Version: 3.3
I've discovered Ukelele only a few months ago and I use it exclusively for replacing the coma by a dot, on French numeric keypads.
I've been doing this on every Mac I've owned for 20 years or so with Keyboard Maestro and the likes, with some side effects (delay).
Thanks Ukelele! :-)
