AltGrnäppäintä

AltGrnäppäintä refers to the right-hand Alt key on many keyboard layouts, particularly those used in Europe and other regions. It is often distinguished from the left-hand Alt key by its position and sometimes by its label. The "Gr" in AltGr is believed to be derived from "Grapheme," indicating its primary function.

The AltGr key is primarily used to access a third or even fourth character on a key, in addition to the primary character and the shifted character. This is commonly seen on keys that have symbols like currency signs (€, £, ¥), accented letters (ä, ö, å, é, à, ù, ç), or mathematical operators (+, -, *, /) printed on them. Pressing the AltGr key in combination with another key allows users to input these special characters without needing to memorize complex key combinations or use character maps.

For example, on many European keyboard layouts, pressing the 'E' key produces 'e', pressing Shift + 'E' produces 'E', and pressing AltGr + 'E' produces '€'. This feature significantly enhances typing efficiency for users who frequently need to input a wide range of characters. The specific characters accessible via AltGr vary depending on the keyboard layout and the operating system's language and regional settings. Its presence is a hallmark of keyboards designed for multilingual input and specialized character sets.