How to Show an On-Screen Keyboard on Mac

macOS ships two on-screen keyboards, built for different jobs. Keyboard Viewer is a live map of your layout — perfect for finding hidden symbols or checking a suspect key. The Accessibility Keyboard is a full replacement you can type on with the pointer, complete with word suggestions and dwell support. Here's how to summon each and which one your situation calls for.

Keyboard Viewer: the layout X-ray

1. Open System Settings → Keyboard, click Edit… next to Input Sources, and enable Show Input menu in menu bar.
2. Click the input menu icon that appears in the menu bar (a flag or character symbol).
3. Choose Show Keyboard Viewer.

A floating, resizable keyboard appears, showing your current layout — switch input sources and it repaints instantly. Keys light up as you press them on the physical keyboard, and clicking its keys types into whatever app has focus. Drag its corner to any size, park it on any display, and close it from the same menu (Hide Keyboard Viewer) or with its close button — it remembers its size and position for next time.

Three jobs it's unbeatable at:

• Symbol hunting — hold Option or Option+Shift and watch every key reveal its hidden character; dead keys (the accent starters) highlight in orange.
• Learning a new layout — Dvorak, Colemak, or a new language, mapped live while you practice.
• Testing suspect hardware — press the flaky key and see whether macOS registers it; if the viewer lights up, the key works and the problem is software.

Accessibility Keyboard: type without the hardware

When the goal is actually typing on screen — a broken keyboard, limited mobility, kiosk-style use — enable the full version:

1. Open System Settings → Accessibility.
2. Select Keyboard in the Motor section.
3. Turn on Accessibility Keyboard.

This one is a complete input device: every key clickable, modifiers latch (click Shift, then a letter), and a suggestion row above the keys offers word completions as you type. The Panel Editor (in the same settings area) lets you build custom panels with your own buttons — snippets, app launchers, whole phrases. It also supports Dwell, typing by hovering, for use with head-tracking and eye-tracking hardware. Turn it off with the same toggle, or via the X on the panel itself.

Which one you want

• "What does Option+G type?" → Keyboard Viewer.
• "My spacebar died and I need to send one email" → Accessibility Keyboard (or Keyboard Viewer in a pinch — it types too, just without suggestions).
• "I need to enter a password while screen sharing from an iPad" → either; the viewer is faster to summon.
• "I type with a pointer device full-time" → Accessibility Keyboard, plus ten minutes in Panel Editor building your shortcuts panel.

Both keyboards follow your input source, both float above every window and every space, and both are on macOS 13, 14, and 15 with identical paths. One quirk worth knowing: some password fields in Safari deliberately ignore synthetic keyboard clicks for security — if a click types nothing there, that's the field's choice, not a broken keyboard.

A trick worth stealing: print your layout

Learning Dvorak, Colemak, or a new language layout? Open Keyboard Viewer showing that layout, resize it large, and screenshot it with Shift+Cmd+4 — drag across the window and you have a reference card to print or keep on a second display. Do it twice more holding Option and Option+Shift and you've documented the hidden symbol layers too, which beats every cheat sheet on the internet because it shows your exact layout.